PushKalavati Museum Peshawar made in the House of Ghani Khan Son of Bach Khan

Pushkalavati Museum Peshawar Made in Donated House of Ghani Khan son of Bacha Khan  

Sher Alam Shinwari Published Mar 15, 2014 07:00am


BUILT in 2011 at a huge cost, Pushkalavati Museum and Ghani Khan Art Gallery in district Charsadda is yet to be handed over to the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Peshawar.

Earlier, Ghani Derai Complex comprising a public library and hall was built in 2002 at a cost of Rs7.5 milliaon over a hollow sandy mound, however, it collapsed due to loose-filling and excessive seepage.

The Ghani Derai Complex was handed over by the Directorate of Archives and Libraries to the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums in 2006 in the shape of a liability.

A huge amount was allocated for repair and renovation of Ghani Derai Complex but soon it crumbled down. An inquiry was initiated against the contractor but it was also shelved. The public library had to be shifted to Pushkalavati Museum’s basement two years ago.

“The Ghani Derai Complex is still in ruins and the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums has taken no step in this regard,” said Muflis Durrani, the vice president of Ghani Khan Adabi Au Saqafati Jirga.

About 60 members of the Jirga, he said, held various literary and cultural events on different occasions every year at the site. He said that the officials concerned should take interest in rebuilding and restoration of both the sites.

According to local people, two watchmen, one gardener, one peon and one sweeper, appointed on permanent basis for Pushkalavati Museum and Ghani Khan Art Gallery, are getting salaries at their homes because the structure has not been commissioned by the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums.

The newly built museum has not been commissioned by the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums from the communication and works department owing to its reservations regarding the faulty construction and seepage problem.

Local people say that seepage is damaging the walls of the complex and its three display halls comprising 96 shelves are also lying empty as no artifacts are exhibited in them.

The Ghani Derai Complex, which has no permanent staff, is being run through a grant in-aid of Rs5 million approved by the provincial finance department.

Currently, an 11 grade assistant librarian is running the public library with a total membership of 300 while the grant in-aid has been increased to Rs8 million.

A senior official at the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums on the condition of anonymity told this scribe that the fate of Pushkalavati Museum and Ghani Art Gallery seemed to be no different from that of Ghani Derai Complex for want of interest of the authorities concerned.

“We have written a detailed letter to the communication and works department to remove our reservations and hand over the structure so that it could be made operational otherwise it would be crumbled down. Also, we have asked them to restore Ghani Derai Complex but unfortunately nobody is taking interest,” he said.

The official said that the inquiry was also dumped because the contractor belonged to the then ruling political party.

Director Archaeology and Museums Prof Mohammad Nasim Khan, when contacted, said that being an archeologist he would not recommend reconstruction of Ghani Derai public library and hall on hollow deposit, however, it could be shifted to another site.

“The permanent employees have been deputed to perform duty at other sites scattered in the district till the Pushkalavati Museum comes under our control,” he said.

He said that the directorate would arrange a visit to the site in near future.

“Filling empty shelves with display items is no issues. We have lots of items being kept in our stores of directorate. We have also sufficient funds for purchasing more display items for Pushkalavati Museum from amateur local collectors. Once it gets properly commissioned and our reservations regarding seepage are removed, the directorate can make it operational,” Prof Khan said.

The post of assistant curator for the said museum was still lying vacant while two watchmen, one peon, one gardener, and one sweeper were appointed on permanent basis, he said. However, the services of two watchmen, a peon, one sweeper and one gardener already serving since 2002 at Ghani Derai Complex were yet to be regularised, he added.

The director said that a post for a 16 grade assistant librarian for the public library would be advertised soon.

An office-bearer of Ghani Khan Adabi Au Saqafati Jirga said that they had formed a committee comprising senior writers, intellectuals and poets to meet Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to resolve the issues regarding both the structures.

“We want Ghani Derai to be rebuilt on firm foundations so that literary and cultural activities can be restarted here,” he said. He said that senior members of the Jirga should also be included in the staff to ensure its faultless reconstruction and smooth running of its affairs.

Different literary and cultural organisations plan to commemorate the 18th death anniversary of noted Pashto poet, painter and sculptor Ghani Khan today (Saturday).
source : http://www.dawn.com/news/1093190

Living Hell of Chitral Residents-Story of Lowari Tunnel

Why Punjabi Establishment run by Racist Punjabi's who always thinks of Plans to Belittle and Make Pakhtunkhwa Backward and slave to Punjabi's ,  have delayed the Lowari Tunnel Project that was Approved in 1970,s but is still not completed and is Made to Stall Deliberatively , as its in Situated in Pakhtunkhwa and Connects the Mardan and Dir to Chitral and it cuts down Journey Time to Chitral from 14 Hours to 5 Hours only . 


