Daily Times

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had the distinction of having offices at prime locations everywhere in the world: Fifth Avenue in New York, Piccadilly in London, Champs-Elysees in Paris, opposite Central Railway Station in Frankfurt, Liazd Street near Dam Square in Amsterdam, Vester Formasgade in central Copenhagen, Qasr-e-Nile near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Surawongs Road in Bangkok, Ginza in Tokyo, and Torre de Madrid in Plaza de Espana, the throbbing heart of Madrid that connects Gran Via to Calle de le Princessa. These two streets have the same status in Madrid as Oxford Street in London and the Champs-Elysees in Paris. No tour of Madrid is complete without a visit to Plaza de Espana. The royal palace is at a walking distance, as is the Debod Egyptian temple. This temple, dedicated to Goddess Isis, was built near Aswan, and was gifted to Spain by the Egyptian government in 1968. There are plenty of restaurants, bars, boutiques, discos, banks, departmental stores, airline offices and hotels around Plaza de Espana.

This square never sleeps. PIA was considered as the flying face of Pakistan and as such our embassies and the National Flag Carrier, traditionally, were hand in glove everywhere, but unfortunately not so in Madrid. I was caught in the cross fire between two air marshals, PIA Chairman Nur Khan and the then Pakistan ambassador Rahim Khan. On November 20, 1975 General Francisco Franco who had ruled Spain for 36 years died at the age of 83. A federal minister came to Madrid to represent Pakistan at the funeral. In spite of cold attitude of the embassy, I had to call on the minister. After waiting in vain for two hours at the embassy I decided to go back to my office.  While I was leaving, the minister along with Air Marshal Rahim Khan came out of the ambassador’s office. What a surprise? Taj Jamali, the Labour and Manpower Minister, was my friend from F. C. College.  Meeting between college friends is always very frank and my friendship with a federal minister of Bhutto’s cabinet was enough for the embassy to cool down. There are several amazing towns within a 100 kilometre radius of Madrid that are great weekend getaways for Spaniards and expats living in Madrid. Out of all these towns and villages that I visited during my four year stay in Spain, a few are my favourite: Avila, founded by Moors (Muslims), now known as the town of stones and saints is visually the most impressive citadel in Spain. A massive stone wall, two and a half kilometres in radius with 88 watch towers, surrounds the town. Every tourist who visits Avila walks on the walls of this World Heritage town. I wonder how many of us know that Rohtas Fort, too, is a World Heritage site that has similar impressive towers and a massive wall that you can walk on. The defensive walls of Rani Kot in Sindh, 26 kilometres in circumference with 38 bastions is also a World Heritage site, and second only to the Great Wall of China.

Pakistan’s then ambassador Air Marshal Rahim Khan was the first Asian to become a member of the prestigious MATCH Buster’s Club by breaking the sound barrier in the US

Toledo, at a distance of 70 kilometres Southwest of Madrid, is a Moorish town that is now a living museum and is known as the ‘Spirit of Spain’. The Moors (Muslims) conquered Toledo in 712 and built the Grand Mosque in the city centre. For almost four centuries, the Jews and Christians lived under Muslim rule in total harmony. Even after the collapse of Cordoba in 1031, Toledo remained under Muslim rule till 1085. The Grand Mosque was demolished in 1285 and a Gothic Cathedral was built that now dominates the city skyline. Bhera, a town in Pakistan’s Salt Range with the best brick masonry work in Punjab, can rival Toledo inch by inch. The Hindu salt merchants spent lavishly on building their mansions, havelis and chaubaras that had carved wooden doors, hanging balconies and jharokas. The wood carvers of Bhera were so famous that a few were taken to London by the British to work on the doors of the Buckingham Palace. In 1999, I started a campaign along with my journalist friends “See Bhera to Save Bhera”. Unfortunately, we failed.

