THIS IS MY STORY—66
MY JOURNEY THROUGH THE ERA OF AYUB KHAN TO THE TIMES OF IMRAN KHAN.
GHULAM AKBAR.
The Year of Storms
From my experience, I can state with authority that history when is being created has different meanings than history when interpreted in hindsight. Field Marshal Ayub Khan when was ruling this country had begun to be seen as a despot by the year 1965, but half a century later I can’t help stating that he was the best thing that happened to our country after the death of its founder.
The year 1965 was epoch-making in many ways. It had very special significance, personally for me too.
The defeat of the Mother of the Nation in the presidential election on January 2, 1965 was an agonizing event for millions. It should interest the readers to know that in that historic contest, the weight of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was solidly behind the Field Marshal. His democratic longings had not yet been born. He was Secretary General of the ruling Convention Muslim League and quite clearly the All- Powerful President’s blue-eyed boy.
As I have stated earlier, the Government was in no mood to forgive Kohistan for its open and emphatic support of the Quaid’s venerated sister. Huge cuts in the advertisement revenue plunged Kohistan into a financial crisis from which it was beyond the capabilities of the Managing Trio of Murad Khan Jamali, Mian Rasheed, and Raja Zauq Akhtar to find any respite. Infact the incompetence of this trio was hurtful to the Newspaper even more than the wrath of the Ayub regime. Things got so bad that some common friends of Mamoon Jan Nasim Hijazi and Enayat Sahib decided to intervene forcefully in order to save the newspaper.
I had gone to Karachi to attend an APNS meeting where I learnt that atlast the hatchet had been buried and through arbitration not only the ‘liquidation case’ had been dropped but also a formula arrived at to run the newspaper.
Mir Murad Khan Jamali was to stay as Managing Director but the managing committee comprised of Mian Rasheed and Raja Zauq Akhtar was dissolved. The powers of this committee were transferred to Ejaz ul Haque in Administrative and Financial matters and to me in the Editorial department. Ejaz ul Haque was Enayat Sahib’s elder nephew, and had been General Manager of the company a year or so before I had joined. He had fallen out with Enayat Sahib, and resigned. It was to be his comeback.
Interestingly Enayat Sahib had suggested that I should be made Managing Editor in which capacity I would exercise the powers of the Managing Director. In this case Ejaz ul Haque would have been General Manager. Mamoon Jan however had insisted on giving Ejaz ul Haque the managerial control (probably to please Enayatullah Sahib on rapprochement). Mamoon Jan earlier had made a bid to resolve the financial crisis of the company by offering General Habibullah’s group the controlling shares in return for some substantial induction of money in the newspaper. This effort hadn’t been fruitful. My first meeting with Ejaz ul Haque was quite cordial. I was happy that someone with the basic knowledge of publishing had taken control. And he was quick to assure me that he would make no effort to interfere in my area of responsibility and authority.
At first I thought Kohistan had received a new lease of life through this arrangement and things would now move smoothly. But it did not take more than a few months to create cracks in this belief of mine.
And those were very important months in the history of ourcbuntry. It was on the 9th of August 1965 that we first heard the announcement: This is Radio Sada-i-Kashmir.
The people’s struggle for the liberation of Kashmir had started.
Though in the back of my mind there were doubts regarding the success of such a struggle, considering the might of the Indian army stationed in the Occupied Kashmir, I couldn’t help rejoicing in the knowledge that a seemingly dead issue was coming to life —an issue that had direct relevance with the future of Pakistan.
