Zulfiqar Ahmad
ISLAMABAD, April 30, 2026: Chitral lost a giant on Tuesday as education trailblazer Ali Akbar Khan, who spent decades hauling the promise of schooling into some of the region’s most forgotten mountain communities, passed away at 85.
Born in the rugged heights of Dizg village, Yarkhun, where opportunities were scarce and hope a rare visitor, he faced a world that could have easily crushed his dreams. Yet he refused to yield.
Ex-DEO Ali Akbar Khan Passes Away
In the early 1970s, his village did not even have a primary school. Undeterred, he trekked to Booni, clutching hope like a lifeline.
He enrolled at a government school there, later moving on to Government Centennial Model High School in Chitral Town, where he completed his matriculation.
At the time, passing matriculation was considered as prestigious as earning a PhD from MIT – a credential that directly landed him a position at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Department, an institution where securing a job remains a dream for many even today, due to widespread and notorious corruption.
Yet Ali Akbar Khan, after serving there for just over a year, chose to resign, despite resistance from people and colleagues – some even branding his decision as “ungrateful.”
Turning down the chance to amass considerable wealth – at a time when money was a rare commodity in the country, and even more so in Chitral – he set his sights on the bustling port city of Karachi, driven by a relentless hunger for knowledge and the dream of transforming his people’s future.
Once in Karachi, there was no turning back. He enrolled at the renowned Government Islamia College, juggling grueling night shifts with daytime classes, driven by a hunger for knowledge that refused to be tamed.
By the mid-1970s, he had earned a graduate degree from Karachi University – a feat almost unimaginable for a boy from a remote village in Chitral, perched at the farthest edge of Pakistan, where mountains rise like walls and opportunity seems a distant dream.
Instead of settling for a comfortable job in Karachi’s bustling streets, he rushed back to the mountains, as if they themselves were calling him – to serve his people and bring education to those who had never had access.
Fast forward: he cleared the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission (KPPSC) examination on his first attempt, becoming only the second commissioned officer – BPS-17 headmaster – from Chitral, and the first from Yarkhun, following the late Janab Shah, a distinguished educationist.
A few years later, after serving as headmaster of several government high schools – including his alma mater, the Centennial Government High School Chitral, the district’s first government school – he rose to the position of district education officer (DEO), a post previously held by only two Chitrali officers: Abdul Wasi and Waqar.
During his tenure as DEO Chitral, then the largest district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Akbar Khan left no stone unturned in transforming neglected government schools into model institutions.
He ensured teachers’ attendance, released adequate funds for school development, and oversaw extensive upgrades, including the establishment of schools in remote areas – setting a new standard for education in the district, largely ignored by his mostly outsider predecessors.
In an era when local leadership in education was rare, he shattered ceilings, inspiring students to dream higher than the mountains themselves.
To those who knew him, he was more than a visionary, embodying warmth, humour, and wisdom in every gesture and word.
Students remember the sparkle in his eyes, the charm of his teaching, and his gentle insistence that no child’s potential be left unclaimed.
He leaves behind a legacy both visible and invisible: schools transformed by his reforms, and generations carrying his spirit forward.
His journey from a remote mountain village to the heights of educational leadership was nothing short of heroic.
Chitral will remember him not only as an educator but as a luminary who believed, with every fibre of his being, that education could change the world.
Farewell, Ali Akbar Khan sahib. The mountains of Yarkhun, the classrooms of Chitral, and the hearts of those you touched will carry your smile forever!