Scotland's soul in Sialkot

AFP Published July 11, 2011

His home, the industrious town of Sialkot, has made Pakistan one of the world's top manufacturers of bagpipes and other musical instruments in a trade worth $6.8 million a year. ?Guaranteeing the export of high quality products is something that requires meticulous craftsmanship and finesse,? said Ibrahim, checking over bagpipes at his father's factory, which turns out around 200 a month.

A Pakistani labourer prepares components to make bagpipes at a bagpipe factory in Sialkot.?Pakistan is the second country after Scotland which exports bagpipes,'said Farooq Ahmad, owner of the Imperial Bagpipe Manufacturing Company, who
says he ships abroad up to 6,000 ebony and rosewood bagpipes a year. — A Pakistani labourer prepares components to make bagpipes at a bagpipe factory in Sialkot.?Pakistan is the second country after Scotland which exports bagpipes,'said Farooq Ahmad, owner of the Imperial Bagpipe Manufacturing Company, who says he ships abroad up to 6,000 ebony and rosewood bagpipes a year.

?Many of our clients prefer Pakistani bagpipes because we sell a good quality ebony wood bagpipe for $400, which would cost 1,000 pounds ($1,632) in Scotland,? he added.
The bagpipes' wail might be mocked in popular culture but Ahmad's 25-year-old son Ibrahim has been brought up on a musical diet of little else, learning the business and traditional Scottish tunes along the way. — ?Many of our clients prefer Pakistani bagpipes because we sell a good quality ebony wood bagpipe for $400, which would cost 1,000 pounds ($1,632) in Scotland,? he added. The bagpipes' wail might be mocked in popular culture but Ahmad's 25-year-old son Ibrahim has been brought up on a musical diet of little else, learning the business and traditional Scottish tunes along the way.

A Pakistani labourer prepares components to make bagpipes.?We receive export orders mostly from the United Kingdom, the United states, Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand and China.

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The skirl of bagpipes may conjure up the chilly moors of Scotland, but a British colonial legacy means the unique sound is echoed on Pakistan's dusty Punjab plains. Not only do Pakistanis play the instruments, they manufacture them and claim to export more than any country except Scotland. “I love playing a bagpipe... It is a great source of relaxation,” said Ibrahim, who is also a member of a local pipe band in the town, 230 kilometres (143 miles) southeast of Islamabad. “We have great potential,” he said of the industry, thriving against the odds despite a Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked insurgency that has killed more than 4,410 people since July 2007. -Photos by AFP

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Comments (2) Closed

Shahzad

Jul 12, 2011 10:50am

Our people are skillful, given them the skill and knowledge they can do wonders. Only need is to provide them technical input so as to enable to add more value to their products and to diversify the product range. Chambers need to play an important role here they need to assemble a panel of experts to provide the industry with technical input where needed.

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir A

Jul 12, 2011 11:52am

There is no doubt in the fact that Sialkot is a great city in 'the land of the pure' and houses some of the best Engineers, technicians, crafters, designers, fabricators and manufacturers in the world. I am pretty sure that even if they are given a daunting task to build, launch and operate the NASA's space shuttle, they can easily do so almost at one fourth of the price paid by the hapless and helpless American tax payers like me to NASA for the same job.

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