This is a story of a district in Azad Jammu Kashmir and its chief town Kotli. The main characters are a young Assistant Commissioner named Umer Shahzad and a group of students belonging to AJ&K university of Administrative Sciences Kotli campus. What they are doing together may not be worthy enough to get a place in the sensational prime time news bulletin especially when the country is getting pummeled repeatedly in the war, which is eating us from within. The news that reaches us these days through our television sets is about destruction and the heavy price that we have to pay each day. Small successes like these, and that too based on intangible elements in far away remote places, very often get buried in the heaps of all what is bad and wrong with us.

The Kotli campus of the AJ&K University is just like any other University of Azad Kashmir mired with the history of notorious student politics of Anjuman Tulba-e-Islam. Sometime back a team of British Council visited the university and held some workshops on youth activism. It also led to establishment of first aid centre in the university. Masters trainers were selected from teachers and trained in subsequent training programs. A group of young students inspired by this process formed a non-profit group called Active Youth Chain Kotli (AYCK).

AYCK represents a new emerging phenomenon in the region. This student body is collaborating with district administration to spread awareness on fundamental subjects within their campus and outside in the city, and to lend basic services to address administrative issues of their region. Now where does the young Assistant Commissioner Umer Azam come in?

Umer Azam is a media savvy young bureaucrat who recently got posted in Kotli. Definitely a people person, especially someone who wants to take the youth of his region along with him in every activity he plans. He identified AYCK, reached out to them and decided to use their social and digital activism skills. “They are young blood and dedicated. They are your best human resource in any district,” says Azam.

Right now the students of AYCK are working with the Assistant Commissioner to spread traffic education through various media. For this, several walks involving not only civil society but also officials from district administrations have been staged. Umer Azam, flanked by students of AYCK, have been spending time on the roads educating everyone about traffic rules.

In one traffic week alone, they went up to 3000 cars to inform them about the new legislation of the AJ&K legislative assembly that has barred the use of cell phones while driving. In order to further inspire the traffic police, Azam reached out to the private sector to arrange umbrellas for police officials standing on the roads in hot summer days.

Further, the general mistakes of the people while driving cars/motorcycles have been identified and video clips made by the AYCK students in order to sensitise the public about traffic rules. These clips are broadcasted on all local cable channels after every hour and are put online in Local Kotli groups on social networking websites. The situation of traffic in the town has improved and the expatriates returning to spend summers in Kotli have noticed this pleasant change. There are no more long queues.

Umer Azam has already given AYCK their next project – that is to study on the increasing phenomenon of begging in the town and working on its remedies. The model of administration, which Umer is following in his town, may not be something new, but the way he is taking it forward with other stakeholders is something unheard of in the adjoining areas.

Ali Baraan is a critic.

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