Page 4 - Muzaffargarh Gazzetteer

PREFACE

Dear readers

Let me admit at the outset that compiling the gazetteer turned out to be more arduous task
than I had ever imagined. No other work has taken so much of my time, and efforts, than
anything else ever done by me as Deputy Commissioner in all the districts I had the honour
to serve. But I am happy that the entire exercise has further enhanced my affection for, and
strengthened my bond with, Muzaffargarh.

While working on the gazetteer, many times I wondered how the pre-partition deputy
commissioners were able to undertake such an enormous task, and that too without having
computers and instant modes of communication on their disposal. I have started respecting
them for their professionalism even more.
The most difficult part had been extracting information from various district departments as
surprisingly enough, it was not readily available with them. Even on persistent follow-up, they
were either unwilling or simply incompetent to provide information pertaining to them. In
fact, none of them was found to be in the practice of compiling, updating and maintaining any
reliable data related to them. All of this gave me greater insight into the professional
decadence we are currently facing in public sector. Almost all the heads of departments whom
I asked to provide information, considered it a burden, and that too unwanted and
unwarranted. As if this was not enough, more often than not, the provided data was not correct
and therefore had to be returned for checking and resubmission. In nutshell, the data and
other information used in this gazetteer is as good or bad, and authentic, as provided by the
relevant department.
I may also clarify here; we had asked for the data from the departments up to the conclusion
of Financial Year 2018-19 but not all the departments complied with the instruction correctly;
different departments have used different timelines to submit the data. In any case, by the
time this gazetteer would reach you, given the time lapse between compilation and printing,
the data would have already changed, at least to some extent.

Let me also say here that even though I did my best to avoid grammatical, linguistic, factual
and statistical mistakes but then at the end of the day it was a product of human effort, which
cannot be perfect. So pardon me if you find one, or more. In fact, bring them to my notice and
I would try to get them fixed in next editions. This gesture on your part would rather be
considered a favour.
Similarly, many of the terms used in the gazetteer, especially in the chapter on land revenue,
are local and may be unfamiliar for our readers, particularly the foreigners. If needed
therefore, you may seek clarification on email, and we would be happy to reply. Even
otherwise too your comments and feedback are welcome.

Material from previous gazetteers has been used, updated and reproduced at some places,
especially while compiling the chapters related to land revenue and history, as had been done
by the authors of earlier gazetteers. A major difference of this gazetteer from the previous
ones, however, is that in the earlier versions, the history chapter did not have much details

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