Daily Times

September 7 was my father’s 89th birthday, a person extraordinaire.

Born in Kasur, he was the son of a local merchant whose forefathers, who were traders, migrated in the 7th century from Aden and finally settled in Surat, Gujarat. The clan stayed there for almost 1,000 years before moving to and settling in Kasur.

After doing his Matriculation from the only local high school, he travelled to Lahore after getting admission in Islamia College, Railway Road.

These were exciting times for a young man from a relatively much smaller city who was now amongst his peers many of whom were to become legends in their chosen field in latter life.

The Pakistan Movement was in full swing and he did his humble bit under the most charismatic leadership of Quaid-e-Azam. He cherished the Certificate of Commemoration he received from Quaid’s hands for the rest of his life.

After completing his graduation, he moved to Punjab Univeristy where he achieved a double MA.

He decided to join Jamaat-i-Islami at this stage but his father wanted him to take “Completion” exam and start his career as an SDM.

He went ahead anyway and rose quickly amongst Jaamat’s ranks to become its Secretary Information and Editor of its organ “Tasneem” by the time he was in his mid 20s.

At that time, there was a lot of ideological infighting going on in the senior hierarchy of Jaamat about the future political direction.

Things came to a head during the historical “Ijtamah” of Jaamat in Machi Goth in 1957.

Two clear groups emerged and he decided to side with Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi and resigned from all the offices he held and also the membership.

This was a very traumatic end of a relationship that he had romanticised and was hoping to work with Jamaat for a long time.

He was offered an editorial post in Civil & Military Gazette.

He accepted this but things did not work out according to the plan and he decided to move on. In the meantime, he was offered a teaching job in Islamia College, Kasur where he started his education career as a lecturer.

When the Pakistan Movement was in full swing, he did his humble bit under the most charismatic leadership of Quaid-e-Azam. He cherished the Certificate of Commemoration he received from Quaid’s hands for the rest of his life

In the meantime, Ayub Khan had taken over and frustration and resentment was brewing in East Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto decided to go solo and Sheikh Mujib emerged as the undisputed leader of our East Wing. A demoralised, discredited and tired Ayub Khan was thrown out by another military man and this time it was General Yahya Khan.

The political situation was going from bad to worse and my father, though very contented with his college responsibilities, wanted to get back into journalism to contribute at this critical juncture in the traumatic history of Pakistan.

He joined the daily Nawa-i-Waqat as editorial writer on PT basis.

This relationship lasted for more than five years. Before, there was difference of opinion with Majid Nizami on the future political stance.

He did not compromise and decided to resign and join the daily Wifaq as editor.

He enjoyed full editorial independence until Zia staged his coup and the management of the paper decided to side with Zia versus the democratic forces.

When MKR decided to launch Jang from Lahore, he approached Haqqani Sahib to join him.

It was a roaring success and the readers gave a lot of credit to him for this achievement.

His association with Jang group and Mir family lasted until the day of his death.

Its inspirational story of a man who came from a humble background and rose to the status of most widely read columnist in the Urdu-speaking world.

He was a great believer in Meritocracy and a champion of causes affecting the poor masses of our country.

He was a man of extraordinary courage and even persistent threat of physical violence never deterred him.

He was a person of great intellect, futuristic wisdom and knew how to defend his principled stance.

On a personal level, he was a thorough gentleman of few material and worldly needs.

He was a very decent and honest man who never asked for any financial favours from anyone in the position of authority.

He bought a house in Kasur in 1961 just after I was born and that was still his only material asset the day he returned to his maker.

He was a great liberal and feminist, far ahead of his time.

It was inspiring and heartening to see the way he conducted himself while dealing with the female members of the family.

We all four siblings were with him the night before he passed away.

Next morning, my sister helped him with the breakfast and he asked her to close the windows of his bedroom and switch the lights off before leaving the room.

She could hear him reciting the Kalma as she left the room.

She came back 10 minutes later to find out if he needed anything but he was no more.

He left us behind to mourn him for the rest of our lives.

“Bullah shah assan marna nahin

Gor pae koi hor”

“Aasmaan teri lahad pe shabnam afshani kare”

The writer is a doctor based in London. He Tweets at @drnomansheikh and can be reached at drmnsheikh@aol.com

Published in Daily Times, September 21^st 2017.