Development ethics.

Byline: Arif Hasan

AKHTAR Hameed Khan, the celebrated South Asian social scientist, died 20 years ago in October 1999 in America. He was buried in the compound of Karachi's Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute - in the shadow of the Orangi hills - where he had worked for over 19 years in developing community-financed and managed models of sanitation, housing, health, and education.

Akhtar Hameed Khan's development-related thinking has not only shaped the projects he developed and those that sought his advice but also those whose initiators have never met him. His thinking has been transferred to the new generation by the students of his students and it is necessary to remind the new generation of his thinking regarding development work.

Akhtar Hameed Khan's development- and sociology-related wisdom is for all times and situations because of its ethical foundations and the dialectic structure of thinking. Its application can yield different results in different situations but the ethical values and the emphasis on community empowerment that underscores it remain constant.

It is important to mention here that his illustrious colleague and first student, Shoaib Sultan Khan, has helped immortalise his work by setting up the Akhtar Hameed Khan Resource Centre in IslamaAbad. The centre contains all of Akhtar Hameed Khan's written work, documentation of the projects and programmes he initiated and worked on, videos of his talks to programme workers, community gatherings and workshops and to academia the world over.

Akhtar Hameed Khan's wisdom is for all times.

This collection of his work is a source of immense knowledge that has the potential to teach students and their teachers a whole range of subjects such as development, economics, history, and sociology. This volume of work should be compulsory reading for students and teachers, and government officials, especially for those who are immersed in Western-produced theoretical discourse which is far removed from the realities of the developing world.

The Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) was not only Akhtar Hameed Khan's last work but also his only urban project. In Orangi, he developed different programmes that overcame the social, financial, and technical constraints governments face in the development and the upgrading of informal settlements. He set up the research and training institute with the hope that government officials would come here, acquire knowledge and implement these...