This report was produced by an editorial team consisting of ACN Staff, with contributions from the speakers of the event. Prepared by, Aasim Reza Designed by, AsAd iJaZ AwAn Printed at PanGraphics (Pvt) Ltd. Parts of this report may be reproduced for professional purposes, provided that the source is acknowledged and the material is not sold. Published in 2007 by NRSP - Institute of Rural Management, Islamabad, Pakistan. C IRM 2007 Remembering Dr.Akhter Hameed Khan 2006 AHK Resource Center Contents Acknowledgements 1 Foreword 2 Session 1- AHK Memorial Award by Council of Social Sciences 4 Introduction to COSS by President - Dr. Inayatullah 5 Rationale and objectives of AHK Memorial Award - Dr Zarina Salamat Member Executive Committee, COSS 7 Announcement of AHK Memorial Award by Member Selection Committee - Dr Rubina Saigol 8 Expression of thanks by Memorial Award Recipient Dr Tahira S. Khan 10 Session 2- AHK Memorial lecture 12 Introduction of the Keynote Speaker, Shoaib Sultan Khan by Fayyaz Baqir 13 Memorial Lecture by Keynote Speaker, Shoaib Sultan Khan 15 Screening of Documentary - A Vision Unveiled (synopsis) 28 Vote of thanks offered by Shandana Khan 30 Section 3 - Paper by Prof. Rehman Sobhan 32 Profile of Prof. Rehman Sobhan 33 Democratizing Development in South Asia: Responding to the Challenge of Globalization 34 Annexes 54 Rural Support Programmes Stalls 55 Media Coverage 56 Press Clippings 57 AHK Memorial Award- Call for Nominations 60 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial lecture, conceived as an opportunity for development workers from around the region to come together to commemorate the teachings of the scholar, the sage and social scientist who has to his acclaim many social and civil awards from Pakistan and around the world for his pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of poverty alleviation through social mobilization. Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan’s remarkable achievements include his work at the Rural Development Academy in Comila (Bangladesh), the Daudzai Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in NWFP, Aga Khan Rural Support programme in Northern Areas and the famed Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi. It was Dr Khan who set the pace for participatory development now followed by many civil society organisations in the region particularly the Rural Support Programmes in Pakistan. The Memorial lecture held on 27th November 2006 was a success largely because of the ready support lent to National Rural Support Programme - Institute of Rural Management by all RSPs and partner organisations. We are grateful to them all. We are also thankful for the financial support from the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN). It is a matter of great honour to affirm our gratitude to Begum Akhter Hameed Khan who graced the occasion with her presence. We would also like to extend our gratitude to our revered key note speaker, Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan, Chairman of NRSP and RSPN who having arrived just earlier in the morning from international travel willingly took on to deliver the annual memorial lecture on such a short notice, as the original speaker Prof. Rehman Sobhan could not make it to the event on health grounds. I am also thankful to Mr Sobhan who has decided to travel to Islamabad again to deliver the lecture on Feb 13 , 2007. He has sent us the manuscript, that we have incorporated in the section 3 of this report The event could not have been such a success without the efforts of the hard working team at Institute of Rural Management which took pride in working overtime with a sense of involvement in the preparation of the AHK Memorial Award and AHK Memorial Lecture Ceremony. I am grateful to Mr. Fayyaz Baqir, Dr Rubina Saigol, Dr Tahira S. Khan, Dr Inayatullah, Dr Zarina Salamat and Shandana Khan for their contribution in making the occasion such a success. Roomi S. Hayat Director NRSP- Institute of Rural Management Foreword Foreword This report describes two interconnected events; the ceremony of giving Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award and a special lecture on the life, work and mission of Dr. Khan. The Award was instituted in 2003 by the Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan and is given annually to the book that the Council evaluates as the best book produced in a financial year. The book deserving the Award must cover one or more fields out of the four fields of rural/urban development, peace, poverty and its alleviation, and gender discrimination. In view of the Council these subjects directly or indirectly relate to the work of Dr. Khan. The Council chose to set up a special Award in the name of Dr. Khan for his eminent contributions to the applied social sciences in Pakistan. The financial support for the Award came from different sources with special and continued support from National Rural Support Programme. Some of the contributions that Dr. Khan made to applied social sciences are discussed below. At first stage of his studies Dr. Khan was trained as classical scholar in British and Islamic