Reminiscences Of An Era Gone By ---
The year was 1972 and I was in Islamabad taking time out from my premedical HSc studies during the break. Though the period of the break was very short, it was nevertheless educational. As my father was 'just' a Joint Secretary at that time, being a Member of the Central Board of Revenue, we lived in an 'I' type house. Those houses are the ones near Kohsar Market, over which secretaries routinely fight nowadays. Some Additional Secretaries also preferred to live in those houses, while most secretaries and above opted for private houses.
An exception was Health Minister Shaikh Rasheed who lived down at the end of our lane lending dignity to the street with a national flag on his house. Minister Rasheed spearheaded the generic drugs scheme long before Alma Ata in 1978. Next door was a close friend of my father who was Joint Secretary Kashmir Affairs. That office constituted the reporting authority for the President AJK or at least that's what people think. A big occasion in the house was when the Secretary Interior called.
One day there was a small dinner party next door and there were just four or five of us. A gentleman I did not know but who later became Chief Secretary of a province was there, quite fidgety and kept pulling himself up. On returning home (it was easier to jump the low walls in those days but we preferred to take the gate), I asked my father why the gentleman was so nervous. My father was not sure but thought it had something to do with his being a deputy secretary in the presence of three joint secretaries. I trusted my father's judgment in those things. Once some years ago during the late sixties, I had seen Finance Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan in an airport lounge. I asked my father later whether he had a constant headache. My father replied that he was just being snooty in front of some foreign delegates. Now that was educational! Many years later he came to Karachi as governor state bank on retirement, while my father was an active secretary. Ishaq Khan, as I later found out, was quite a haughty bureaucrat before he became Zia's finance minister, chairman of senate and finally President of Pakistan.
Islamabad in those days was like a village. Everyone knew almost everyone else. The same was the case in the club which had a huge portrait of S M Yusuf who in addition to being President Ayub's principal secretary was also the foreign secretary during the disastrous first Islamic Summit in Rabat. He was the first president of the Islamabad Club. Ostensibly one sixth of the membership of the club was for diplomats who had few security concerns at that time.
While I was in Islamabad, I bumped on a speech sent to us from the US embassy. During March 1972, President Nixon mentioned to a joint session of Congress that he had moved the Seventh Fleet just to show the Indians that while they had virtually got East Pakistan, they could not get West Pakistan. This declaration of enormous significance has hardly ever been mentioned anywhere. We live in a world of our own; our rulers have always decided what we should know. The trend continues till the present day. Truth is often hidden in so many layers, that when we accidently bump upon it, we think it must be false! We are beginning to reap the bitter harvest of our actions and do not realize who or what is to blame.
Anyway the talk of the town in Islamabad during 1972 specially in my generation, and particularly amongst females, was the handsome Education or Law Minister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada. Bhutto was himself young and relied mainly on young men be it Pirzada, Sherpao or Khar. He did have a few senior ministers in his cabinet like Justice Faizullah Kundi or Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan though. And what a National Assembly that was across both sides of the house. The Speaker Fazal Ellahi Chaudhry was such a darling that nobody could argue with him. He was flanked by an officer's gallery and the President's box. Lesser mortals like me sat in the distinguished visitor's gallery with the diplomats and press corps above the members in the hall so improvised in the State Bank building that looked like a matchbox. We only heard tales of a president's palace, prime minister's secretariat and parliament building in those days.
Once during question hour, the issue of wheat shortage came up, and a member of the opposition remarked that this was because the Honorable minister for interior had eaten it all up. The rolly polly Khan Abdul Qayum Khan immediately rose and informed the House, "The honorable minister for interior takes only one slice of bread at breakfast". The entire house burst into laughter.
Nevertheless in these spartan conditions, two constitutions were unanimously passed; an interim constitution in April 1972 and a permanent one in August 1973. Watching from the DV gallery, I found the speaker's references to the Rules of Business strange. I wondered what business or trade could have to do with the assembly! I had a lot to learn in many ways. With the ministers, minsters of state or without portfolio, parliamentary secretaries and members, there were usually less than a hundred people across the floor of the House. I knew only a third of them perhaps but would listen to people chatting: "there goes Hakim Ali Zardari owner of the Bambino cinema in Karachi." Those comments did help.
