THIS IS MY STORY—33
MY JOURNEY THROUGH THE ERA OF AYUB KHAN TO THE TIMES OF IMRAN KHAN.
GHULAM AKBAR
My First Column was about Vietnam
My first column in Daily Kohistan appeared two days later. I remember it was about Vietnam. A week later I was summoned by Enayat Sahib to be given a pat on my back.
“You are doing very very well Akbar Sahib. I want you to accept another responsibility too. You will be examining each day’s issue critically and presenting your report in the morning meeting daily.”
At that time I did not know that this responsibility had, in effect, made every page-holder of the newspaper accountable to me.
In the beginning I was not harsh in my scrutiny, because of which I was reprimanded one day by Enayatullah Sahib.
“It seems you are being too lenient Akbar Sahib. There are mistakes that I notice and you don’t point out. For example there are three mistakes of proof-reading in Aali Sahib’s editorial today that you have not mentioned in your report.”
“I did point these out to Aali Sahib,” I explained.
“But I want each thing to be in your report,” said Enayat Sahib.
That put me in a real quandary. I earned many grudges because of this. Aali Sahib was a regular culprit.
The other contents on the editorial page used to be Aaj Ki Baatein by Abu Salih Islahi (the senior most editor who was based in Rawalpindi) and Nishan-i-Raah by Hafiz Mazharuddin, who was Mamoon Jan’s brother-in-law and writer of the famous song;
MerayWatan teri janat mein
Aaen gay ik din.
Abu Salih Islahi was son of Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi, the famous scholar who had left Jamaat-i-Islami because of his differences with Maulana Maudoodi.
I remember one day Abu Salih Islahi was on a visit to Lahore and was writing his daily column Aaj Ki Baatein.
Enayatullah Sahib made his appearance suddenly, and standing behind Abu Salih Islahi had a good look at the subject he had chosen. It was the month of Ramadhan, and Islahi Sahib was writing about the benefits of fasting.
“Islahi Sahib,” said Enayatullah Sahib, “you could have selected some other topic today. You are not fasting yourself.”
I distinctly remember the embarrassment of Abu Salih Islahi.
I also distinctly remember here a walk in Bagh-i-Jinnah Lahore that I had with Enayatullah Sahib.