Bhera is lost.  An American friend invited me to Torrejon Air Base, a restricted bomber facility near Madrid’s Brajas International Airport.  Our ambassador, Air Marshal Rahim Khan, was the first Asian to become a member of the prestigious MATCH Buster’s Club by breaking the sound barrier in United States of America. He was a regular visitor to the base because of his air force background. He could not believe that I was at the restricted base but he immediately invited me to his table and introduced me to his wife. His charming and graceful wife, Princess Mehrunissa, was the daughter of the Nawab of Rampur. Frankly, I was expecting that the ambassador would discuss the visit of Air Marshal Nur Khan but he was too graceful for that.

By 1977, PIA was well-established in Spain and the head office was considering operating flights to Madrid. But in Pakistan, international conspiracy came into action after the second general elections

Instead he told his wife, “Mehru!  Akhtar has just got married to my friend, Squadron Leader Sattu Quraishi’s daughter. Let us invite the couple over for dinner”. From that point on, Air Marshal Rahim Khan and Begum Sahiba took care of us and the attitude of the embassy dramatically changed in our favour. By 1977, PIA was well-established in Spain and the Head Office was considering operating flights to Madrid. The casino in Karachi was scheduled to open in November and I was asked to contact Locero Tena to perform on the opening night.

But, in Pakistan, international conspiracy came into action after the second general elections. The election rigging was a pretext. Bhutto’s dream of awakening the third world was to be shattered. He was fighting a losing battle. In Madrid, Air Marshal Rahim Khan resigned as Ambassador, as did General Gul Hassan in Vienna. Air Marshal Rahim Khan was heading Pakistan Air Force and General Hassan was the C-in-C of the Pakistan Army during the 1971 war with India.  Finally, General Zia ul Haq declared Martial Law in 1977 and Bhutto was put behind bars.  Hamid Ali Noon, a landlord politician from Sargodha, arrived as the new Pakistani Ambassador to Spain.  Annual General meeting of IATA (International Air Transport Association) airlines was held at Hotel Melia Castilla in Madrid in October 1977. This is a major annual event in which the top decision makers of the airlines meet to shape the future of the aviation industry. PIA had a large delegation which was to be led by the Chairman Air Marshal Nur Khan but I suppose due to the turmoil in Pakistan, he opted to stay back. In his stead, Marketing Director Iqbal Ahmad, a man with a very low educational qualification was representing PIA at a forum that was highly technical. I had deliberately organised my paintings exhibition at Gallery Rincon de Arte in the lobby of the same hotel at the same time. Heads of all the participating airlines, including the President of Iberia were invited to the exhibition and PIA received exceptional press millage out of it. I had one paintings exhibition in Barcelona and the other in Cueidad Real in Spain during 1978. Iqbal Ahmad considered painting to be a waste of time and further warned me not to watch football matches during working hours.

Little did he know that football matches took place only during weekends and that too at night! The Government of Pakistan had appointed two Honorary Consul Generals in Spain to help build Pakistan’s relations with different regions of Spain: Juan Escoda, the owner of Grife Y Escoda, a chain of prestigious stores, represented Pakistan in Barcelona for the Catalan Region while Garibbi, a shipping magnet represented Pakistan in Bilbao for the Basque region. Juan Escoda was very active in helping Pakistani laborers coming to work in the Catalan Region particularly in coal mines. Now there is a large population of Pakistanis, especially from central Punjab, living in Catalonia. In fact PIA operates direct flights to Barcelona to cater to Pakistani traffic. In May 1978, there was an international trade fare in Barcelona and Juan Escoda requested PIA to participate in the fare for which he provided us the space free of cost. At the same time he organised my paintings exhibition at hotel Princessa Sofia. At Pakistan pavilion a store called ‘Punjabi’ displayed Pakistani handicrafts and PIA projected Pakistan as a tourist destination. The ‘Punjabi’ was owned by Jacky and her husband Ali Rehmat, a professor at Montpellier University in south of France. Jacky and Ali became very good friends and later in 1983 organised my paintings exhibition in Cap Dagde in South of France.  Our pavilion attracted a lot of trade visitors. Similarly, Escoda managed to invite the entire diplomatic community based in Barcelona to the exhibition.

Published in Daily Times, September 3^rd 2018.