tradition with considerable knowledge of historical development of human race, comparative religion, and community development. Later during his stay at Michigan State University (MSU) as a participant in a community development programme and then as a professor he deeply absorbed the spirit and methods of pragmatic orientation of American social sciences. He was particularly impressed by the ways MSU was extending innovative farm technology and improved farm practices to the farmers and contributing towards improvement of community life in the Michigan State. Like a good scientist or social scientist he remained a devoted seeker of knowledge about the subject in which he was interested and from whatever source he could get it. His search for knowledge was not directed towards accumulation of memory-based facts and figures. He would critically examine and question such knowledge. Before starting the Comilla project he had extensively read about some relatively successful community development programmes of Kibbutz in Israel and Cooperatives in Norway. Later when he started his own experimental project in rural development in Comilla, he did not try to transplant these programmes on Pakistani soil nor did he become mesmerised by his initial successes in Comilla. Instead he maintained a critical and detached attitude towards his project and remained open to learn from his mistakes. Unlike natural scientists, social scientists usually do not have or create laboratories in which they can test their theories and concepts. Among Pakistani social scientists Dr. Khan had the rare distinction of creating two laboratories; one under the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Comilla and then Orangi Town in Karachi. Data from both laboratories was systematically collected and organised and relevant conclusions were derived from them for application outside these laboratories. Dr. Khan's purpose of setting up these laboratories was not necessarily to improve the lot of the people in the laboratory area, though it happened also. His ultimate interest was to test some of the principles of development that would be replicable in larger area and in different places. This interest proved right and during his life his laboratory-tested principles were applied to larger areas and people. Generally they produced somewhat similar results as they did in the laboratories. Formal and academic social sciences sometimes have been criticized for lack of their relevance in finding solutions to the major human problems of misery, poverty and suffering and for legitimising the existing power structure. Dr. Khan's mission was to directly deal with such problems without imposing his solutions on the people. Instead he evolved them with the participation of affected people, by mobilising their energies and raising their self-confidence and self-esteem. The success of a great teacher lies in producing students who carry out his mission. Dr. Khan was able to attract such `students` from different social strata and professions, who enthusiastically worked with him, learned the principles of development he evolved and implemented them successfully even when he was not physically present to guide them. One of his prominent students, who has thoroughly absorbed the teachings of Dr. Khan and for years has effectively implemented them, is Shoaib Sultan Khan. What Khan, the student, learned from Dr. Khan, the teacher, and how the student implemented it, is an interesting story that the student Khan himself tells in the second part of this report. Dr. Inayatullah President COSS, Pakistan. Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award 1 Session AHK Memorial Best Book Award Presented by Council of Social Sciences Pakistan (COSS) Introduction to AHK Memorial Award, President of COSS, Dr. Inayatullah The Council of Social Sciences Pakistan (COSS), which is an autonomous, non-profit and service oriented organisation of social scientists established in 2000, decided in 2003 to institute Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award. Two aspects of Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan's life persuaded the Council to do this. Late Dr Khan, a broad based scholar was also an eminent social scientist in the true sense of the word, he would identify a problem usually affecting the common people, think about its magnitude and causes, directly observe the problem in field setting and then experiment its solution in a President of COSS, social laboratory of small territory. With the Dr Inayatullah, elaborates the activities of the council support and participation of people involved in the experiment he would evolve effective and the first category fall two books, The State of universally applicable solution of the problem. Social Sciences in Pakistan, originally published Secondly, he was a selfless and untiring social in 1989 by Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad activist and an institution builder who became a and Social Science in Pakistan in the 1990s model for the founders of the Council to follow which includes nine articles evaluating a and to build the Council.