STRAIGHT TALK by Hafeez Khan
Friendships share a quality with good wines. They get better with age. I just returned from an extended visit to Maryland, USA to be with my son Faisal Khan. While the days were spent involving business, our father son team spent quality time sharing experiences, discussing life, family, religion, and happenings in Pakistan. I was impressed by Faisal’s in–depth study of Quran, Islamic history, evolution of various civilizations. His penchant for research reminded me of his grandfather, Dr. Abdul Hamid Khan known as “Baba-e-Botany” by his students. Faisal shares his grandpa’s love of nature, natural herbs, and their extracts. He is being mentored by our family friend Dr. Sajid Ali, a brilliant herbalist and a successful entrepreneur. May Allah bless Faisal in his journey to acquire knowledge and utilize it to benefit humanity.
Faisal dug up Dr. Abdul Hamid Khan’s Facebook page created by a dedicated follower in 2014. It has a picture of Dr. Khan’s farewell by his professors and colleagues in 1949 upon completing his PHD from Berkeley, California. He was enthused to return and serve young Pakistan. He turned down lucrative offers to stay and build his personal career, preferring country over self. I am sharing this photograph in the hope that his friends and students see it and share their memories with us about Dr. Khan.
Sharing our journeys through life brought back tons of nostalgic memories. I want to share some of them to equate where we were and where we stand today. As an analyst it is painful to see the decadence of our society when compared with some of the countries who gained independence around the same time as us. Nations are judged by the quality of life of its citizen measured through education, health, employment, rule of law, and security. It also encompasses the prevalent moral and ethical values,freedom of expression, economic development, and opportunities available to its citizens. Unfortunately, Pakistan today fails miserably in all these aspects. We are a brutalized nation living through lies, fake rulers and suppression never seen before.
I would ride my British-made cycle to school in Abbottabad, a prized possession in those days. Midway I would be joined by my friend Shahid Majid, living off Mansehra Road, to ride on the edges (pakdandis) of lush green fields sharing jokes and laughter. At school wewould be joined by my lifelong buddy Salim Manzar, a brilliant student who went on to be a much-respected actuary. He lives in New Jersey. He and his wife are doing a fantastic job of running schools for the under-privileged kids in Pakistan and arranging clean drinking water to deprived classes. Burn Hall, run by Irish priests, gave me a great grounding in education and a value system that has served me well all my life.
I completed my schooling from La Salle, Lyallpur when my father joined the Agricultural University. Our ancestral farm was on the outskirts of the city where we spent our weekends. As a young teenager, Lyallpur gave me a bouquet of friends that I relish till today. Top of the list was Masud Hashmi along with Sheikh Rafaqat now a textile magnate, we teased as “chodha”. It included Masud who we lovingly call “Satto”, Mashkoor Ali Khan claiming lineage to royalty of Rampur, late Khawaja Zahid “sandee” for friends, and late Pervaiz Malik upon whom we freeloaded for movies in his dad’s cinema. The list goes on.
After school I joined Government College, Lyallpur. Unchained from restrictive schools, we made the most of this new found freedom. In college I developed two life altering friendships. Iftikhar Feroze and Hassan Nisar. Late Iftikhar was lovingly called “Dheli” by friends for his relaxed mannerism masking an extraordinary sharp and brilliant mind. I was groomed by my father to have a clean and successful academic career to eventually join civil service. That got derailed in my 1st year in college when I got involved in student politics, enjoying my first election victory. It was Iftikhar Feroze’s doing that continued in Punjab University; which finally catapulted me to becomethe President of the Student Union.
Due to our penchant of getting into mischief and at times in trouble, my father got me admitted into Honours program in PU Lahore. It feels like yesterday when Hassan Nisar and I drove to Lahore in his father’s car. The freedom of Punjab University got to our heads. The six years spent there doing my Masters and LLB are the most memorable years of my life. It has rewarded me with lifelong friendships that I will relish till my last day. Hassan and I pray for each other that Allah give us the opportunity to celebrate our 60 years of friendship in 2025.
The value system of trust, loyalty, honesty, and care is what we survive on wherever we are. We had dreams for Pakistan to succeed and flourish as a successful nation. I saw that potential in Imran Khan to lead us there nearly 30 years ago. That vision came crashing down jinxed by two families, Sharifs and Zardaris in collaboration with army Generals addicted to controlling the destiny of this unfortunate nation. That battle is not over. People of Pakistan have for the 1st time carried out a silent revolution on Feb 8th. The fruits of this struggle will only be possible if this valiant fight continues to drive army back to its barracks and get rid of the pollution caused by Sharifs and Zardaris.
