Monday, February 7, 2011

A Little About Topi






Topi is a tehsil of district Swabi in the KPK province of Pakistan. It is administratively subdivided into twenty Union Councils,
namely: Batakara, Gabasni, Gandaf, Gani Chatra, Jhanda, Kabgani, Kalabat, Kotha, Maini, Pabeni, Topi East, Topi West, Zarobi.

TOPI city is located in the east of Swabi District of the Khyber Pukhtoonkwa Province of Pakistan. It is the birthplace of Nawab Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan, who was a pioneer of modern education in the Province. He founded Islamia College, Peshawar in 1913 and Government High School, Topi in 1935 and also donated Land for the establishment of... these educational institutes. Topi city is located at west of Tarbela Dam, the world's largest earth filled dam. Most of the land of Topi has been used in the establishment of Tarbel Dam. Tarbela Dam is also the largest hydroelectric generation project in Pakistan which produces 3400 mega watts electricity.

TOPI city along with the other three villages i.e. Kotha, Maini and Batakara constitute the area known as "Uthman". Uthman is the branch of the famous Yousafzai tribe. The town of Topi became well known after the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), named after (Ghulam Ishaq Khan), a former President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, was established here.

TOPI town is bifurcated among two union councils, one is called Topi (East) while the other is called Topi (West). Topi is further divided into three parts, Alizo, Akazo and Kanazo. Alizo comprises of Mohalla Booba Khel, Punj Paw, Ismail Khel and Suma Khel. Akazo is composed of Mohalla Urh Ibrahim, Khadar Khan Khel, Painda Khel, Sabi Khel, Pir Azgi and Niki Khel. Kanazo is comprised of Mohalla Musa Khel, Mohalla Awan, Bara Khel, Sana Khel and Ghulam & Muhammad Khan Khel.

People

People of Topi are very peaceful and hospitable. Topi is a big business center for the nearby villages including Marghuz, Zaida, Swabi, Gadoon and Amazai areas. Most of the people are having their own business whereas educated community are doing jobs in public as well as private sectors. A large number of people are working abroad i.e. UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, USA, Spain, Belgium, Australia and South Africa etc. About 20 percent of its population are comprising of the people who migrated from various parts of the swabi district and / or K.P.K. province in search of livelihood. In the year 2006, Topi became a Tehsil - which is an administrative subdivision of a district.

Land

Most of the land of the people of Topi have been used in the construction of Tarbela Dam, Ghazi Bharotha Hydro Electric Power, GIK Institute Topi, Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate and Pehur Hydropower Project (PHPP) and irrigation project too. It is pertinent to mention that PHPP is constructed on the land provided by Topi but Topi has not been given the facility of irrigation for its land / farms.

Tarbela Dam

A large dam on the Indus River in Pakistan. It is located in Topi District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 50 kilometers northwest of Islamabad. The dam is 485 feet (148 m) high above the riverbed. The dam forms the Tarbela Reservoir, with a surface area of approximately 250-square-kilometre. The dam was completed in 1974 and was designed to store water from the Indus River for irrigation, flood control, and the generation of hydroelectric power.

Education
 
The litracy rate in Topi is very high. The people are highly skilled and well educated. Nearly all children are sent to school by their parents. Both boys and girls are treated the same when it comes to education, hence both male and female enjoys the benefits of education. The students belonging to topi are studying in different Medical, Engineering and other wellknown universities and colleges around pakistan and abroad.
 
Topi has alot of government and private schools. There is a Government High School for boys and one Higher Secondary School for girls. There is a college for girls aswell. The first private sector School was opened in 1989 as Awan Public High School at Topi.  More private sectors were open later on.

Sports

TOPI has an attractive sports environment. Cricket, badminton and football are the favourite games of its youth. One can not go without being entertained by the local cultural game called, "Makha" which is played by the farmers at the end of April and start of May after harvesting the wheat crops each year. Makha (Shooting) is the traditional game of Swabi, in which different villages take part to compete each other. Makha is kind of shooting using a bow and arrow with a relatively large stick and instead of a tip, it has a flat dish-shaped head called Tobray, The target is hit by arrow with the help of bow.

Hotels

There is a four star hotel in Topi called Mahaban Hotel which is named after the famous mountain Mahaban. Standard boarding and lodging facilities are available in this Hotel.

Transport

People from far and near always complain about the short width of the road in the main market and the sub-standard material used in the construction of this road. The other significant problem of this historic city is its drainage system which result in the deterioration of the main road. Water remain on the road till weeks after the rain. The present road is an encroachment to the original map of the road approved in 1952. Some influential have carried out atrocious encroachments in the main market of Topi.

Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum (1864-1937)

He was one of the few educated personalities from the north west of the British Empire.His great work is in the field of education. With the help of a British visionary, Roos Keppel, he established the famous Islamia College in Peshawar. Initially it was a school and has gradually expanded into Peshawar University.He was the second person who donated money (Rupees 1000 at that time) from his pocket for the College. He kept a very high standard for the college and was always searching for good teaching staff.This college has produced an enormous amount of talented people in the province.He ultimately became the first chief minister of the KPK Province in 1937.His tenure was very brief and his sad demise came the same year.

There are numerous places named after him, to acknowledge the great work he has done. These are:

Qayyum Manzal, Hostel in
Islamia College
Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan Road
in University Town
Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan Archaeological Museum, Peshawar University