A person with innate qualities, intellect,   and vision, depth of knowledge, understanding of religion, academic work, poetic muse and a mission to help the suf­fering humanity can be nobody else but the man of principles and high thinking-Akhter Hameed Khan.

The profile of this person makes a writer have doubts because doing justice to the man of his calibre is something that one cannot be sure of.

He was a person, who was always looked upon as a mentor and a social worker, who was sure of his capabilities to benefit his country­men. From all that I could gather he had a personality which was so versatile and complete that in the words of Shakespeare, "that nature might stand up and say to the entire world: This was a man." Akhter Hameed Khan was a complete human being -his motto was simple living and high thinking. The reality is that he was a perfect human being.

After learning a great deal of administration from the British, he left them because he didn't feel the spirit to alleviate the sufferings of impoverished humanity.  Thus, to understand the problems of the poor, Akhter Hameed Khan decided to quit the prestigious civil service. His faith in the teachings of Buddha made him a pacifist, a man of peace.

In 1972, he was the Vice-chair­man of a Committee formulated by IRDP in Peshawar and was responsi­ble for the establishment of a Markaz. But he was always so much worried about the support from gov­ernment that he left the project in the middle and that too half-heartedly.

But once it was complete he came to pay it a visit where he encouraged the team involved to pursue the good work irrespective of hurdles. He considered his stay in Peshawar to be a good learning experience and he termed Daudzai Markaz as an island of sincerity in the sea of hypocrisy. But soon enough the suc­cess and fame of Daudzai project aroused jealousy and hostility in the sector. The Pakistan Academy for Rural Development was made the target of blunt accusations of being a provincialised academy and provid­ing services only to NWFP. These false allegations disappointed Akhter Hameed Khan a lot and he resigned immediately from the advisor ship of the Academy.

After coming back from America, he initiated the world famous Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) supported by late Agha Hasan Abidi. For OPP, he teamed up with people like Tasneem Siddiqi, Arif Hasan and Parveen Rehman who are till today working day and night for keeping Akhter's flag fluttering. OPP gave him great satis­faction. And he often used to show around the new OPP premis­es designed by Arif Hasan. OPP may not be too grandiose in the eyes of Mr. Abidi but Akhter was very happy with it.

At one time he vehemently argued against setting up support organizations and advocated using existing NGOs as support mecha­nisms. However, he found out after col­laborating with more than 60 existing NGOs that only 2 or 3 were honest and all the others cheated OPP. People often got confused with his organic, pragmatic and sociological approach. They were not able to realize his vision and foresight to adapt strategies to evolving situations. In the lanes of organizing people on the lines of vil­lage organizations in Northern Areas was not only difficult but also use­less. He crafted new structures and new designs suitable to the evolving situations. By this time he had become a strong believer in self-reliance.

His efforts for the expansion and adequate management of the sewer- age system in Karachi succeeded in getting the approval from IMF and ADB regarding the alternative model, which was cheaper, function­al and connected to thousands of sewers. He always termed IMF and ADB as bad bankers who kept on giving loans with the increasing debt burdens on their clients.

Despite the gloom enveloping the country, Akhter Hameed Khan always could see the brighter side. He spoke of the resilience and suc­cess of the informal sector. He used to challenge anyone to find a beg­gar in Orangi. He had great faith in the people, in their willingness to do things themselves to improve their conditions. All they need, according to him, were support organizations and level playing fields. He used to say: "In Pakistan development will not come from the top. It will come from the bot­tom and it shall happen in pockets -one island formed here and one island formed there and one island will be made by you."

In his non-rural development garb his humility and generosity, as a man was amaz­ing. His rapport with the rustic, the non-genteel, the labour, the lower government func­tionaries and the like were inim­itable. He neither knew evil nor could perceive evil and thus in judging people was very gullible. He was often led stray by such an open, forthright, honest and simple person should have ever been misunderstood was something beyond compre­hension.

General Pervaiz Musharraf conferred upon Akhter Hameed Khan Nishan-e-Imtiaz posthu­mously.