Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
foreign policy pertaining to the area. In effect, the wali presided
over an advisory council of forty members that included ten Swati
officials and advised the ruler on matters of state. It also acted as a
legislative body. Membership to the council was by public elections
held every three years. Fiercely independent in nature, at least, Swat
had no income tax, and its annual revenue of some three million
dollars in 1976 came from land revenues, forests, import and export,
customs and excise, and minerals. With this relatively small sum
the state paid for its own militia and police, the upkeep of all its
hospitals and medical facilities, and its schools, as well as maintaining
450 miles of road in excellent condition - all with no outside aid.
Most Swatis supported themselves as small landowners and
farmers, harvesting two crops a year of rice, maize, wheat, barley,
mustard, sugarcane, potatoes, tomatoes and onions, as well as fruits
like pears, grapes, oranges, apples, apricots, plums, and even walnuts.
Beekeeping was Swat's largest cottage industry. More than seven
thousand families still produce over two million pounds of honey
and pure beeswax annually. The state grew all its own food grain
and exported the surplus to Pakistan.
Education was free and, while not mandatory, encouraged; needy
students were even provided with free books and uniforms. Medical
treatment was also free then, with sixteen well-equipped hospitals
spread over the four thousand square miles of the state, twenty
dispensaries scattered around the villages, as well as a mobile
dispensary, a leprosy clinic, and a veterinary hospital. The entire
population of just under one million seemed to know how lucky
they were, too.
None of this, of course, was thanks to Ray. As far as I could make
out, Swat seemed blessed with rulers of exceptional ability and
dedication. The wali was a busy man, his duties ranging from
general administration of state affairs to trying personally and
passing judgement in civil and criminal cases, reviewing cases,
hearing appeals, applications and petitions, interviewing members
of the public to hear their grievances, and even inspecting all new
state construction sites. Whether for some junior state employee's
house, a school, a road, or a bridge, no final payment was ever made
to the contractors before the wali had personally inspected the work
