My daughter-in-law, Charmaine, arranged a comfortable set of a chair and a writing table, with proper light, and made the whole environment conducive to work, including replenishment of tea cups while I wrote.Even while I was serving at lower levels, I had unique opportunities to sit in the chambers of power and walk in the corridors outside.At senior positions, especially as the head of the Special Branch, Punjab, and as chief of the Punjab Police, I was able many a time to mould policies and turn directions to the ultimate benefit of the country.
It is never easy to persuade even ordinary people to change their mind and it becomes a Herculean job in case of senior bureaucrats, not to speak of those who believe that they were born to rule us mortals. I saw tricks being played at all levels when truth was the one and only way out of troubles and crises. Life is one damned thing after the other, especially for a police officer who is always on the go from crisis to crisis. No wonder the policemen dont write diaries or keep notes of what they do or think. Even if one can somehow bring oneself round to doing it after retirement, the memory does not serve well. Sometimes it did occur to me that I should write about the struggles of my early life in the perspective of the freedom movement but my laziness always had the better of me. Writing about the events that I had observed from close quarters during my police career, however, never came to my mind. Until 1971, that is. Genesis. My very close friend, Muhammad Abd al-Hameed, whose name occurs in the book as AHameed, had been pressing me to record my experiences and observations, as he was sure of their importance for posterity. While momentous events were taking place during 1971, he would often suggest that the inside stories should be written down. Very few persons were privy to what was happening in the inner chambers of power. His insistence increased tremendously after my successful security arrangements during the very secret visit in mid-1971 of Henry Kissinger, the U.S. ![]() After seeing a letter of appreciation from the U.S. Hameed Sahib concluded that this event would provide a good beginning for an interesting book on what I had done so far in life. I had seen the rumblings in East Pakistan, watched Bhutto after the Tashkent Accord, dealt with anti-Ayub agitation in Lahore, seen the working of martial law intimately and was just observing what Gen. In fact, far too many even to mention briefly. Beginning. Despite Hameed Sahibs goading over the years, I continued to postpone writing out of laziness or due to being too busy. ![]() It meant staying home all the time and doing absolutely no official work. I began feeling very lonely as my beloved wife Bilqis had died a year earlier. For some weeks, I recorded my life story on tape cassettes (30 in all) on the insistence of a journalist friend, Rafiq Ghaori, who frankly told me that he wanted to make some money out of it. He is still thinking what to make out of the 1800 pages of the transcript of the tapes that I got done for his convenience. Hameed Sahib always had doubts about the outcome of this project.) Then for some time the marriages of my son Haroon and daughter Saima kept me busy. Afterwards the loneliness returned and for many nights I could not sleep at all. On January 16, 1994, after having been unable to sleep the whole night, I picked up my pen at 5 a.m. I was trying only to unburden myself in order to relieve the agonizing loneliness. In the process I asked myself: Who I am My attempt to answer that question gradually took the shape of this book.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |