Sabir Shah Hoti
PESHAWAR: Saeed Bacha is a resident of Lakki Marwat but he has spent most of the past few decades in Peshawar where he was a chowkidar in Islamia Collage University. Today he owns a stationary and book store inside the Islamia College University Campus which was provided to him as an ex-employee by the college on discount and he is making full use of it – providing cheap stationary products as well as books to students and supporting the needy but brilliant students with his own money who can’t afford the admission fee.
Most of the people and clients of the Saeed Bacha don’t know his real name anymore as they call him Arzan Chaha –a man who sells cheap stationary and books. And apparently he loves the name.
Arzan Chaha joined Islamia College after retirement from Pakistan Army where he fought in the two wars with India. Today he has two pensions – one from the Islamia College and another one from the Pakistan army being an ex-serviceman.
He uses these two pensions and the little money he earns from his shop to support the needy students silently and without much pomp and show. And this is now his lifelong mission to promote education for those who could not afford it.
When you buy a book you are given two free ballpoints with it despite the fact that the book is also sold at a discounted rate below the market price. His shop is more like a fair price store as far as the prices are concerned rather than a commercial entity.
Chacha has silently been supporting children and students who are mostly orphans or hail from low-income segments of the society. He hopes to help them overcome the hurdle of poverty in their road to education.
“I regret not going to school myself but this is my mission that all the students should afford education regardless of their financial position,” he said, adding that he himself attended a school in his ancestral town for three days. Afterwards he was asked to go out and work to support his family financially.
“I was born in the village of Dallo Khan in Lakki Marwat district then part of the Bannu district and since there was no custom of recording birth dates in those days, i am not sure of my age. According to my parents, however, I was born in 1947, after the birth of Pakistan,” he recalled, adding despite his interest his parents were too poor to send him to school.
He joined the Pakistan Army as a soldier and took part in the 1965 and 1971 wars. In 1982, he retired from the army after which he was able to secure a chowkidar job in the famous Islamia College in 1987.
Arzan Chaha is old school in every possible meaning of the world. Even today he listens to his radio set taking keen interest in the news bulletins all the day long while working in his shop at the same time.
“If we want to make this great state of Pakistan prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people and especially of the masses and the poor” he said.
“In the year 1987 I got an appointment letter from the Islamia College for the post of a watchman. In the college and observed that many students were too poor to buy even books and pens. This forced me to rent a shop in the college after retirement and provide cheap books and stationary to the students,” he informed, saying that he was more than happy by doing so.
Although a favorite of students and staffers Chacha is not a popular figure among the fellow shopkeepers for his ‘out of the world’ business strategy and they often complain against him. They even threaten him some time but in vain.
“You know education is the most profitable business these days, which is not a good sign for the poor,” he says.
“When i was working in Islamia College, I saw a lot of brilliant students who were unable to continue because of poverty,” he claimed.
“Although the number of educational institutions is increasing day by day, it is horrifying to see that these institutions do not aim to educate, but to make money,” laments Chacha. “My only wish is to see an educated, prosperous Pakistan.”
