During the late 1950s, the World
Bank brokered the talks between India and Pakistan on the river water dispute. Talks
were to take place in Washington D.C. On the first day of negotiations, an elderly
civil engineer among the Pakistani delegate entered the conference room. While
everyone was settling down, he noticed the large map of the Indus basin hung on
the wall. He noticed that the whole plateau of Rajputana was included in the
Indus basin. Whoever had prepared this map was definitely mistaken. Provided
the importance of this forum it was an absurd happening He exclaimed "This
map is wrong". This pronouncement created a stir in the assembly and in no
time the map was removed. This was the attention to detail of the meticulous Khan
Bahadur Abdur Rahman Khan.
Inducted into the Imperial Service of the Royal Engineers in 1917, he made the best use of his abilities and knowledge in the engineering field throughout his career.
. Recently the autobiography of Khan Abdur Rahman Khan is published by Oxford University Press Pakistan. The manuscript of the book was accidentally discovered after his death.
The book covers life events from his birth to the late 1960s. His life story is filled with struggle, professionalism, and adventure. His professional responsibilities took him to remote places in the NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) province. Often he had to perform the survey work in precarious conditions where he was often assisted by the military. He had crossed paths with many famed personalities. Amin Ismael famously known as Ismael Gulgee had served under him as a structural design engineer. Ismael Gulgee later resigned and pursued a full-time painting career. He had worked with several British officials and was of the view that they protected their common interest against the natives despite personal differences. He had been in contact with Ayub Khan, Iskander Mirza, Khawaja Nizamud din, and many others and had met them on several occasions. The list of his causal interaction goes on and provide distinct insight into the lives of these men.
The most unique feature of the book is the perspective it gives on the transformation in the profession of Civil Engineering in Pakistan. The book laments the decline of the Civil Engineering profession, especially under the government's ambit. It provides a missing link between what has changed over a century and what had stayed intact. It appears that the bureaucratic complexities are the same. for example, during 1924-5 Deputy Commissioner of D.I Khan Col. Charles Edward Bruce initiated an inquiry against Abdur Rahman Khan on a complaint of the contractor. It was an entirely misleading accusation for which Abdur Rahman Khan had to personally invite the deputy commissioner and apprise him about the situation. Even today engineers are struggling while working with nontechnical bureaucracy.
In government agencies, Civil Engineers have adopted managerial roles. Back in the day, they were connected with field work and quite adept in the design and execution of the works. With time the role of these departments declined. Large works came under the umbrella of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). The foreign consulting firms were replaced by the local firms that came in competition with the traditional departments. Over time design works were monopolized by these firms since these were mostly headed by retired government employees. With time the reliance on private consultants increased. The design and technical assignments are now outsourced to these consultants.
Khan Abdur Rahman invented the theodolite-tachometer method that considerably reduced the labor of surveying. He believed that Pakistan had missed a golden opportunity to train highly skilled professional engineers while working with foreign firms at Mangla, Tarbela, and link canal projects.
‘Taming Rivers’ is a missing link between the engineering practices in India during British Raj and present times. It helps to identify the turning points where we had gone wrong in the engineering profession. It is a must-read for engineering professionals today that is surely going to widen their perspective on their profession.
