The Eighth Vice Principal (1997-2002), Professor (1976-2002) and Head of Dept. of Physics (1976-1997)

Durrani Sb spent his very early childhood at Simla where his father was posted as claims inspector in Railways during the British India period. The family moved to Pakistan in 1949 and his father was posted in Pakistan Railways at Nowshera.

The young Masaud Perwaiz was admitted to a kindergarten class in Nowshera. Within a year, his father retired and the family moved to Peshawar and settled down over there. He was admitted to Salwan Primary School in Peshawar and studied there until 5th class. He was then transferred to Government High School no. 4 in Peshawar from where he completed his Matric in 1959. He got admission to Edwards College Peshawar and completed his FSc in 1963.

In 1965, Masaud Perwaiz then obtained his BSc degree from Islamia College Peshawar, and his MSc in Physics from Peshawar University in 1968.

He loved to play basketball and cricket and was a member of the college teams at Islamia College and Peshawar University. He was granted a colour in basketball at Islamia College as well. In 1960-1961, his basketball team were the runners up in the University of Peshawar Sports Tournament. In 1961-62, his 4x1600m relay team were second in the University of Peshawar Sports Tournament.

He was also very fond of indoor games. He was the Common Room Secretary at the Islamia College in 1965-1966, and runners up in table tennis, carrom board and chess at the University of Peshawar Hostel no.1 in 1967-1968.

Even before he was granted his degree from Peshawar University, Mr. Durrani was selected as a teacher at Cadet College Petaro. This was his first job, and he joined the college a few days before he got his MSc results.

Petaro was his life. He spent his entire career prior to formal retirement at CCP - a total of 34 years.

Soon after he joined the college in August 1968 as lecturer in Physics, he was also given the assignment to be the Assistant House Master of Qasim House in 1969-1972. He then was appointed Assistant House Master of Jinnah House from 1972-1975.

Then in 1975, he was made the House Master of Liaquat House, and he remained in this position until 1977.

In 1976, he was also promoted to become the Head of Department of Physics at Petaro.

Soon after he joined the college, he asked the Principal Cdr. Firoz Shah to give him tasks to keep busy. He thus got into becoming in charge of innumerable clubs at Petaro. It started out with Aeromodelling (officer in charge from 1968-1976) and Photography (officer in charge from 1968-1971 and 1975-1977). And then he created clubs like the Rocketry Club (1972-1975), Boat Modelling Club (1972-1975), Science Modelling Club (1972-1975), and Railway Modelling Club (1972-1975).

He was also the In Charge of College Cricket team and 8th Class Athletics in 1968-1971. He then became the In Charge of College Athletics (1972-1977) and College Basketball (1974-1975) as well.

In 1976-1977, he was given the charge for Prize Distribution and Educational Films.

In 1977, he was selected by the Ministry of Education, Govt of Pakistan to proceed to Nigeria as a part of a program to teach at schools in Nigeria. He was posted to Sardauna Memorial College in Kaduna, Nigeria as Education Officer and Head of Department of Physics for "O" Levels. He was also appointed as the Games Master for the college, and House Master of Korau House. After 3 years of service in Nigeria, Durrani Sb returned to Pakistan and rejoined Cadet College Petaro.

Upon his return, he was appointed as House Master of Latif House in 1981, and he served in this position until 1989. He was re-appointed the Head of Department of Physics as well.

He was also given the charge for College Football in 1983-1989, and Squash and Tennis from 1984-1989.

In 1992, he was promoted to the rank of a Professor at CCP and Divisional Coordination Officer. As Divisional Coordination Officer, he was responsible for overall supervision of all the Divisions (Houses), to deal with indiscipline of cadets, referral of cases to CMH for special medical treatment, special medical leave for cadets, coordination with parents for problems of cadets, etc.

Durrani Sb was an institution within. Due to his constant initiatives and innovative ideas, he was given innumerable responsibilities at Petaro throughout his 34 years of service. One of the key responsibilities was that of Director of Technical Services in 1990.

Durrani Sb recalls so many of the development programs that he was involved in throughout his stay at Petaro. He remembers how he designed, supervised and was personally involved in the renovation of the wooden ceiling of the Quaid Hall with his own hands despite the difficulties. He was Head of Technical Services, and got the cafeteria built and planted trees in front of the new Mess Hall. He had the furniture redesigned and built at a fraction of the cost including the beds, chairs, etc in the hostels. He had the water coolers placed all over the college which are still in use. He was given the charge of the Mechanical Workshop and the Caretaking Department from 1989-1992.

Upon the retirement of Ch. Abdul Ghani Sb in 1997, Durrani Sb was appointed the Vice Principal and Director of Studies at Petaro. He remained in this position until his own retirement in 2002.

Durrani Sb was recognized for his services at Petaro on a number of occasions. He was given a Commendation Certificate by the CCP Board of Governors in 1994, and Best Teacher Award with Commendation Certificate in 1996 and 2001.

Soon after his retirement from Petaro, he immediately proceeded for Hajj in 2002. And then upon return from Hajj, he joined the Army Public School Hyderabad as its Principal. He served in this position from 2002-2003.

He then joined Hayat Girls College Hyderabad as its Principal and served in that position from 2004-2007. For a year, i.e. from 2007-2008, he served as the Principal of Preston College, Hyderabad campus. However, he then returned to Hayat Girls College Hyderabad as its Principal once again in 2008, and is still serving in this position.

He has also been very active in the floods relief work in 2010. As a result, he was also given a Gold Medal by Regional Directorate Hyderabad for flood affectees rehabilitation Cantt. Hyderabad in 2011.

