THE PROMISE OF PAKISTAN

[Music] at the back of the country there are always the Hilton's they're cold hills though they're the highest mountain ranges in the world the Karakoram and the Himalayas mile after mile of snow peaks stretching away far beyond the borders of Pakistan too distant a bit [Music] every spring as the year warms up the snows begin to melt the gullies fill with streams which join together during deeper and wider as they race down to the distant plain [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so the great rivers of Pakistan Indus Jhelum Ganges Brahmaputra carry the waters of the hills nearly a thousand miles away Pakistan is a country shaped by rivers this is school boy stop the kind of thing one learns in class geographically you might think it unusual it lies in two hearts in the east and west of the indo-pak sub-continent west pakistan is ruled by the Indus run a thousand miles away is East Pakistan in the basin of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges but Indus and Brahmaputra rise barely 70 miles from one another in Tibet in the same way people in West Pakistan speak order and those in East Pakistan speak Bengali but though each half writes differently on as different traditions and different climates all are Pakistanis and are United at one source the noble faith of Islam which flows through East and West as the mighty rivers did Islam is the faith which inspired the founder of the country Muhammad Ali Jinnah his life work was to create Pakistan as a modern state symbolized by the crescent and star carved on his tomb it's a big country and hard to compress into a little space how can one give a bird's-eye-view expands from the plains and the west to the tropical forests of the Chittagong hills in the east and which spans not only distance a time to these bricks they were not laid 40 years ago or even 400 this city of mohenjo-daro was flourishing four thousand years in the past the seat of the great Indus civilization citizens padded down these streets lived worked and died in these houses when most of the rest of the world was struggling in grass huts a hundred or so generations ago these streets were laid out with main drainage running under there was a great pool which was carefully made watertight with pitch one can still just trace the powdery layer of bitumen imported even then from the oil-rich lands of Mesopotamia in the museum's can be seen the jewelry which the long-gone indus valley women wore to judge by the little toys and trinkets which have been found children must have been much the same then as now there were bullock carts in mohenjo-daro and even today carts built on the same style can be found in this part of the country human tradition dies huh [Music] now as then the whole economy rested on water on the great rivers here in the sind always very cut and dry weather is no water there is still desert nothing grows where the camels pick their way in the sand but where the water is brought just as far and not an inch further there the land springs to life there are fields orchards farms a place to live and this is something which the Pakistani nation is working hard to extend with the techniques of the modern world [Applause] a whole new network of huge canals is being created to link the rivers and spread their waters more effectively when the gigantic Indus Valley steam is completed it will bring thousands of new acres under the plot [Music] garages are going up across the rivers to fill the waters at the Indus and it's tributaries and store the summer floods of the melting snows for the dry months of the year among the northern hills new dams are using the water to create industrial paths wasup and manga these are names which mean electric power for the workshops and factories of a modern nation industry is building a new and more sophisticated pattern which needs the old skills for new problems modern cotton mills make more and better car in East Pakistan there are factories to spin and weave the jute which has long been the staple crop everywhere factories go up to meet the demand the new goods of all continents the things that the modern industrial nation requires precision - surgical instruments tripe foodstuffs and mitts household and Sporting Goods the run our factory is telling them all out even the cables which distribute the electric power in farms and villages - this powered network is making things possible which the villagers forefathers couldn't have imagined whether its account for irrigation or electric light in the house [Music] but in East Pakistan water in rivers loom large in a different way here the problem is not so much how to bring water to Dry fields as how to cope with an abundance and arrange proper distribution [Music] for four months in every year the monsoon rains flood the lowlands to overplay the river deltas of the Brahmaputra and Ganges make a landscape of error when fields water and sky merged together it's an agricultural landscape jute and rice are the main crops for their thrive in the hot moist climate and the fertile river silt [Music] there are water ways instead of roles and duties loaded here for dispatch to many distant countries boats fly between village and village carrying traders and their goods more than half Pakistan's population lives in this water filled green land [Music] the cities of East Pakistan are growing too and to match the growth both East and West need more and more universities and colleges to train the men and women who are going to use all this modern technology doctors nurses and hospitals are needed to everyone is in a hurry and there are ideas all kind is to be developed and put to use for this land of almost 100 million people in a new country like Pakistan which is expanding its capabilities this