時の番人…パキスタンの孤独な時計収集家

【クエッタＡＦＰ＝時事】小さな広間に数百個のアンティーク時計が、チクタクと音を立てながら所狭しと並ぶ。警官として働く傍ら時計を収集してきたグール・カカールさん（４４）は、残りの人生を時計の世話にささげようと心に決めている。（写真はグール・カカールさん＜中央＞が収集した時計。パキスタン南西部クエッタで）
　「時計の言葉が分かるのです」とカカールさんは語る。「時計たちが具合が悪いと訴えると、私にはそれが分かるのです」
　カカールさんのコレクションは、パキスタン南西部バルチスタン州の州都クエッタの警察本部の建物内に置かれている。中には１８００年代に製作された時計もある。
　バルチスタン州は民族間や宗派間の衝突、分離主義者による暴動などが絶えない地域。これらの時計は強固な門や防爆壁の奥で、ひっそりと時を刻んできた。
　厳重な警備のためか人の出入りは少ない。コレクションを見に来る愛好家も来客もめったにいないとカカールさんは言う。
　収集を始めたのは数十年前、自宅の時計二つが故障し、修理に出したときだ。「それからもっと時計がほしいと思うようになりました」。すぐに本腰を入れ出した。
　インターネットでアンティークの時計を探したり、外国にいる友人に中古品を買って送ってもらったりしているうちに１８年以上がたった。
　だが、家族の中にはこの情熱を分かち合える相手が誰もいない。カカールさんは自分が死んだら、コレクションは売られてしまうかもしれないと話す。
　自分の名を冠した博物館がつくられることになれば、それが政府機関でも民間でも、カカールさんはすべてを寄付するつもりでいる。ただ、今のところそのような申し出はまだないようだ。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/12/27-12:42）

The tick-tock of hundreds of antique clocks fills a small hall in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, where collector Gul Kakar swears he will spend all the time he has left caring for them.
Delicate wristwatches, weighty pocket pieces and battered table models clutter every surface, while the pendulums of wall-mounted and standalone grandfather clocks sway as their deep bongs mark each new hour.
I know their language, Kakar, a 44-year-old police officer, tells AFP during a visit to his collection.
They tell me their problems, and I understand.
Kakar's collection, some of which dates back to 1850, is housed inside the city's police headquarters compound.
That means they are behind heavy gates and high concrete blast walls in a province that for years has been rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist violence.
The tight security may contribute to the lack of traffic, though Kakar admits he has found few other aficionados to admire his museum and there are hardly any visitors.
People in Quetta don't show much interest, he confesses.
Kakar's obsession began decades ago, when two family clocks fell out of order and were sent for repairs.
I started taking an interest... then I got the idea that I should get more clocks.
Soon he began collecting in earnest and his museum today is the result of more than 18 years of scouring the internet for antiques -- even persuading friends overseas to buy secondhand pieces and ship them to him.
He has also lost count of how many he has -- or how much he spends on his collection -- but income from a family-run landholding means a major portion of his police salary goes to clocks.
- Oldest clock -
For as long as I am alive, I will take care of them, says Kakar, dressed in a smart black vest and carrying a brass-topped walking stick.
He admits, however, that nobody in his family shares the passion, and that after his death, the collection may simply be sold.
He is ready to donate everything if an official or the private sector steps in to fund a museum in his name.
I have not so far received any such offer, Kakar admits.
Despite all the pieces, he still yearns for one last item -- a grandfather clock similar to a famed 19th-century timepiece kept in Jacobabad, in Sindh province.
That clock -- said by some to be the oldest in what is present-day Pakistan -- was handmade in 1847 by John Jacob, the East India Company colonial administrator who gave the town its name.
Kakar lights up as he explains the mechanism of the clock, whose pendulum is sunk 32 feet deep in a well.
He has never seen it, but is keen to one day.
I would give up my entire collection for that one.