| Introduction about Late Dr Akhtar hameed Khan |
Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan
(July 1914 – October 1999)
An Introduction
Born in Agra on July 15, 1914, Mr Akhtar Hameed Khan attended Magdelene College, Cambridge, from 1936 to 1938 as an ICS probationer. Nine years later, he resigned from the Civil Service and took up the community development work .
During sixties, he served as Director of the Comilla Project in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. In 1980, he was incharge of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in Karachi. Orangi was at that time the largest katchi abadi in the city. The two projects dealt with two very different situations. Comilla was a rural development project in the public sector and was supported by a number of bilateral agencies, whereas Orangi was urban project funded by a non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Comparing the two projects, many years after the beginning of the OPP, Akhtar Hameed Khan commented: 'The Orangi Pilot Project was very different from the Comilla Academy. OPP was a private body, dependent for its small fixed budget on another NGO. The vast resources and support of the government, Harvard advisers, MSU, and Ford Foundation was missing. OPP possessed no authority, no sanctions. It may observe and investigate but it could only advise, not enforce.’ However, the two projects had two important similarities: that both followed the research and extension method; and Akhtar Hameed Khan, with his immense knowledge and wisdom was the Director of both the projects.
At the age of 85, Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan died on October 9, 1999. Government of Pakistan, on 10th of April 2000, renamed the National Centre for Rural Development as “Akhtar Hameed Khan National Centre for Rural Development and Municipal Administration”.