In reporting the festival, organised by the Citizen Archive of Pakistan (Business Recorder: Saturday, 14 November 2009) a regular clumnist for the newspaper inadvertently misinformed readers about one of the first acts of General Ayub Khan, in the wake of the imposition of the first Martial Law of Wednesday, October 8, 1958.
According to the columnist, Ayub's first act was to "sack 303 top bureaucrats." However, a front page headline of Dawn, Sunday, June 28, 1958, however, reads: "Action against 84 Class 1 Officers; 12 CSP men retired." The late Abbas bhai Khalilee, then Secretary Ministry of Commerce, heads the list of the CSPs.
He was removed from the service on trumped up charges, that read: "Misconduct, Compulsory retired." General Ayub Khan's only grouse against Abbas bhai Khalilee or Abbas Uncle as I used to address him fondly was his expressed loyalty to his erstwhile colleague from the Indian Civil Service, the then President of Pakistan, Major General Iskander Mirza.
Khalilee and Mirza were drawn together because of their common Iranian heritage, origin and fluency in Persian language. The ancestors of Khalilee and Iskander Mirza had migrated from Shiraz, the city of great poet Sheikh Saadi, and settled in India. Khalilee was born in Madras, studied at Cambridge and also did his Bar from England.
From Cambridge, he passed the Indian Civil Service Examinations with distinction and on return to India, he was enrolled in the British cadre of Indian Officers. In later years, Abbas Uncle related the events of the fortnight after the First Martial Law was declared on Wednesday, October 8, 1958 that led to the removal of Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan.
The Presidency was made redundant by the Generals with a legal opinion rendered by then self-serving Chief Justice of the Federal Court Muhammad Munir. The Chief Justice adjudicated and, presented to the Military the verdict that the culmination of the Presidency was a natural corollary of Martial Law.
I append the incident, the conversation between Abbas Khalilee and my father Haji bhai Esmail Dossa or Haji Sahib as he was honorifically addressed by the Khoja community, while they were at a dinner at our Hotel Columbus. I overheard Abbas Uncle telling Haji Sahib (Papa) about his vacation in the last week of September 1958 when he had gone to London, to be with his wife Gohar and seven children, who resided in Putney an affluent district of south west London.
The Martial Law was declared by President Iskander Mirza on October 8, 1958. Khalilee cut short his holidays and returned to Karachi. The obvious purpose behind his return was to be close to his friend from ICS days of pre-partition India. Meanwhile, a message had been received in the Ministry of Commerce, delivered onwards at Abbas Uncle's residence on Bleak House Road, Civil Lines, that Iskander Mirza wanted him to have breakfast with him at the Presidency.
While coffee was being served, Mirza related to Khalilee how cleverly he had schemed with Ayub Khan to make short work of politicians. "You should have seen the frightened faces of Feroz Khan Noon and his Ministers when they learnt about the army take-over," boasted the President. Khalilee said: "Haji Sahib, I kept listening to Iskander Mirza but then I lost my patience and told him about Saadi's proverb: "Chahkar ra chah darpesh" (On who digs well, can fall in it). Khalilee then went on to describe to my father how Iskander flew into a rage. Hitting hard on the breakfast table, Mirza said: "What do you mean Khalilee? Who is Ayub? Who made Ayub?"
Khalilee concluded the narrative to my father with the observation: "Haji Sahib, true to form, a fortnight after this breakfast meeting with Iskander Mirza, General Ayub Khan ousted Iskander and packed him for good, out of Pakistan, on a plane to London, the deal was brokered by Major General Cawthorn, Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan, the mutual friend of Ayub and Mirza." Cawthorn had served with Ayub in the British Indian army on the Burma front during the World War II.
There was another formidable bureaucrat of the 1950s, namely Mohammed Shoaib, the Minister of Finance. Both Khalilee and Shoaib attended the funeral of Seth Mahomed Ali Habib in Khurasan Bagh. For sure, Seth Mahomed Ali Habib is best known for the blank cheque of Lloyd's Bank that he presented to Quiad-e-Azam, when the coffers of the nation were empty.
The Arbitration Tribunal had affixed Rupees 75 crores as Pakistan's share at the Partition of India. In December 1947, India withheld 55 crores from the 75 crores, claiming compensation for the Hindus who had left behind their properties in Pakistan, now declared Evacuees.
Pakistan's treasury was empty. Quaid-e-Azam beckoned, summoned Mahomed Ali Habib to a meeting with the Finance Minister, Chaudhari Ghulam Mohammed at the Governor General's house in Karachi. Seth Mahomed Ali Habib gave the celebrated blank cheque of Lloyd's Bank to help him pay salaries to the bureaucracy of the fledging state of Pakistan.
Seth Mahomed Ali Habib died at a fairly young age of 53 on Monday, March 30, 1953 that synchronised with the auspicious 21st of Ramazan. Khalilee and Shoaib reached Khurasan Bagh with 10,000 old and young men and children to pay homage and honour and offer their respects to the Seth for his valuable services that he rendered towards the creation of Pakistan.
During the 1950s, it was a practice of bureaucrats to avoid mingling with the members of business community with whom they had transactions. But Seth Mahomed Ali Habib was the only exception. His advice was sought by all the Finance Ministers from Chaudhari Ghulam Mohammed to Mohammed Shoaib. I still remember the scene at the Seth's graveside. Khalilee and Shoaib were dressed in light suits.
They were not without coat and necktie in spite of the gruelling and oppressive heat in the burial ground. Both Khalilee and Shoaib were representing the British Raj of which they were products, by complying with the dress codes of the Raj, to give an image of uprightness that was in turn designed to keep the natives in bound, in control and in their place.
Businessmen were on tenderhooks, when they appeared on the dot at the appointed time, before the CSP officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in the Chief Court Building, because of the known character of the higher echelon of Government servants of the period inherited from the Raj.
Of course, this long standing British tradition went down the tubes, a sad day for the bureaucracy and Pakistan when Martial Law Administrator General Mohammed Ayub Khan arbitrarily dismissed the indomitable, honest and workaholic CSP Officers such as Abbas Khalilee, M. Karamatullah and Zafarul Ahsan, by attesting the infamous Ordinance on Sunday, June 28, 1959. In the First Martial Law, 12 CSP Officers and 84 other senior officials were retired.
The second Martial Law of 1969 of General Mohammed Yahya Khan increased the toll to 303 that included my very dear and good friends, true patriots, Akber bhai Adil, S. S. Jafri and the celebrated poet Syed Mustafa Zaidi. General Yahya arrived and compiled the list of 303 of Civil Servants to be removed, their careers overnight brought to naught, to correspond with the Second World War rifle 303, the hallmark of the British army.
The Third Martial Law Administrator of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's score went up as high as 1300. Minister of Communication Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was seen sweating on the black and white TV screen when he was reading out the names of the blighted Civil Servants. He wiped the beads of perspiration from his forehead.