More invaluable books by A.Q khan

Putting politics aside for the moment, here are three books which reflect the personalities of their authors and the importance of their writings. The first one is   ‘Khamosh Falahkar’, the story of a benevolent human being, late Mahboobul Haq Alvi. It has been compiled by Prof Air Commodore Aslam Bazmi and published by Ali Trust, Pakistan.
Alvi was a philanthropist par excellence. He was the owner of     a construction company we came into contact with when we started construction under our project. Brig Zahid Ali Akbar Khan (later Lt Gen, corps commander and chairman of Wapda) and I had devised a strategy to give contracts of various buildings to different contractors.
I had frequent contact with Alvi and Raja Arshad. Both were honest and competent and always completed their projects on time. Both were kind-hearted and willing to help the needy. Raja Arshad is still a good friend and keeps up the old tradition of kind-heartedness. Alvi, unfortunately, expired some time ago. I would like to reflect here the personality of Alvi, as projected by many eminent Pakistanis.
Alvi devoted all his efforts, and a large part of his income, on social work and public service. He had a low-profile personality. He would hardly ever come forward to claim credit for the dozens of welfare projects he was involved in. During my friendship of more than 35 years with him, he never mentioned any of the welfare projects he was running and/or supporting. Whenever a person with (financial) problems came to me for help, I would send him on to Alvi Sb, and his needs would be met.
Alvi built an excellent cadet college-like school on Lehtrar Road, which is being run very efficiently by a team which includes Brig Maqsoodul Hassan, former DG Board of Intermediate Studies, Islamabad. All his social welfare work is being carried on under the umbrella of    Ali Trust. This trust runs a state-of-the-art eye hospital in Okara; the hospital is recognised by the Royal Opthalmological Council, UK.
There are many other institutions being run by the          Ali Trust        in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Okara, Chakwal etc where children get excellent and free education. There are also many free vocational (industrial) training institutes being run by the trust where about 5,000 students are getting a good education. There is a TB Clinic in Pakpattan and free dispensaries in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, etc.
All these activities are being run by Ali Trust, which also bears all expenses. Alvi never asked for donation for all these social activities from his many friends. Prof Aslam Bazmi has done an excellent job in compiling all the philanthropic and welfare activities carried out by the      Ali Trust        and has taken great pains not to have left anything out.
The importance of Alvi’s social activities can be judged from the contributions made to the book by Gen Faizi Ali Chisti, Ahsan Iqbal, S M Zafar, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Gen Nadeem Ahmad, Raja Shahid Zafar, Gen Farrukh Javaid, Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Hamid Mir, Prof Abdul Qayyum Qureshi, Abdul Razzaq Soomro, Sardar M Fawwad Khan Soddozai, Rizwan Baig, etc. May the Almighty shower His blessing on the late Alvi – Ameen.
The second book I would like to throw light on is ‘Afkare Tazais’ written by a young, dynamic medical doctor, Dr Arif Mahmood Kisana, and published by the National Institute of Kashmir Studies, Pakistan. He works at the world famous Karolinska Hospital (Institute) in Stockholm, Sweden. I was in Sweden for two weeks in 1964 with a delegation of post-graduate students from Delft Technological University, Holland.
Sweden, even at that time, was a very beautiful, clean, highly advanced, rich country. We also visited Karolinska Hospital, which seemed almost like a miracle in its advanced technologies. The Swedes were (and probably still are) very nature-loving and almost everyone spoke English fluently.
Dr Kisana is not only a good doctor, but also a very good writer. His articles in the book, ranging through a number of topics, are very interesting. He has included deliberations on politics, religion, humour, etc. Not only are they nice to read, they also contain a lot of valuable information.
Dr Kisana has also written another book –  ‘Sabaq Amoz Kahanian’. This contains valuable information for children on Islam and is presented in an interesting way. The book has been published by the National Book Foundation, Islamabad. It is also available from Amazon but under a slightly different title –   ‘Dilchasp aur Anokhi Kahanian’.     I wish Dr Kisana all the best for the future and any endeavours that he may be undertaking.
Tailpiece: The US presidential election is over and, contrary to all forecasts – 90:10 in Hillary Clinton’s favour – Donald Trump won. Many Americans did not believe that he could ever win. Hillary Clinton later declared that the announcement made by the FBI chief that they were going to investigate her emails for breach of secrecy had a lot to do with her losing the elections.
Trump exploited that situation and she probably did lose the sympathy of many voters because of it. Whatever the reason, it was a very astonishing upset and it looks like Hillary Clinton’s political career is over.

Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com

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