new skill generation of citizens is probably the most important resource the modern world increasing legal rights the country - Dhaka and Corner were two days apart by but now a helicopter does the trip in 30 minutes [Music] [Applause] the big jets put Easterners and Westerners only a few hours distant and Dhaka in the East becomes the neighbor of Karachi in the West 1200 miles away as the jet hops the streets of Karachi or any of the largest cities for that matter how very like streets anyway though you may see some distinctive forms of transport and then but a river runs through the city streets as well the river of humanity they are united by many strands and though the impact of the modern world is very strong they are proud of their traditions and crimes go into any of the crowded jostling bazaars of the old town and you can feel a real sense of vitality which no one would want to lose [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] you can find almost anything here from copper wire to a pair of golden slippers [Music] the silversmith is at work with blood lemon top [Music] [Applause] in the cool shade of the jewelers market they may be measuring out a dowry and go that yellow was jacket Moscow was a name widely known centuries ago the same patience and skill are needed today to weave the delicate transparent patterns cotton butters finest silk east or west these are crafts which really do flow from the people they have an instinctive get in color which runs like a clear stream through the life of the country [Music] the endless movement of the streets is always washing against landmarks from the past mosques with quiet courtyards where time runs slip but there's one place where the river of history is channeled into a presence one can almost feel it is a pass in the hard brown mountains of the Northwest's the kinda near the Kaba gate there is an inscription which tells the history of the pass the channel for hundreds of years between the plains of Pakistan and Afghanistan and the world beyond this was the Northwest Frontier of chivalry in romance familiar all the world over from the stories of Rudyard Kipling the crests of famous regiments of days gone by are still there on the rocks by the roadside recalling the Marshall past [Music] all is quiet not metal road and PAC trail I use by peaceful cabins [Music] [Music] [Music] from across the Khyber came the Persians batons and of course the murders the line of great employees who gave the finishing touches to the cultural pattern of this country the great Badshahi mosque in Lahore was built by the emperor Aurangzeb it shows the taste and delight in beauty which matched the statesmanship of the Mughal line in the days of their path in the fort of Lahore state apartments were built which were as intricate as jewel boxes decorated with inlaid mosaic in all colors of the Rendel great and wise rulers lived here and the poet philosopher Iqbal who lies buried in Lahore spoke of them when he wrote on the bank of the river Ravi in solitude far off magnificent those towers stand where the flower of Mughal shibori lies asleep no mention but a melody of silence [Music] [Music] they created guns like these and Shalimar but the Emperor Shah Jahan and his court could stroke and marble pavilions where he could relax and watch the moon rising over the treetops most of all these people loved water fountains pools and Cascades even here among the palaces of overhaul the rivers still flood [Music] no one has matched the Moghuls in architecture but something of the spirit of the mogul builders is being brought to bear today in the construction of a modern city his lava bed the state capital of Pakistan we have to think in decades we want to imagine it complete but Architects from all over the world are being drawn in to plan and building on this side among the foothills near all pindy is rising a brand new city [Music] Islamabad is a city where everybody can share in spaciousness and order [Music] it's a place to celebrate and Pakistan is know how to celebrate when the occasion calls for welcome to the world they were [Music] [Music] [Music] before some cattle show at Lavoie is one of the festivities which takes place every year although its main purpose is to bring together the best the breeders and farmers do from all over the country it's the occasion for all kinds of jollity with dancing camels and horses and riding displays of the kind enjoyed ever since horses first friend wild on the plain [Music] [Applause] [Applause] the Lahore show is the biggest in the country but it doesn't grow from nothing scratch any man in the countryside and you will find the hospital Sagara lyle / montgomery these are the names which mean horsemanship in this part of the country [Applause] but perot is the sport where horsemanship reaches it peak and indeed the game itself was evolved among the hills of northern Pakistan in these same mountain valleys where polo was born the old manly sports still draw a strongly horsemanship hunting fishing they have to do with affection for the land and a delight in hills and valleys and natural water [Music] hills and mountains often seem to breed a special spirit in men here the very essence of this spirit animates the patterns the Hill folk of the Northwest Frontier gallon tavern spirited they can still perform a car tax on dance with a dash and spirit that no one else can eat [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so east and west the Great Rivers dissolved themselves in the sea in the East the snows of the far hills spend themselves in the mysterious swamps of the Sunderbans in the West the sea laps the port of Karachi a new day breaks and the morning calls to prayer reach out across distance and time uniting brother and brother past and future [Music] [Music]