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Hafizur Rahman
 Some time ago the Pakistan Post Office issued a special postage stamp to
mark the 100th birth anniversary of Syed Ahmed Shah Bokhari. This was a
tribute well merited, for A.S. Bokhari was one of the rare people of
whom this country can be truly proud. While his fame in Pakistan rested
on his role as an Urdu writer and as an inspiring teacher, he earned
world fame for his country through his work in the United Nations.
Sporadic meetings were held in Lahore and Peshawar (his home town) to
commemorate his life and work, but I feel that Bokhari's personality
called for much more than routine remembrance. In Government College,
Lahore, where he was principal for many years, there is a Patras Bokhari
Auditorium (Patras being his pen-name), but he certainly deserved a more
public memorial, though it may be difficult to decide whether it should
be as an educationist or as an international diplomat.
I never had the honour and pleasure of meeting ASB, but as a student of
Forman Christian College in Lahore, some of us went once to listen to
him lecturing on Shakespeare to the B.A. class. One reason for going
there could be that I had many close friends from Model Town in
Government College, but I recall that it was his reputation as a great
exponent and interpreter of the Bard, that drew us there. We were not
the only outsiders there that day, for even some of his own teaching
colleagues used to gather to hear his lecture.
I have attended many functions in Islamabad convened by organisations
and individuals to pay tribute to a departed famous man. In all of them,
even when they were well-deserved, I felt that if a man was great and
outstanding and worth honouring, and that we, his compatriots and
admirers, should be proud of him and his genius and achievements, then
it takes much more than a half-an-hour off-the-cuff speech, replete with
fulsome and often irrational praise and hackneyed expressions to do
justice to his personality.
That is why when Professor Anwar Dil's collection of Bokhari's speeches
and writings was published six years ago, which really gave one an idea
of what a fine diplomat and an impressive speaker he was, I praised it
profusely in this column. Titled "On This Earth Together, Ahmed S.
Bokhari at U.N. 1950-58" it was widely reviewed, including in a
perceptive article in Encore, the Sunday magazine of this paper. Today I
was moved to write about Bokhari, after seeing a photograph of his with
Dag Hammarskjold, the then UN Secretary General, in a UN publication.
Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan paid an official visit to the United
States in 1949. Among his many speeches there, his address to the joint
session of the Congress was widely praised as a remarkable document of
human sensitivity and a stirring call to the world for co-operation to
achieve the welfare and progress of mankind. Long afterwards we came to
know that A.S. Bokhari had drafted it. I have a feeling that the address
had much to do in his selection as UN Assistant Secretary for Public
Information, a notable honour for Pakistan in those early days. Later,
of course, his close understanding with Hammarskjold and their mutual
affection became a byword in UN circles.
As someone who has spent a lifetime in government public relations, let
me tell you which of Bokhari's utterances left a deep impact on me. If I
were to pick just one piece out of his numerous speeches and writings
from the published collection as mirroring correctly his eminence, I
would plump for his press conference on return from a trip with Dag
Hammarskjold to eight countries, including China and India. I can't
really find words to do it proper justice.
His performance was a masterpiece of how a good PR man should talk to
the world press. It was totally frank and yet restrained, and full of
narrative. He gave nothing away that the Secretary General did not want
him to say, and yet made a fine story. There was the impression that he
knew much more than he was revealing, without appearing to be pompous
about it. It is a marvellous performance.
As someone has said about that press conference, the transcript should
be made compulsory reading for every minister of information in
Pakistan. It is a very good idea, but what have the usual run of
ministers of information in this country to do with truth, frankness,
rapport with the press, friendly public relations, projecting a rational
image of the ruling regime, readiness to furnish all kinds of
information and being useful to both journalists and the government,
with a cerebral basis and (most important) without blowing one's own
trumpet.
Let me say that Bokhari's writings and speeches make fascinating
reading. It is impossible not to be inspired by his eloquence in
English, the elegance of his diction, his wit and learning, and his
ability to feel at home with the highest in the world. Interestingly,
revealing pictures of these highest, also come out of the book when they
interacted with the man who was undoubtedly the most outstanding
diplomat that Pakistan has produced.
Such a venture, such solid work as this book, is the best means of
paying tribute to an admirable man, instead of just talking in the air
about his imagined attainments. But I must confess that it is almost
impossible to decide after reading about Bokhari as to which aspect of
his multi-faceted personality comes out best, as an expert on
Shakespeare, a confident and sincere spokesman for the smaller states,
as one who overawed all those who dared to have wordy duels with him in
the UN, as a literary giant, a compulsive teacher, a brilliant
conversationalist or a heart-warming friend.
A study of Bokhari's life and the encomiums he earned at the UN make one
proud to belong to the country that produced such a versatile genius,
whose range of intellectual pursuits was awesomely wide and who was able
to make a lasting impact on notable people from the most civilised and
most influential countries. When he suddenly died in New York it was
rightly said of him by Dag Hammarskjold, "He was truly a citizen of the
world." |