He has two publications to his credit. He is one of the authors of the "S.S.C. Physics Text Books" prescribed by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Hyderabad and reviewed by the National Review Committee, Ministry of Education Curriculum Wing, Islamabad, and published by the Sindh Text Book Board, Jamshoro.  He is also one of the principal authors of "Practical Journals for X, XI, and XII Classes", which have been published by the Sindh Text Book Board, Jamshoro.

Durrani Sb was a very popular teacher throughout his career and many ex-cadets remember him with great fondness. Personally, I did not have the opportunity to interact with him during my days at Petaro since I passed out within months of his joining the college. He never taught me any subject. My next interaction with him was when he was the Vice Principal of the College. When our batch had its first reunion at Petaro in 2001, Durrani Sb was in that position.

It has been a pleasure knowing Durrani Sb, and may Allah grant him a long and fruitful life with health.

Prof. Masaud Perwaiz Durrani

By Syed Ali Jaffery, Kit no. 8046, Latif House

This article is dedicated to Durrani sahib.  The Last time when I visited Petaro, Durrani sahib was so nice to my father and 6 year old son that I was embarrassed.

There were many ways to learn in Petaro – classroom studies, peer assistance, and after-hours access to teachers.

Studies were tough, but our teachers were good. The dorms were not the nicest but the food was plenty and generally good, except for the time when sand got ground up in Aata and no one could eat that night. Or when the custard that went bad and all the bathrooms had “house full” scribbled on them.

As I look back I can honestly say that Durrani sahib was THE best teacher that I could have had.  Durrani sahib took over as the housemaster towards the end of 1980 from Ghani sahib.  His style was obvious to all of us from the night of Ghani sahib’s farewell dinner.

The food was sumptuous and served in Latif house’s ante room.  After the speeches and thank you’s, all hell broke loose. And it was obvious from Durrani sahib’s expressions that there would be hell to pay for.

We were summoned for a night fall-in. He was present and I knew we would get a thrashing at the very least. Much to my surprise he just made one statement; “there are times when we eat to fill our stomachs, and then there are times when it is a social occasion, as cadets you should know the difference”.   I am sure I would have forgotten any collective punishment, but those words still ring true.

Shortly before we joined Petaro, in 1980, part of the hedge in front of Latif house had burned down – a carelessly discarded cigarette, perhaps!  One day Durrani sahib had a wrought iron gate installed there and had it painted gold/yellow to reflect Latif house’s color.  He sent me out to “Check” it. I reported back that it looked good.  He sent me again, and again, and I kept telling him that it was just fine.  To which he proclaimed, if Ali thinks its “OK” then it must be great.  This was his not so subtle way of telling me that I had a negative outlook on life.  Ever since that event, my response to “how are you doing” is “Great!”, and I have been accused of “infectious enthusiasm”. All thanks are due to what Durrani sahib said to me on that day.

Once I got hold of a book on Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity”, an absolutely fascinating topic that made wonder about the vastness of space, continuity of time, possibilities of infinity and the probability of time travel. 

I am sure I drove Durrani sahib nuts will my incessant questions and hypothetical arguments. He tried to answer all with the patience of saints.  I think he had it enough when I waited up for him to get back at home around midnight and peppered him with my newfound ideas.  Yet even at this odd hour, he was composed and tried to answer as many fanciful questions as he could.   Next day I knew I better tone it down, because he gave me an English translation of a Russian scientist’s book titled “Cross roads of infinity”.

He never let a chance to “teach” go, even when one of our entry mates was caught with “Jinsy kitabain” (euphemistically called sexual education books). As he was being caned, Durrani sahib let it be known, “English ki hoteen to main chor bhi daita, kay kuch to sikh rahay ho” (If they were in English, I may have let you go, cause then you would have been at least learning something).

Durrani sahib had a great rapport with all of us, and a fantastic sense of humor.  Aleem (80106) and I spent a whole night raiding his mango tree, and then had the audacity to ask him to borrow a battery, charger and a bulb from the physics lab to conduct an “experiment”.  This home made incubator was put to great use to ripen the mangos. 

Not to be greedy or anything, we dutifully took about a dozen of them to Durrani sahib, he took one and thanked us for it.  When we insisted that he take all, since they were all for him, he quipped “if this is MY share, I wonder how many did you really take”.

I can tell you how he taught me to be a good leader, or what did he do when he found out that I had strung a Har (necklace) made out of “Break food”; we can also talk ad nauseam about the plan we hatched and how we got the first color TV for Latif house.

However, I am convinced that it was a Principal’s inspection that changed my destiny.  Every one was busy cleaning up, and I did my part; but no one wanted to help clean the toilet.  By this time I had become SUO and Durrani sahib had taught me enough that I took it upon myself to do it; and that was it, or so I thought.

A few years later, I found myself in Ohio at a crossroad in my life.  I had two choices, I could give up, drop out of college and chalk it all up to circumstances OR I could work my tail off to pay for the rest of my studies and then graduate from college.  One of the myriad of jobs that I had was to clean toilets in the same university that I went to.  It was at that point I thought for a bit, should I or shouldn’t I take this job, but the answer was, if I can do it in Petaro, then why not here?

To this day, I have developed a “can do” attitude and in true Petarian spirit I am never shy to tell every one, “Hey I cleaned toilets to get where I am today, I did it once and I can do it again, what will YOU do???”

I would like to tell one last short story and end with a question.

I had to go to Hyderabad, during the weekday, for something, and did not want to get the principal’s permission.  Durrani sahib told me to come and see him after the second period and he would allow me to go.  I searched for him in the Physics lab, only to be told that Agha ji (his father who lived with him) had just passed away.  We were all shocked, especially since we had seen him walking in the morning.

Later at night as we all sat around reading Quran, Durrani sahib looked up, saw me and said, “baita didn’t you go to Hyderabad?”  How can you repay a debt like that?