Sir: Unfortunately, I have just returned from a long Safari in Kenya. If it is not too late, I would like to share my memories of a great man. I had done some gliding in the UK, and in Quetta, I saw that the climate was perfect for this sport. I got three of my friends to join me and form a gliding club in Quetta. The other three were Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri and Munir Afridi of the Babri Banda Afridis. I am the only member of this group who remains alive. When the four of us got together for our gliding club, we realized we needed an air frame mechanic since Quetta was a non-operational station.
I happened to be discussing the issues we faced one morning with FL/Lt Khawaja, who was the air traffic control officer at Samungli and he asked me quite casually, “why don’t you go and see the chief?”. I decided to take Khawaja’s advice. When I finally saw Chief Marshall Asghar Khan, he was walking alone in his pilot’s overalls, ready to take off in a Bristol freighter. He carried his own briefcase, and there wasn’t a single flunky in his vicinity, something which is unimaginable today.
When I approached him he said “yes, Mr Marker what can I do for you?” I explained that I had found a Russian refugee named Nikita Priadchenco who had worked as an aircraftsman in the Tsarist Air Force as an airframe rigger who had settled in Quetta and that I wanted to send him to Sargodha for training on the maintenance of gliders. He asked me to send him a letter and took off. Eventually, Nikita was taken to Sargodha in a PAF freighter. He spent three happy months there, wandering around the PAF base.
The Air Marshall was one of the greatest men I have ever met. At the time, the PAF had quite a few corporals and sergeants left over from the pre-Partition Indian Air Force. Many of these incorrigible corporals knew every trick in the book, and did as little work as possible. Asghar however, was a strict but fair disciplinarian and was determined to make the PAF one of the best air forces in the world. The aforementioned lazy corporals resented this and began ignoring orders, claiming to be ill and engaging in other counterproductive and childish behavior. Of course, Asghar personally went to all the stations and addressed his men, showing no mercy to those who had been refusing to pull their weight.
I happened to be in Samungli once, in a hanger, tinkering with one of our gliders and heard Chief Asghar’s voice. After explaining how lucky we were for the creation of Pakistan, he pointed to some men who were transporting goods on donkey carts and said “remember, these people are paying your salaries”.
A few months later, I was told by the mess secretary that when he had attempted to get the plastic curtains and crockery in the mess replaced, Asghar Khan had reprimanded him and asked him what he thought was wrong with the curtains and crockery the mess already had.
Asghar Khan represented a generation that didn’t care about protocol, guards, flunkies or any of the trappings of power. These were good, honest men. The kind that have become increasingly rare today.
These are just an old man’s memories of a glorious past. I was lucky to live through those days.
MK MARKER
Karachi
Published in Daily Times, January 28th 2018.