Primary education urban vs rural in mountain regions-1

Prof. Rahmat Karim Baig

The province of KP is divided into many administrative divisions and Malakand division is one of the mountainous areas where in the past princely states had their hold over considerable portion of the region with their own independent rulers.

The ruler of Chitral was called Mehtar, the ruler of Dir Nawab and the ruler of Swat was known as Wali. There are also some adjoining areas which have been integrated into the said division but were formerly under PAs and APAs. The three states mentioned above were merged into the former NWFP as districts in 1969 by General Yahya Khan and were given the status of districts and the rules and regulations of the settled areas were imposed there even though the ex-states were backward.

Now there are many districts as a result of division of the former districts and the population has also multiplied manifold. These districts have got specific local and communal problems and require special discussion, consideration and solutions which must have taken place long ago but this aspect was ignored and the problems multiply.

The problems that the citizens of Swat are facing are quite different from the ones faced by the people of Dir, and the problems of Chitral are very much different from the former two ex-districts.

Chitral lies in the extreme north and is a landlocked country with its peculiar cultural identity. The Chitralis speak Khowar which has also spread in the trans-Shandur valleys down to Gilgit with many aspects of culture – the Kho culture that is quite opposite to the Pathan’s culture of Dir and Swat. There is no ethnic closeness between them either.

All the clans of the Pathans belong to the same ethnic origin but those living in Chitral are multi-ethnic groups and know about the original places from where they migrated to Chitral. Most of the tribes of Chitral have their roots outside Chitral – mostly in Central Asian valleys, states and Khanates.

Chitral has got some very acute problems because of its geographic location. It is surrounded by very high glaciated sierras and few passes open in summers. Inside Chitral, the steep mountain walls have reached the main river and roads have never been satisfactory in any valley of Chitral including the main valley.

The road from Lowari up to Booni should have been a highway had there been any type of planning in the higher echelons but the political leaderships has badly failed to give Chitral a better road system for carriage of local products such as fruits, minerals etc. and import of factory made products from the cities for development of this backward region.

No governor, no chief minister, no prime minister has taken the issues of Chital seriously. The only passage to Chitral was made functional by the strong will power of General Pervez Musharraf but prior to his initiation Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto had ignored it and told Chitralis clearly that it was not feasible but what was not feasible for them was feasible for the dictator. That is why I prefer dictatorship to the current hotch-potch of minority based democracy.

Chitral needs wider and much better road system to promote adventure and cultural tourism that will bring dollars which is the foremost necessity of our economy. The tug-of-war between the corrupt politicians is not the battle for the masses or for improvement and building of national economy. It is a battle of interests and safeguard of the amount laundered in the last 40 years by our ‘honest’ leadership.