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Editorial
Sunday, December 7, 1958
25 Jamadi-ul-Awwal, 1378
Prof. Bokhari
 For Pakistan, the
untimely death of Prof. Bokhari is a national loss. But the loss is
more than Pakistan’s. While the Chairman of the General Assembly’s Main
Political Committee called it “a great loss for the United Nations”, the
Bharati delegate found the world “the poorer for his death.” To the
U.N. Secretary-General, Prof. Bokhari was a “unique personality”
carrying “the dual heritage of Eastern and Western civilisations” and
reflecting “the possibility of a synthesis of great traditions on which
it is the task of our generation to build one world.” These and the
other tributes paid by the heads of various delegations to the United
Nations mingle Pakistan’s grief with a genuine sense of pride in the
outstanding role played by one her most gifted sons, who, as her
Permanent Delegate to the United Nations and later as a senior official
of its Secretariat, has brought such signal honour to his motherland.
While we offer our heartfelt condolences to the members of the bereaved
family, we are sure that their grief, like the nation’s will be assuaged
by the undying memory of Prof. Bokhari’s eminent role in the United
Nations.
What Prof. Bokhari achieved in the World Organisation was, however, but
a fulfillment of the promise and hope provided by his earlier life. As
a Cambridge student, he won the enviable distinction of being elected
Senior Scholar of the Emmanuel College. For six years, he was
Director-General of All India Radio and, for seven, Principal of the
Government College in Lahore – the oldest and largest college in
Pakistan. He led the Indian Delegations to Afghanistan and the
Commonwealth Broadcasting Conference, and Pakistan’s Delegations to the
India Office Partition Negotiations in London, the International High
Frequency Broadcasting Conference in Mexico and the Commonwealth
Relations Conference in Canada. An acknowledged master of the English
and Urdu languages he translated into Urdu the works of Shakespeare,
Shaw, Galsworthy, Wilde and Bergson. His creative art found abiding
manifestation in Urdu short stories written in a new style which, with
its penetrating insight and dulcet humour, has been both the envy and
despair of his compeers. Had he been spared by the Angel of Death to
join the Columbia University as Professor of Political Science after his
retirement from the U.N. service world literature would have been
enriched by some scintillating product or products of an opulent
intellect which “carried the dual heritage of Eastern and Western
civilizations.” However, this long and brilliant record of service,
both at home and abroad, should induce a grateful nation to perpetuate
in a fitting manner, the memory of a life so full of achievement and
inspiration. |
