ayyaz Baqir has traversed a long journey – one that mirrors the journey of our times, filled with doings and undoings, successes and failures. It is a journey that has become metamorphic and surreal;yet it remains a kaleidoscope of our lives. Starting out as a radical, he has now embraced what he calls The Silent Revolution.

Was it a failure to build a world of his hopes and dreams, or, as a promising world came to an end, did he seek other ways to create his own? The main purpose of the revolution was to change people’s lives, especially those of the poor and marginalised. These are the people absent from the political vocabulary of our mainstream parties;who are rarely heard or listened to – the people lost in the verbosity of our soulless politics.

Silent Revolution in Pakistan, authored by Fayyaz Baqir, Mahnoor Zaman and Maryam Hussain Khan, makes a strong case by highlighting the communities and individuals who are quietly working, championing the mantra: “Anybody can make a difference.”

The book was the brainchild of Fayyaz Baqir. He identified and approached civil society leaders to share the stories of their struggles, challenges and accomplishments. He was supported by Mahnoor Zaman and Maryam Hussain Khan, who conducted and transcribed the interviews.

Kazue Takamura from the Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University, introduces the book in the Preface:
The book, says he, “takes an unconventional and thought-provoking journey through international development visions and practices… seeks to document the largely hidden and community-based development practices in Pakistan… and comprises 24 development practitioners’ stories across nine diverse development subjects. These include Civil Society, Market and State, Education, Health, Poverty Alleviation, Water and Sanitation, the Environment, Justice and Governance and Wellbeing.”

“Belonging” is one of the major themes of the book – what Baqir calls “working within the system and living within the means.” This reflects how the community organisations featured in the book do not rely on handouts from wealthy donors – a trend for which many NGOs have earned a tarnished reputation, often becoming symbols of privilege, with their leaders living in luxurious houses or sending their children to expensive universities in the West.

In contrast, the community organisations documented here are participatory in nature. They work quietly, engage with local governments and utilise public resources and services. “The spirit of belonging,” concludes Takamura, “is also evident in the book’s strong emphasis on the significance of community ownership and local capacity – particularly in controlling their own community resources, collective funds and bottom-up decision-making processes.”

The book consists of eight chapters, each introducing various individuals and organisations that have made a tangible difference in people’s lives and helped alleviate their misery and suffering. In his introduction, Fayyaz Baqir outlines the fundamental ideas behind the book. He argues that the British annexation of the region dismantled local civil society and replaced it with a law-and-order state. This transformation rendered the local population as “other” – lesser human beings – as explored in Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism. According to Baqir, this shift “undermined the cause of national development in Pakistan.”

But we all know that one never retires from their ideology. The dream of bringing about revolution remains, whether it is radical or silent.

He proposes a path forward rooted in practices of “belonging.” Citing Adil Najam's framework of the four Cs of civil society-state interaction – cooperation, co-optation, complementarity and confrontation – Baqir situates his argument in a broader discourse on development. This solution, he suggests, aligns with the thinking of Akhter Hameed Khan, the role model for civil society workers, who believed that “the underperformance of the state can be reduced by building administrative, political and social infrastructure not fully developed during the colonial period.”

Fayyaz’s central point is that there are many stories of hope. “Pakistan has given birth to many trail-blazing stories of hope; the hope of freedom from poverty, illiteracy, disease, violence, social discrimination, tyranny and injustice….” Most public opinion leaders are not even aware that 14 Pakistanis have received the Ramon Magsaysay Award – considered the Nobel Prize of Asia. These communities have doubled the incomes of 100,000 families in the highest mountain ranges, provided sanitation facilities to one million people and shelter to ten million people in the metropolitan city of Karachi. Fayyaz introduces the individuals who are creating a different world.

These include Tariq Cheema, founder of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists and The Global Donors Forum; Seema Aziz, founder of CARE Pakistan; Rumana Hussain, author; Abdul Bari Khan, founder of the Indus Hospital and Health Network; Huzaifa Umair, founder of Dawa Healthcare; Richard Leftley, CEO and president of Micro Ensure; Shoaib Sultan Khan, chairman of the National Rural Support Programme; Mehnaz Mahar, health worker at the Sindh Rural Support Organisation; Salim Jan Khan, manager of the Sadaqa Food Bank; Amjad Saqib, founder of Akhuwat; Arif Hasan, architect; Abdul Saboor, CEO of the Lodhran Pilot Project; Naveed Iftikhar, adjunct teacher at the Suleman Dawood School of Business, LUMS; and Sumaira Gul and Hamid Ullah, CEO and director of the Akhtar Hameed Memorial Trust. These individuals, through their courage, perseverance, and innovation, represent the silent revolution that is reshaping Pakistan’s development narrative.

Aftab Rana, CEO of Sustainable Tourism Foundation Pakistan; Nadeem Bukhari, project manager at Inter-cooperation; Mukhtar Ahmed Ali, executive director of the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives; Fouzia Saeed, social activist; Zubair Bhatti, senior public sector management specialist at the World Bank; Jameel Yusuf, founding chairman of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee; Asghar Ali Sherazi, managing director at NETRACON Technologies; Saleem Mansoor Khalid, professor at Government College, Gujranwala; Zia Awan, president of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid; Kamran Ahmed; Dr Khalid Sohail, psychotherapist at the Creative Psychotherapy Clinic; and Shama Khan, village director at SOS Children’s Village, Islamabad – all the people engaged in public service are introduced thoroughly through their work.

The book becomes a handbook of “who’s who” in community-based work in Pakistan. Fayyaz Baqir, CEO of The Knowledge Executive, in his long interview with Iftikhar Ahmad, calls himself “a retired Marxist.” But we all know that one never retires from their ideology – the dream of bringing about revolution remains, whether it is radical or silent.

The writer is a Lahore-based Punjabi poet, academic and short story writer. He was a Dhahan Prize finalist in 2014 and 2020