Victims of Punjabi Racism who Wants to Punish Chitralis and Also Change the Route of Pakistan China Economic Route has Stalled the Lowari tunnel More Shorter then Gilgit , Abbottabad Route which is not in straight line with Kashghar and longer then the Gilgit , Chitral and Dir Mardan Route , which Amritsar Indian Born Ex- Sikhs Punjabi Nawaz Government had selected to Serve Lahore .
They Plan to delay this Tunnel to 2020 , from its Planned Completion in 2010 already Passed and Chitralis and Dir Residents are cut off and live in Hell , Read this Incredible Story of People of Pakhtunkhwa Pushed to Living hell by Prejudiced Punjabi's . 

Pakistan Lowari: Frozen travelers trapped by an unfinished tunnel

By M Ilyas Khan

Water dripping from the top of the crumbling, cave-like opening of an unfinished tunnel in northern Pakistan forms into icicles, accentuating the bite of a freezing January morning.

About a kilometre down the valley behind, a large huddle of passenger vans, trucks and cars waits for the tunnel to open. They have been here for many endless hours.

Bi Weekly Lowari Tunnel Traffic 

In one rented vehicle is the coffin and body of an old woman on way to her own funeral, but she is running late.

On the other side of the mountain, in her home village, people have already gathered for the burial.

Anxiety is writ large on the face of her son, Wali Ahmad, a soldier in the Pakistani army and a resident of Chitral district, located on the far side of the 8.6km (5.2-mile) Lowari tunnel.

Faces of  Ordeal 

Wali Ahmed worries that he might not get his mother's body to her own funeral on time

"My mother died in Peshawar. Now we have to take her home for burial. We don't know if they will open the tunnel in time for us to make it there in daylight," he says.

It's at least three hours' drive to his village of Golen from where he's standing. It's already approaching midday, and the towering mountains of the Hindu Kush range shut off the winter sunlight from most of Chitral's 34 branch valleys after 4pm.

At a little over 7,000 feet (2,500m) above sea level, the tunnel is the only exit route in winter for the 500,000 population of Chitral.

Dozens of loaded trucks are parked every few kilometres along the rocky, broken mountain road that winds up from the town of Dir to the tunnel.

Some drivers have lit gas cylinders beneath the engines to keep them warm and prevent the pipes from bursting due to freezing temperatures.

Mohammad Qasim Khan, a resident of Drosh area in Chitral, is the head of another party waiting for the tunnel to open.

"My daughter's just been operated for appendicitis, and my cousin got a rod fixed in his left leg which suffered a fracture," he says.

Faces of Misery 

In need of rest - but they are stuck in a car waiting for the chance to get through

"They can't stand the cold and the wait, but we are told the tunnel is closed. We drove some eight hours from a hospital in Peshawar, and now we've been stuck in this wilderness for more than six hours. There's no food or heating here, and there are no toilets."

It is the same story on the Chitral side of the tunnel - residents taking sick relatives to hospitals in Peshawar, students and job seekers trying to make it to their appointed interviews, and workers with jobs in the Gulf fretting over whether they'll be able to catch their flights from Peshawar and Islamabad.

All these people are caught in a gridlock that started when the government suddenly decided to reschedule work on the tunnel ahead of this winter.

The fortunes of the people of Chitral have fluctuated with the fortunes of the Lowari tunnel project.

Lowari Tunnel has been delayed for last 40 Years 

In summers, a road built by the British over the 10,230ft (3,140m) Lowari Pass links them to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Chitral is a part. But the pass closes in mid-December due to snow.

Two other passes - one connecting Chitral to the Afghan province of Badakhshan, and the other linking it to Pakistan's north-eastern Gilgit-Baltistan region - are more than 12,000 feet high and also remain snowbound in winters.

The region's only natural all-weather route passes through its south-western town of Arandu into Afghanistan, and follows a southward route via the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Ningarhar into Pakistan's Peshawar valley.

But that is no longer an option.

"The Arandu route closed when a Pakistani military operation in the Swat region in 2009 pushed Islamist militants into the Kunar region," says Shahzada Iftikharuddin, Chitral's representative in Pakistan's national parliament.

"This happened when the Americans wound up their bases in the Kunar region, making it possible for these militants to set up sanctuaries there. A number of Chitrali travellers were held and beheaded by them in 2010."

Chitral Scouts have helped maintain security along this perilous route

The tunnel was commissioned in late 2005, and by 2008 the construction contractor, Sambu JV of South Korea, had dug the 8.6km tunnel all the way through. But funding for the project stopped when a new government took over.

Over the next few years, this unfinished tunnel remained open for winter traffic.

In 2011, when some funds became available and work commenced, public use of the tunnel was restricted to three alternate days in a week. This catered to the needs of the locals and there was no crisis.

But after the first snow in late November this year, the commuters were shocked to discover that a new standard operating procedure (SOP) permitted three days of transit through the tunnel only every two weeks instead of one.