My father liked working with the outspoken finance minister Dr Mubashir Hassan and Economic Adviser Feroze Qaiser, the latter was also an old friend of his. Both gentlemen are still alive. The good doctor seemed pleased to hear from me when I called him three years ago. He asked about my uncle AGN Kazi and when I told him he was not well, he asked me to remind him that at 95 he was only two years younger to him.
One day while I was there, the opposition was agitating because state owned newspapers had published some news of a London plan being hatched by opposition leaders. Soon five prominent personalities of the opposition were on their feet including Sherbaz Mazari and Shaukat Hayat Khan. They essentially told the government to prove what they were saying or go to hell! One member was talking on a point of order when another got up and started to say something. A third member rose to speak and said "Point of Order Sir". This is where the genius Pirzada came in: "There cannot be a point of order on a point of order!" he literally roared. Speaker Chaudhry was in his usual "please let me speak too" mode and actually did a good job by controlling tempers by his passive temperament. Just then the lights went off and came back in a minute or so. When the lights and sounds came back, Shaukat Hayat got up and said,"Mr. Speaker that darkness is symbolic of what will happen if we continue to make allegations against the opposition like this". Talking of presence of mind, it was undoubtedly on both sides of the house.
When the interim constitution was being passed, it was late night. Bhutto spoke eloquently for 2 hours or more non stop. My father heard the speech standing up as no seat was vacant in the officer's gallery. Wali Khan said something like 'peetay jaatey hain' but when more serious he said the opposition had the Hobson's choice, either to accept the constitution or have martial law for a longer time. Bhutto responded, "Yes we drink but we are not drunkards (a reference to his predecessor), nor do we drink the blood of the people (a reference to the rest of the world)!" The constitution was passed unanimously. It was the first passed by any assembly elected on the basis of direct franchise (at least what was left of it) in the country.
Looking at the parliamentarians of the present day - the less said the better - they are a total void with the possible exception of Aitzaz Ahsan who thrilled me with his speech a couple of years ago, giving a taste of the vintage assembly of the seventies.
The picture shows the Speaker and later President Fazal Elahi Chaudhry who was head of state from August 1973 till September 1978 - one month and two days longer than his constitutional term.
Copyright: Dr. Ghulam Nabi Kazi
Reminiscences Of An Era Gone By ---
The year was 1972 and I was in Islamabad taking time out from my premedical HSc studies during the break. Though the period of the break was very short, it was nevertheless educational. As my father was 'just' a Joint Secretary at that time, being a Member of the Central Board of Revenue, we lived in an 'I' type house. Those houses are the ones near Kohsar Market, over which secretaries routinely fight nowadays. Some Additional Secretaries also preferred to live in those houses, while most secretaries and above opted for private houses.
An exception was Health Minister Shaikh Rasheed who lived down at the end of our lane lending dignity to the street with a national flag on his house. Minister Rasheed spearheaded the generic drugs scheme long before Alma Ata in 1978. Next door was a close friend of my father who was Joint Secretary Kashmir Affairs. That office constituted the reporting authority for the President AJK or at least that's what people think. A big occasion in the house was when the Secretary Interior called.
One day there was a small dinner party next door and there were just four or five of us. A gentleman I did not know but who later became Chief Secretary of a province was there, quite fidgety and kept pulling himself up. On returning home (it was easier to jump the low walls in those days but we preferred to take the gate), I asked my father why the gentleman was so nervous. My father was not sure but thought it had something to do with his being a deputy secretary in the presence of three joint secretaries. I trusted my father's judgment in those things. Once some years ago during the late sixties, I had seen Finance Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan in an airport lounge. I asked my father later whether he had a constant headache. My father replied that he was just being snooty in front of some foreign delegates. Now that was educational! Many years later he came to Karachi as governor state bank on retirement, while my father was an active secretary. Ishaq Khan, as I later found out, was quite a haughty bureaucrat before he became Zia's finance minister, chairman of senate and finally President of Pakistan.
Islamabad in those days was like a village. Everyone knew almost everyone else. The same was the case in the club which had a huge portrait of S M Yusuf who in addition to being President Ayub's principal secretary was also the foreign secretary during the disastrous first Islamic Summit in Rabat. He was the first president of the Islamabad Club. Ostensibly one sixth of the membership of the club was for diplomats who had few security concerns at that time.
