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POSTCARD USA: Our men and women abroad —Khalid Hasan

Many magnificent buildings that Pakistan purchased abroad in the first years of independence have since been sold. The lovely ambassador’s residence in London’s exclusive Regent’s Park was sold by a Lahore trader who had been sent to represent us at the court of St James. Dark stories of what led to that sale still circulate

By the time this is in print, Talat Waseem, press minister at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, would have arrived home, her term of three years abridged for reasons best known to the abridgers by nearly a year. And yet there are those whose terms seem to multiply as if by magic.

While one can only wish Ms Waseem the best of luck as she scouts the bureaucratic wilds of Islamabad in search of an assignment commensurate with her 29 years of service, there is something seriously wrong with a system which is ruled by arbitrariness.

In other countries, civil servants have advance knowledge of the direction their career is going to take. This helps them plan their future and the future of their families. It must say something about us that after 58 years of independence, we have a state that is essentially lawless, where decision-making is whimsical. My friend Zafar Rathore, some of whose observations need to be framed and hung on walls, says that the way we now are is the way we always were. The concept of justiciable rights that the British brought outlived them by no more than a couple of decades. We have returned to our true natural state where the law of the jungle is the only law, he maintains.

The Pakistan embassy in Washington was one of the first to be established and it was the Quaid-i-Azam personally who appointed our first ambassador here, MAH Isphahani. He it was who acquired the magnificent residence on 2315 Massachusetts Avenue (since abandoned to rats and the inaction of the Pakistan Foreign Office) that became the chancery and remained so for the next 50 plus years. The “core professionals” who believe they run the world from Islamabad are not likely to restore this abandoned structure, considering that they never allocated enough funds for its proper maintenance when it was in use.

The ambassador’s residence that lies at the back of the chancery is in such a state of disrepair that the new envoy Jehangir Karamat has yet to move into it, although he has been here for a year. Many of the magnificent buildings that Pakistan purchased abroad in the first years of independence have since been sold. The lovely ambassador’s residence in London’s exclusive Regent’s Park was sold by a Lahore trader who had been sent to represent us at the court of St James. Dark stories of what led to that sale still circulate among those who know about such things.

Another prime property, worth millions of dollars in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill area, was sold for a pittance. Why doesn’t the National Accountability Bureau look into some of these outrages? This will have the added advantage of generating several foreign trips for its leading lights.

Ms Waseem is to be replaced by a member of her service. Pakistan’s past press representatives abroad have included outstanding information and media professionals. There were men like Iqbal Butt, Khalid Ali, Hamid Jalal, Amanullah Sardar, Ghani Eirabi, Abdul Qayoom, Jamiluzzaman and Syed Nazim Qutb. These men were on first-name terms with editors, TV anchors and star correspondents and, hence, were able to project the national interest at critical times. The other day, at an event at the embassy, Jehangir Karamat spoke about those who had served Pakistan in Washington. It was right that he did so because people forget. So let me go back in time to remember some of those who served Pakistan in Washington.

MAH Isphahani came in October 1947 and stayed until January 1952, followed by Muhammad Ali Bogra who was summoned to Pakistan in April 1953 to become prime minister. Tragically, he died of a heart attack at the prime of his life. He was succeeded by that great diplomat and gentleman par excellence, Syed Amjad Ali, who stayed until September 1955. It was during his time that Pakistan and the US signed their defence treaty.

Aziz Ahmed came in March 1959 and remained here until July 1963, followed by his brother G Ahmed who was replaced by Agha Hilaly, Agha Shahi’s older brother, who was ambassador until October 1971. He handled the delicate business of the Kissinger visit to China. General NAM Raza was sent in October 1971 and recalled in 1972. On the day Dhaka fell, a birthday party was in progress at his residence celebrating his daughter’s birthday.

He was succeeded by Sultan Muhammad Khan, the distinguished diplomat who counted Zhou en-Lai among his personal friends. He was replaced by Sahibzada Yaqub Khan who stayed from 1973 to 1979, making way for that fine soldier and human being Lt Gen Ejaz Azim who was here from 1981 to 1986. His successor was the quintessential ambassador, Jamshed KA Marker, who served until 1989. His successor Air Marshal M. Zulfiqar only stayed for a year and a quarter.

He was succeeded by Najmuddin Shaikh whose stay was brief, thanks to Nawaz Sharif. Syeda Abida Hussain breezed into Washington in November 1991 and went home with the Sharif government in 1993. Maleeha Lodhi came in January 1994, completed her term and returned for a second time when General Musharraf took power. Riaz H Khokhar did not serve out his full term and was replaced by Tariq Fatimi. Then there was Ashraf Jahangir Qazi, the “pink panther of Pishin”, whose departure to Iraq made way for Jehangir Karamat. He was here till the time of writing.

Moral: ambassadors come and go: the country stays.

Khalid Hasan is Daily Times’ US-based correspondent. His e-mail is khasan2@cox.net

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