13—My Distrust
Though the purpose of these memoirs is not to write a chronological history of the times I am a product of, I can’t avoid making references to the events and ideas that went into the shaping of my mind.
Pakistan after the tragic assassination of Liaqat Ali Khan had fallen into the hands of opportunists and soldiers of fortune. I will write about those early years of Pakistan later in these memoirs when I come to the analysis of the political systems that had been introduced since the Great Quaid. But here I do want to mention how it used to hurt my Muslim League sensitivities to learn that those very elements that the Founder of Pakistan had fought against had started gaining ascendance over the Muslim Leaguers. In my opinion Ghulam Mohammad and Iskandar Mirza were not exactly the men to succeed the Great Quaid. The former had been a brilliant bureaucrat, and alongwith his rival bureaucrat Chaudhry Mohammad Ali had been a useful contributor to the Pakistan movement. But Ghulam Mohammad was not made of the mettle real leaders are made of. Even worse was Iskandar Mirza who had maneuvered his way to the top through the back-channel and through drawing-room conspiracies, the nature of which was hard to understand by me in those early years.
I only remember that my mind was filled with sheer disgust at finding my beloved Pakistan at the mercy of such soldiers of fortune and elevated parasites whom the feudals had found as convenient covers for their not-so-admirable pursuits.
