Understanding the anti-Mughal Struggle of Khushal Khan Khattak

Khushal Khan Khattak, a seventeenth century Pakhtun writer, poet and swordsman, and his forefathers had served the Mughal for a long time. However, his fortune took a sudden twist when Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb imprisoned him in 1664, and kept him in solitary confinement at Ranthambore fort. After his release from prison, Khushal Khan was a different person. He remained no more a loyal Mughal official afterwards. Although, Aurangzeb Alamgir and a number of Mughal governors of Kabul tempted him several time to accept a position in the frontier areas but he out-rightly declined. This transformation is clearly visible in his poetry. He took up arms against the Mughals in 1673 and declared a war against them despite the fact that some of his family members even his son had sided with the Mughals. He continued his anti-Mughal struggle till his death in 1689. Some of the critics look at the antiMughal role of Khushal Khan with suspicion and have raised a few queries in this connection. This study looks into the circumstances that saw transformation in his outlook towards the Mughals. Then it explores, whether it was a personal vendetta or the start of a collective anti-Mughal Pakhtun struggle. The article looks into various dimensions, nature and direction of his struggle. This research paper is an attempt to evaluate objectively as to why and how Khushal Khan joined the anti-Mughal camp in the borderland area. Some more related questions are also discussed in details in this article.

Enhancing the Creative Potentials of Educational Leaders

The research study was carried out in a private university with course participants of Master's in Education (MEd) having a major in educational leadership and management. The purpose of the study was to enhance the creative potentials of educational leaders. Creativity invites the mind to think in diverse directions to make something novel which can improve our living standards with the changing times. Striving for effectiveness, efficiency and quality in every aspect of our life draws our imagination towards the need of creativity in a leadership role as well because leaders lead the minds and act as change agents (Kaufman, 2005). According to Lagari (2010) the chairman higher education commission Pakistan, all leaders need to enhance creativity to facilitate 'out-of-the-box' solutions. When you think there are no answers to a problem or an issue, then there are likely to be more possible answers for a creative leader. In order to enhance this emerging need of creativity for educational leaders the study was conducted with action learning as the methodology which will enrich the creativity of educational leaders (as education is the key to progress). The tools to collect the relevant data were semi-structured interviews, observations and focus group discussions. The process of data collection had three phases; in the first phase semi-structured interviews took place on the basis of which the participants were given some worksheets to enhance their creative potentials. The worksheets included activities for idea generation, lateral thinking, re-layering, etc. The second phase included focus group discussions (action learning phase) in which all three participants shared their professional life problems and explored alternative solutions. In the last phase semi-structured interviews were conducted, once again, to find out the application of participants’ learning worksheets and the action learning phase. The findings and analyses revealed that in order to face the challenges of the 21st century, leaders need to equip themselves with creative thinking skills. It also emerged from the interviews that the educational system which participants have gone through has hindered their creativity. Therefore, educational leaders need to enhance their own creative potential so that they can inculcate this aspect in teachers and students.