Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Balochistan is perhaps Pakistan's most demanding province in which to serve, and even more so in these troubled times when security concerns cast a long shadow over everyday administration. For an ordinary civil servant, the instinct is often to keep a low profile, avoid unnecessary risks, complete the tenure with minimal turbulence and look forward to a more comfortable posting in Punjab, Sindh or Islamabad. Hamood Ur Rehman, a young officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, chose a different path. He seems to embody Emerson's timeless counsel: not to follow the beaten track but to venture where none exists and leave a trail for others to follow. His tenure as Deputy Commissioner, Ziarat, became precisely such a journey.

Before the first truck ever carried copper from Saindak or geologists mapped the vast mineral wealth of Reko Diq, Balochistan had already produced something far more precious: resilient minds. Yet those minds have too often had to contend with poverty, distance, neglect and, in recent years, the scourge of insurgency. It is easy to speak of the province's buried riches; far more difficult is to invest in the human potential that alone can transform those riches into lasting prosperity. Every once in a while, however, a public servant reminds us that nation-building begins not with extracting minerals but with nurturing minds.

Hamood Ur Rehman belongs to that rare breed of administrators who measure success not by the number of files they dispose of but by the institutions they leave behind. During........

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