Hundreds of people were stranded in the snow. Those with money had to spend weeks in Dir town's hotel rooms. Others slept in their vehicles or turned back.

Commuters walk along the ridge to try and find out what the delay with the tunnel is

In Chitral, food supplies became scarce, sparking protests that finally forced the authorities to revise the SOP and open the tunnel twice a week - on Saturdays and Sundays - for six hours a day.

The authorities defend the new arrangement as the only viable balance between human suffering and project completion.

"The project cost has escalated from 5bn rupees to 18bn, and we have to pay penalties to the contractor for idle hours," says Hameed Hussain, the project director of Lowari tunnel.

Besides, six hours of public traffic pushes carbon levels inside the tunnel beyond human tolerance.

"We need an extra four to five hours to ventilate the tunnel before the workers can get to work safely," he says.

Inside of Unfinished Tunnels since 1978 

And there is still a lot of work to do.

At the moment, there is no proper lighting in the tunnel, no exhaust system and no emergency services.

Most of the tunnel is still without the shotcrete lining, retaining walls or a metalled road. Water seepage from the ceiling and walls forms into puddles on the floor.

In addition, the widening process leaves the tunnel floor strewn with debris, causing traffic jams inside the tunnel and endangering those travelling in open vehicles.

Mr Hussain says he recovered four persons from a truck that had broken down inside the tunnel last week. All of them had fainted.

But bound by towering mountains on all sides, the people of Chitral are just too desperate not to take a chance with this drive through hell.

Naila Shahid

Naila Shahid missed an interview for a job she was sure she would get because of the snows and the tunnel

And those who can't make it, rue it.

Naila Shahid is one of them.

A graduate in environmental sciences, she had to miss an interview for an assistant professor's job at a university in Dir district because that would mean living in a hotel room for a whole week - a social and financial impropriety.

"I was on top of the merit list. I received a call to appear for the interview. I knew I couldn't make it because the tunnel would have closed by the time I was finished and would next open only on the following Saturday," she says.

"There is no male member of the family available to accompany me for a week in a strange land. I cried last night. This job would have helped me enroll for a doctorate."

The new deadline for the tunnel's completion is 2017. Until then, every time the snows block the passes, many funerals are likely to be missed, many careers suffer setbacks and many tears are shed in Chitral.

Lowari Tunnel Traffic 

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25972898

Pashtuns of Baluchistan Victim of Identity Crises and Political Power

Pakhtuns in Balochistan are  90% of Its Population 

Talimand Khan


Ignoring Pakhtuns, the Balochistan issue is mainly presented through the prism of Baloch’s eroded autonomy and lack of control over their resources

Pakhtuns in the province of Balochistan are victims of linear injustice. The most painful and mind-boggling aspect is the blurred understanding of the Balochistan issue among the common Pakistanis as well as intelligentsia. The Balochistan issue is mainly presented through the prism of Baloch’s eroded autonomy and lack of control over their resources in post-independence era. Yet, unlike Pakhtuns, living in the Balochistan province they do not face loss of identity, autonomy and status as major stakeholders.

Perhaps, Pakhtun is the only ethnic group, particularly in Balochistan, whose sufferings began with the advent of the British in the subcontinent and continues hitherto. In the post-independence era, especially in the 1970s, another layer of injustice was added by depriving them of whatever was left by the colonial power.

Baluchistan a Wrong Name and Misnomer and Creation of British : 

Before the British occupation, the name of Balochistan never existed in history to represent a geo-physical entity that was named by the British as British Balochistan and later by Pakistan as the province of Balochistan in the Constitution of 1973.

The Baloch and Brahvi were predominantly living in four princely states — 

1. Kalat, 

2. Kharan, 

3. Lasbela 

4.and Makran. 

Lasbela was  enjoying internal autonomy with a predominantly Baloch Tribal areas ( Still Under Article 247 as tribal Areas ) , Baluchis People of these tribal Areas although a Minority gave the name Baluchistan to this new British Created area . 

1. Marri,
2. Bugti,
3. Chagai
4. and Sinjrani

Khan of Kalat as Head Baluchistan Under Pashtun Durrani Afghan Empire before 1841. 

State of Kalat and its Khan of Kalat , was was Vasal of Afghanistan under ther Durrani Empire of Pashtuns, In the aftermath of the first Anglo-Afghan War, on October 6, 1841 the British handed over Quetta to Khan of Kalat on the occasion of his coronation.

Previously the State of Kalat under Khan of Kalat , remaining as a vassal of the Afghan kingdom of Pashtuns Durrani who,s rule also extended to Sind Karachi and over India till Delhi and Lahore .

State of Kalat carried immense strategic importance for the British expedition in Afghanistan.The British got Nasirabad and Nushki on lease from the Khan of Kalat. The strategic importance of Nushki was to extend railway line to the border of Iran.

