Ghani Khan-An ambassador of love and peace, a champion of truth and tolerance-is one of the greatest Pashto poets of all times. His peculiarity is in his unprecedented frankness and in his ability to conveniently challenge the established notions and centuries old cherished traditions of the Pashtun society-A society characterised by the love of culture and traditions. The present chapbook is an attempt to share the aesthetically delicate and emotionally rich, philosophically potent and psychologically compelling facets of the Pashtun character.

Pakistan, as a society and as a polity, has been a representation of history's cyclic characteristic. Unfortunately, these repetitions have been rather too fast-track. Pakistan's history has been a decade to decade phenomenon-a decade for quasi-democracy and a decade for stern dictatorial regime. The present work attempts to relate the country's political deviations with the dynamics of Cold War and Post Cold War global compulsions.

The book is an abridged version of our work that we carried out in 1998 on the advice and under the able and kind supervision/guidance/support of Prof. A. Z. Butt, Head of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Ghulam Ishaq Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi. Mr. Mohammad Zubair Khan and Mr. Mohammad Ajmal Khan participated in the work as active members. The work is in many ways courtesy their support and contributions.

Essays included in this anthology deal with topics which can be of interest to engineers and scientists. Originally these essays were given in a course to the undergraduate students of engineering at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi. Prof. A. Z. Butt of the Institute was the moving force behind the compilation. The introductions to essays included have been contributed by the editors.

The present work can never be regarded or can claim to be a complete and through account of the Khattak tribe, but can be a source of persuasion for others to work on the subject and produce a more authoritative, self-contained and full story of the people, who can rightly claim their role in the history of the subcontinent.People who have been termed as "the best conducted and most respectable tribe on this frontier."