Statistical tabulations

Two noteworthy publications, ?A Gazetteer by the Native? and ?A Catalogue of Revenue Estates in Tehsil Sadar Faisalabad with Site Maps?, combining an insightful synthesis of factual narration and statistical tabulation, have been recently launched in Faisalabad.
What is more important about them is that a bureaucrat, and that too female, is their compiler-cum-author. It is heartening to note that civil services in Pakistan, especially their higher echelons, are a repository of brainy, creative, articulate and dedicated men and women with sound professional acumen. In Kiran Khurshid, we have a promising representative of this lot. A thoughtful perusal of these publications would lead one to assume that their author must have been burning the proverbial midnight oil while engaged in the arduous process of their compilation.
First things first! Way back in the early eighties, during the tenure of governor Ghulam Jilani Khan, an attempt was made to re-write the old district gazetteers in the Punjab. The exercise was partly accomplished but its ?productivity? remains a mystery to this day. So we have not had any revised or revamped edition of any district gazetteer thus far.
In this background, therefore, Kiran?s ?modern day gazetteer? of Faisalabad Sadar sub-division --- of which she is the deputy district revenue officer --- is commendable. In her own words, ?this treatise is an attempt to enliven an eroded tradition and make the fellow officers feel more responsive and dignified about our collective task of good governance.
The paradigm in this work is ?tehsil? which could be amplified on district level with appropriate modifications as contended by the author. Unlike its prototype, the district gazetteer of the British Raj, the native?s analysis of the historical perspective of Lyallpur --- the original name of Faisalabad --- is objective sans any unfounded bias. Section (ii) of the ?Historical Perspective? seeks to enlighten the reader on some vital contemporary socio-economic issues including the troika of good governance.
The chapter on ?Administration in Transition? presents an analytical but comparative study of the prevalent administrative mechanism rooted in the much publicised concept of ?devolution? which, as rightly pointed out by the author, has considerably disturbed the unity of command and control in our administrative hierarchy.
The subject of revenue collection has been treated very precisely with marked stress on a three-pronged efficacious strategy to maximize the revenue potential which is the mainstay of any system of good governance. It has been justly concluded that without correcting our social priorities, we cannot hope to refurbish our administrative set up. Between the lines, this assertion speaks loudly for our indifference nay apathy to the socio-cultural norms underlying our rich national heritage.
Lest we forget, the list of deputy commissioners of Lyallpur and later Faisalabad appended to the gazetteer, bears names of some eminent civil servants of the pre and post Partition days like M W Douglas, G F De Montmorency, B H Dobson, A A Macdonald, Sh Nur Muhammad, Kh Abur Rahim, Agha Abdul Hamid, Pir Ahsanuddin, Shafi-ul-Azam, Syed Qasim Rizvi, Malik Karam Dad Khan, Masud Mufti, G M Piracha, Farid-ud-din Ahmad, Syed Sarfaraz Hussain, Ch Abdul Wahid, Syed Jalil Abbas, Sami Saeed, Nasir Mabmud Khosa, Rana Nasim Ahmad and Dr Shujaat Ali whom our present day district administrators could emulate with pride.
Last but not the least, the lists of different nomenclatures of the tehsil administrative hierarchy together with some classified data, maps and site plans appended to the gazetteer reflect the labour, application and perfectionism of the compiler.
?A Catalogue of Revenue Estates in Tehsil Sadar Faisalabad with Site Maps? is, as it were, a by-product of the afore-mentioned gazetteer. It is meant ?to preserve the precious settlement record and to make it accessible to all stakeholders? thereby reducing the dependence of officers on the conventionally sacrosanct patwari basta. Here again the paradigm is ?tehsil?. It is a no less thoughtfully conceived and elaborated document with all necessary details and statistics incorporated in it.
The utility of the Catalogue can hardly be gainsaid. In fact the Gazetteer and the Catalogue are inter-connected. They would be useful not only for the members of the revenue establishment but also the uninitiated common reader looking for information on the subjects covered by them.
A fastidious reader or researcher may have some reservations about the format or contents of the two publications but these could be brushed aside in view of the magnitude and over-all impact of the exercise.