While I was in Islamabad, I bumped on a speech sent to us from the US embassy. During March 1972, President Nixon mentioned to a joint session of Congress that he had moved the Seventh Fleet just to show the Indians that while they had virtually got East Pakistan, they could not get West Pakistan. This declaration of enormous significance has hardly ever been mentioned anywhere. We live in a world of our own; our rulers have always decided what we should know. The trend continues till the present day. Truth is often hidden in so many layers, that when we accidently bump upon it, we think it must be false! We are beginning to reap the bitter harvest of our actions and do not realize who or what is to blame.
Anyway the talk of the town in Islamabad during 1972 specially in my generation, and particularly amongst females, was the handsome Education or Law Minister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada. Bhutto was himself young and relied mainly on young men be it Pirzada, Sherpao or Khar. He did have a few senior ministers in his cabinet like Justice Faizullah Kundi or Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan though. And what a National Assembly that was across both sides of the house. The Speaker Fazal Ellahi Chaudhry was such a darling that nobody could argue with him. He was flanked by an officer's gallery and the President's box. Lesser mortals like me sat in the distinguished visitor's gallery with the diplomats and press corps above the members in the hall so improvised in the State Bank building that looked like a matchbox. We only heard tales of a president's palace, prime minister's secretariat and parliament building in those days.
Once during question hour, the issue of wheat shortage came up, and a member of the opposition remarked that this was because the Honorable minister for interior had eaten it all up. The rolly polly Khan Abdul Qayum Khan immediately rose and informed the House, "The honorable minister for interior takes only one slice of bread at breakfast". The entire house burst into laughter.
Nevertheless in these spartan conditions, two constitutions were unanimously passed; an interim constitution in April 1972 and a permanent one in August 1973. Watching from the DV gallery, I found the speaker's references to the Rules of Business strange. I wondered what business or trade could have to do with the assembly! I had a lot to learn in many ways. With the ministers, minsters of state or without portfolio, parliamentary secretaries and members, there were usually less than a hundred people across the floor of the House. I knew only a third of them perhaps but would listen to people chatting: "there goes Hakim Ali Zardari owner of the Bambino cinema in Karachi." Those comments did help.
My father liked working with the outspoken finance minister Dr Mubashir Hassan and Economic Adviser Feroze Qaiser, the latter was also an old friend of his. Both gentlemen are still alive. The good doctor seemed pleased to hear from me when I called him three years ago. He asked about my uncle AGN Kazi and when I told him he was not well, he asked me to remind him that at 95 he was only two years younger to him.
One day while I was there, the opposition was agitating because state owned newspapers had published some news of a London plan being hatched by opposition leaders. Soon five prominent personalities of the opposition were on their feet including Sherbaz Mazari and Shaukat Hayat Khan. They essentially told the government to prove what they were saying or go to hell! One member was talking on a point of order when another got up and started to say something. A third member rose to speak and said "Point of Order Sir". This is where the genius Pirzada came in: "There cannot be a point of order on a point of order!" he literally roared. Speaker Chaudhry was in his usual "please let me speak too" mode and actually did a good job by controlling tempers by his passive temperament. Just then the lights went off and came back in a minute or so. When the lights and sounds came back, Shaukat Hayat got up and said,"Mr. Speaker that darkness is symbolic of what will happen if we continue to make allegations against the opposition like this". Talking of presence of mind, it was undoubtedly on both sides of the house.
When the interim constitution was being passed, it was late night. Bhutto spoke eloquently for 2 hours or more non stop. My father heard the speech standing up as no seat was vacant in the officer's gallery. Wali Khan said something like 'peetay jaatey hain' but when more serious he said the opposition had the Hobson's choice, either to accept the constitution or have martial law for a longer time. Bhutto responded, "Yes we drink but we are not drunkards (a reference to his predecessor), nor do we drink the blood of the people (a reference to the rest of the world)!" The constitution was passed unanimously. It was the first passed by any assembly elected on the basis of direct franchise (at least what was left of it) in the country.
Looking at the parliamentarians of the present day - the less said the better - they are a total void with the possible exception of Aitzaz Ahsan who thrilled me with his speech a couple of years ago, giving a taste of the vintage assembly of the seventies.
The picture shows the Speaker and later President Fazal Elahi Chaudhry who was head of state from August 1973 till September 1978 - one month and two days longer than his constitutional term.
Copyright: Dr. Ghulam Nabi Kazi