The British also extracted the areas of Pishin, Sibi, Chaman, Shahrig, Shora Rud, comprising 95 percent Pakhtun population from Afghanistan that were called assigned districts under the infamous Gandamak Treaty signed on May 26, 1879 at Jalalabad Near Peshawar .

Pashtuns were now Named as British Balochistan a Missnomer although not still being considered a Province as Yet but area joined with NWFP / Pakhtunkhwa and being seperated from Durrand Line from Afghanistan to which it Previously Belonged . 

Ultimately, on November 1, 1887, the areas with 90 per cent of Pakhtun population were declared as Chief Commissioner Province of British Balochistan.

The British officer and later colonial governor of the then North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Sir Olaf Caroe, admitted it was a misnomer given by the British. He suggested that it should be named British Afghanistan while Sir Herbert Aubrey Francis Metcalfe (agent to governor general for British Balochistan 1943) said that it should be named as British Pathanistan instead of British Balochistan.

In 1947, the members of the official jirga and Quetta municipality decided on behalf of the Chief Commissioner Province of the British Balochistan to join the state of Pakistan, whereas the lower and upper house of the Kalat State repudiated the accession of the Khan of Kalat in favour of Pakistan.

Until June 30, 1970, the Chief Commissioner Province of the British Balochistan and the Baloch areas, mostly comprising the princely states, never remained as one administrative unit in the history.

In 1952, the princely states of Kalat, Kharan, Makran and Lasbela were named as Balochistan States Union. In 1955, the Chief Commissioner Province of British Balochistan was named as Quetta Division and three states Kalat, Kharan and Makran of Balochistan States of Union along with Chagai, extracted from the Chief Commissioner Province, were declared as Kalat Division. Both the divisions had equal representation in the West Pakistan Provincial Assembly. The State of Lasbela was merged into the Karachi Division and Nasirabad was merged into Jacobabad Division that were later returned to Balochistan after the scrapping of one unit.

Further Implementing the British Polices by Punjabi Establishment 

On July 1, 1970, the one unit scheme was abolished by Martial Law Administrator General Yahya Khan. Consequently, the predominantly Pakhtun populated Quetta Division of the former Chief Commission Province and Baloch majority Kalat Division, along with Lasbela and Nasirabad, were merged into the province of Balochistan.

Pashtuns Lost their Identity and became Baluchistan Occupants now, but the final Blow came in Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto time when it was separated from NWFP/ Pakhtunkhwa and NAP/ ANP did not Protest.  

Khan Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai quit the National Awami Party (NAP) in protest over accepting the merger of Pakhtun belt into the Baloch areas and naming them as the province of Balochistan. He formed the Pakhtunkhwa National Awami Party before his martyrdom on December 2, 1973. His son, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, is carrying forward his father’s legacy of democratic struggle.

Political Compromise under a Barrel of a Gun 

Ironically, instead of correcting the injustice committed by the colonial power and the subsequent undemocratic forces, the Constitution of 1973 also endorsed the anomaly adding another ethnic and political fault line to the polarised society of Pakistan.

The leadership of the then NAP, particularly its Pakhtun leaders, either committed a political mistake or made a political compromise by agreeing to the scheme.

The Pakhtun in Balochistan perhaps also seem to be the victim of constituency politics as Pakhtun nationalist leaders from the north were more concerned about the identity and autonomy of the then NWFP and mostly gave a cold shoulder to the identity and autonomy of the southern Pakhtun in Balochistan.

The mainstream media and intelligentsia also ignored this important aspect that added another layer to the problem. Such a blurred understanding would render any solution to the current conflict a superficial one. A lack of attention and preference might be due to a political and democratic struggle adopted by the Pakhtun for attaining their identity and autonomy that seldom attained attention in Pakistan.

It is a rare political issue which is not contested by the Baloch and Pakhtun as the former also recognise the Pakhtun’s rights to identity and autonomy. For instance, Dr Wahid Baloch writes in his essay, “The Solution of Balochistan Problem”, published in The Pakistan Christian Post, “Balochistan’s boundaries need to be redrawn based on historical, ethnic and linguistic line and all Pashtun areas of Balochistan should be joined with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.”

However, making a choice should be the intrinsic democratic right of Pakhtuns whether they opt for a separate unit referred to as “Southern Pakhtunkhwa” by them or prefer to merge with other Pakhtun areas as a unit representing their historical ethnic identity on this side of the Durand Line.

Instead of redressing the colonial era injustices after independence, our security paranoid establishment further confounded the fault lines. Pakistan needs to bridge every fault line rather than take on only terrorism to bring peace and political stability. Needless to say that terrorism is just one manifestation of the flawed security paradigm.
source: http://tns.thenews.com.pk/pakhtuns-in-balochistan/#.VPIvR_mUega