‘We were slaves, yet independent’

Jamsheed Marker recalls Pakistan’s early days at launch of his book ‘Cover Point: Impressions of Leadership in Pakistan’

Karachi

In keeping with its commitment to intellectual advancement, the Karachi Literature Festival hosted 21 sessions on the opening day, touching on various aspects of our cultural, social and literary life.

One of these was a book launch, the book being “Cover Point: Impressions of Leadership in Pakistan”, by former diplomat Jamsheed Marker, who has been Pakistan’s envoy to the US, former USSR, UK and a host of other countries.

The panel was moderated by  Aneesuddin Ahmed, adviser to the ombudsman. The other speaker in the panel was Dr Ishrat Hussain, former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and currently the dean of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Karachi.

Reminiscing, Marker took the gathering way back in time, to 1946, and the Delhi Gymkhana where he said the talk in those days was the impending state of Pakistan. Many were sceptical of its emergence, while others said that it would not last more than three months even if it emerged, he said.

He said wagers would be laid on this. However, he said, Pakistan emerged and was still there though he lamented that the Pakistan we knew today was not the Pakistan envisaged by Mr Jinnah.

He recalled that on arrival in Pakistan they found people at the Drig Road railway station coming from India, sitting in goods trains with their doors wide open, and shouting the Pakistan Zindabad slogan. 

He said it was really inspiring to see the passion for the newly independent state. He said multitudes thronged to attend the Quaid-e-Azam’s meetings even though they couldn’t understand him as he mostly spoke English.

Talking about the conditions of Karachi of the time, he said a person at midnight could go on his bicycle from Keamari to Malir without the least danger of being accosted. He said that ironically enough, “we were slaves, yet we were independent”.

On a question about  Ziaul Haq’s “nocturnal gatherings” since Marker was very close to Zia, he said Zia never conducted these meetings like a dictator; he lied and cheated alright. 

He said that where he openly disagreed with Zia was his policy of having his adversaries lashed, and said he clearly told him this was totally counter to our culture and the people of Pakistan did not deserve something so brutal.

‘Cinema and society’ 

Another session was a launch of the book, “Cinema and society: a history of Pakistani cinema”. The session was moderated by journalist Asif Noorani and had as speakers Ali Nobil Ahmed of the Lahore University of Management Sciences”, and Hassan Zaidi. 

The book has been edited by Ali Nobil Ahmed and Ali Khan.

Among other things, the panelists dwelt on the inroads by television into the domain of the films and how this had brought up problems for the cinema.