Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, accompanied by Begum Ra'ana Liaquat, left for his first official visit to USA on a regular Pan Am flight for a three-day stopover in London on April 29, 1950. President Harry S. Truman's personal aircraft, "Independence" then took them for a three-week sojourn in the United States.
His entourage consisted of eight persons, including the couple, an ADC (then Lieutenant Colonel later Lieutenant General (r) Majeed Malik), and a personal valet.
That's all! US Secretary of State, Dean Acheson (a very formidable personality) at a dinner hosted by him for the Prime Minister, proposed a toast and paid high tributes to the Pakistani leader, calling him one of the world's great leaders. He declared, "If I could accomplish one fraction of what he has just achieved, I should feel that 1950 has been a great success." He added that Americans consider themselves as pioneers but the "true pioneering today is being done by Liaquat" who had to work from the very beginning to hold his new nation together.
He then added that the Prime Minister is creating "a great place for himself in the world."
Furthermore, what has now turned out to be prophetic, Secretary Acheson said the future of the United States is with Pakistan and "without peace in Bharat and Pakistan, there can be no peace in Asia."
Dedicated leadership, sincere observations, bold decisions and control of wasteful expenditure were evident in May 1950. Today, in May 2006, where do we stand in this context?
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