Habib Khan, Quetta: The news that a clock manufactured by John Jacob –more than 150 years ago, is still running and keeping accurate time was truly stunning to me. In my experience, we have been a nation of destroyers, not preservers. We have been looting our heritage, vandalizing our museums, polluting our lakes and rivers, choking our gutters with plastic, and spoiling our gardens and parks with litter. So, how is it that a clock made in 1850 remains operational?
When my son-in-law Zeeshan and I were returning to Quetta from a tour of South Punjab in January 2022, we planned to visit the masterpiece in Jacobabad. We wanted to see the clock and understand the real reason behind its maintenance and preservation for such a long time. Zeeshan used his resources to obtain permission from the deputy commissioner to view the clock and arranged for a guide to explain the clock’s whole story.
Even before we reached the room where the clock was located, it became evident to us why it had not been vandalized by our ghayoor awam (zealous public). To access the room, one has to literally pass through the Deputy Commissioner’s office, and the clock is located in the adjacent room. Therefore, to vandalize the clock, one would have to first breach the Deputy Commissioner’s office, which until now has been impossible for the ghayoor awam to do so –although, I learnt that an unsuccessful attempt was made on the Deputy Commissioner’s office during the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The possibility of effective repair and maintenance of the clock also became evident, as one family has been taking the responsibility since the days of John Jacob, and right up to the present day. The family has devoted their lives to the clock for many generations. And what a man John Jacob was! A high-class administrator, military strategist, irrigation engineer, mechanical engineer, and expert machinist. It is said that each and every part of the clock was made by John Jacob himself, to the extent that he even used shells and chains from the Battle of Miani and the Persian Wars, in which he himself had taken part.
The clock displays the local time and the time in England, the date, the days of the week, the phases of the moon, and much more. The clock is powered by gravity, where a counterweight slides into a well, which is winded back by a key every two weeks. The hourly chime (bell) was dismantled by an illiterate Deputy commissioner due to its (allegedly) disturbing sound, although a little thought would have given him a number of ways to reduce the sound.
A visitor can however manually hit the hammer to the bell metal to experience the sound.
John Jacob by virtue of his just and effective administration, had become extremely popular among the natives, who affectionately called him ‘Jacum Sahib’, and still refer to the town as ‘Jacumbad’. Jacob was said to have been eccentric and would duly punish himself when he committed a mistake. It is said that once two old ladies came to meet him on some errand, but John Jacob, having forgetten the matter made them wait in the scorching Jacobabad sun for several hours. The next day, he put his office in the sun, and worked under the scorching heat for as many hours as he had made the old ladies wait.
And yes, Jacobabad is indeed one of the hottest places on earth. My dear friend Zaheer Bugti had an interesting joke about it: An angel in the afterlife, noticing a person wrapped in a blanket inside hell, asks him, ‘Hey, where are you from?’ The man replies,”Sir from Jacumbad”.
