THIS scribe recently returned from a twelve-day study tour of China, meticulously organized by the State Council of Information.
The tour—covering industrial zones, ports, and logistics centres—offered profound lessons in governance, development, and social welfare. Chief among them was China’s structured approach to eliminating absolute poverty through community-led empowerment, a model that sparked renewed purpose in an Islamabad-based charity initiative.
To appreciate this revival, we revisit a pivotal moment in 2017. At the behest of Madame Bao, spouse of then-Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong, a group of Pakistani women entrepreneurs—including a senator’s wife, school board leaders, a World Bank executive, a hotelier’s spouse, and this scribe’s wife—visited China to observe grassroots development efforts.
What they encountered defied the typical development narrative. Rather than top-down aid, the delegation saw participatory governance in action. Community members co-designed their own uplift—regularly engaging with local officials to build essential services: schools, vocational training centers, clinics, and canteens with a strong focus on senior care. This collaborative, citizen-centric approach is central to President Xi Jinping’s vision to eradicate extreme poverty—a goal officially met by China in 2020.
This ethos stood in sharp contrast to Pakistan’s development framework, where local initiatives often operate in isolation, with fragmented support and minimal state backing. For this scribe’s wife and her peers, China’s approach wasn’t just inspirational—it was a blueprint for redefining civic engagement.
On returning, she deepened her involvement in “Mashal Association”, a registered, non-political and non-sectarian organization dedicated to uplifting rural women in Islamabad’s peripheries. Although founded earlier, Mashal found new direction after this exposure—realigning with the participatory and inclusive ethos exemplified by the Chinese model.
Bridging development ideals: China and Pakistan: Mashal Association comprises around fifty-five committed women volunteers—many in their sixties, seventies, and eighties. Their mission is bold: to create transformative change in the lives of girls and women through education, health care, and economic empowerment.
Education as foundation: Mashal operates a school for 300 girls up to the Higher Secondary School Certificate level. In the spirit of China’s barrier-free education policy, students receive uniforms, books, and transportation at no cost. Paid staff are supported by volunteer educators who also provide training, counselling, and facilitate field trips.
Healthcare with dignity: Echoing China’s village-level health strategies, Mashal runs a five-bed hospital, an OPD, and diagnostics services—staffed by volunteer doctors and specialists. Free medicines, vaccinations, and bi-weekly health seminars (“Mehfil”) enhance public health literacy.
Vocational uplift: Much like China’s township enterprises, Mashal’s Vocational Centre equips women with marketable skills—stitching, embroidery, computing, baking, and grooming. Products are sold through exhibitions and a thrift shop, Meherban Dukan, that reinvests proceeds into the community.
Holistic community support: In addition to school and health services, Mashal organizes adult literacy programs, summer camps, and awareness workshops. These are designed not just for skill building, but for cultivating informed, confident citizens. The resemblance to China’s “Five Guarantee Households” policy—offering education, housing, medical care, and livelihoods to the most disadvantaged—is uncanny. Yet a key difference remains.
The missing partnership: State vs society: China’s model succeeds because community service is state-enabled. Local officials are evaluated based on real social outcomes. Funds are directed strategically. Infrastructure, oversight, and performance targets drive accountability and scale. Mashal, by contrast, thrives through sheer civic commitment. All operations are financed by member donations, contributions from Friends of Mashal, and fundraising events. Government support is absent. Though admirable in spirit and scope, it remains disconnected from national policy frameworks. This gap points to an urgent question: What might Pakistan achieve if grassroots innovators like Mashal were systematically supported by state institutions, as in China?
From exposure to execution: A reimagined mission: Inspired by her exposure to China’s development ethos, this scribe’s wife now spearheads a new initiative under Mashal—the Rural Skill Development Program—in Islamabad’s outskirts. It centers on stitching and sewing training, vocational education, and adult literacy. The goal: empower economically marginalized women through income generation and self-sufficiency. Here, too, parallels emerge. China doesn’t view community development as charity, but as a nation-building imperative. Women’s financial independence is linked to social stability. Education isn’t just a right—it’s a policy instrument to bridge class divides.
Scholar Katn-shing Yip captures this vision succinctly: “A culturally sensitive empowerment model for Chinese communities may have to be gradual and harmonious and empower both the individual and his or her significant others.” This approach—collective, slow-burning, yet sustainable—deeply resonates with Mashal’s ethos. It avoids the abrupt transitions of Western individualism and instead roots empowerment in relational support and cultural continuity. That’s precisely the model Pakistan must nourish.
Charting a shared future: China’s story illustrates how robust institutions, coordinated policy, and empowered citizens can lift millions out of poverty in a single generation. Pakistan already has the spirit and civil society infrastructure. What’s needed is alignment: between vision and policy, grassroots efforts and state support. Mashal Association offers a compelling case study—not as an outlier, but as a spark that rekindles the torch of hope. One that, with the right scaffolding, could scale across rural Pakistan and echo China’s success in locally owned, dignity-driven development. From the remote hills of Sichuan and the plains of Xinjiang to the quiet lanes of rural Islamabad, the impulse to uplift one’s community beats strong. And when nurtured by structure, solidarity, and shared purpose, it’s not just hopeful—it’s transformative.
—The writer, Retired Group Captain of PAF, is author of several books on China.
(sultanm.hali@gmail.com)
