The Arrogant Ones
By Dr Asif Javed
Williamsport, PA
Suleman, the Magnificent, the 10th Ottoman Sultan, had the reputation of being a wise ruler. Over a period of forty-six years, his army had a track record of never-ending victories. One day, he found himself at the gates of Vienna in Central Europe. The Austrians were not willing to face Suleman’s invincible Jannisarries in the open. And so they locked themselves up behind the city walls. A siege followed.
Tired of the long wait, Suleman sent a threatening message to the besieged Viennese, “Surrender; Sultan intends to have his breakfast inside Vienna the following week.” The Viennese held their nerve, and refused to surrender. Due to lack of heavy artillery, the siege lasted many weeks and was eventually lifted. As the Ottoman forces were leaving the area, a messenger duly arrived from inside the city. “The breakfast for his majesty is getting cold,” it said. Suleman’s response to this humiliation is not recorded. But, once in his life, it seems, he had allowed himself to be carried away.
This unnecessary bragging of the military might by the law-giver, as he was affectionately known to his subjects, whose empire spanned three continents, has allowed this scribe to include the name of, arguably the greatest of all Ottomans, to be included in this list of arrogant people.
Napoleon Bonaparte ranks high on the list of conquerors. On the morning of the battle of Waterloo, as the great general surveyed the battlefield, one of his Marshals asked of the strategy. An overconfident Napoleon, looked at his ever victorious and menacing old guard and then, at the opposing hodge-podge army of Wellington across the field and declared, “This will be like a piece of cake.” By the end of the day, the French army had been decimated and Napoleon, who spent the rest of his life in captivity at St Helena, kept on trying to come up with what might have been. The great ones are also not immune from bragging either.
As for the not so great ones, one can think of our own infamous General Niazi. The “tiger” had landed in East Pakistan in 1971 and having taken over from the butcher of Dacca, infamous Tikka Khan, declared that the battle will be fought in the Indian territory. Sometime later, as the Indian tanks were approaching Dacca, he proclaimed that they will enter the city over his dead body. The rest is history. Years after capitulation, he came up with a book with the bizarre title I did not surrender.
Not far behind Niazi should be the Indian C-in-C, General Chaudhry. Confident of occupying Lahore in 1965, he had spoken of his intention of having alcohol at Lahore Gymkhana. But an unexpected and heroic resistance by the Pakistan Army stopped the Indian advance. Decades after the war of 1965, Gen Chaudhry has stayed in the history books more for this empty boast rather than anything else. He therefore finds a well-deserved place on this list.
ZA Bhutto, a political genius, a student of history, and a great admirer of Napoleon, faced a serious political crisis in 1977. As the PNA-led opposition was getting stronger by the day, Bhutto delivered a speech in the National Assembly. Instead of accepting the PNA demand for fresh elections (that he would have won), an emotional ZAB allowed himself to be carried away. Looking at the armchair beside him, he paused for a few seconds and then delivered the infamous line, “This chair (meaning his administration) is very strong.” The events that followed proved this as an unwise utterance.
During his last days of freedom, after being deposed, Bhutto went to Lahore and was staying at Nawab Sadiq Hussain Qureshi’s house. Inam Aziz, a Pakistani journalist, based in London, had been promised an interview. Aziz was, however, finding it difficult to get access to ZAB. Aziz approached Qureshi and sought his help to remind ZAB of the promised interview. An exasperated Qureshi surprised Aziz by saying, “Brother, what makes you think I can go in ZAB’s room.” Apparently, ZAB’s room had become a no-go area for his host, the former CM of Punjab - in Qureshi’s own house!
More recently, Pervaiz Rashid of PML, an otherwise sober politician, has a U-tube clip being circulated where he taunts Imran Khan “who will be unable to earn one button of the Sherwani that PM wears”. Now, while Imran sits happily as the PM, Rashid’s former boss Nawaz Sharif was having a tough time in Adiala Jail where he had the dubious distinction of the company of his daughter (stop us if you can fame) and son-in-law.
The world of sport has too many contestants for inclusion here. The one of particular interest to Pakistani readers may be Richard Charlesworth, a talented Australian, who was a physician, but also, a superb field hockey player and a fairly decent cricket player. The 1984 Olympic hockey semi-final was about to start between Pakistan and Australia. Australia were heavy favorites. As Charlesworth and his opposite center forward, Hasan Sardar, stood in the middle before the start, Charlesworth, taunted Hasan, “Who will win?”. “Pakistan, with the grace of God,” replied Hasan. “Your God is in my pocket,” said the supremely confident Australian. Pakistan carried the day, against heavy odds. Many hockey fans remember the Australian coach, sitting on the sideline, with a bowed head, after the final whistle. He had a look of utter disbelief.
And then there was the case of Anwar Kamal Pasha, who once ruled the Pakistani film industry. He had produced, and directed, multiple hits back in the 50’s and 60’s. As is to be expected, a crowd of flatterers was usually around him. His arrogance had hurt many. One day, he bumped into Saadat Hasan Manto. Manto spared no one, and sometime earlier, had written a scathing piece on Pasha with the title Loud Speake in which he had made fun of Pasha’s megalomania. Pasha approached Manto and asked for advice on a story that had become stuck. Manto being Manto, gave Pasha a serious look and said, “I am not in the business of giving free advice.” A visibly embarrassed Pasha had to produce a check before Manto allowed him to proceed. To the amusement of the onlookers Pasha had finally met his match, for Manto allowed no one to bully him.
On another occasion, Pasha was sitting in the studio, surrounded by his cronies when Sibtain Fazli, a fellow director, an educated, cultured man, walked in. As Fazli came close, some of Pasha’s people stood up to greet him. Pasha, in a moment of extreme arrogance, admonished them, “You people work for me, get paid by me and stand up for others.” This was spoken within earshot of Fazli. Ali Sufian Afaqi, a journalist and later a director, was present and reports that a stunned silence followed Pasha’s remark. After a brief exchange, Fazli, who must have felt hurt, left. Some years later, Pasha’s decline began and it was relentless. Movie after movie flopped and the crowd of flatteres disappeared. Afaqi reports that one day, he saw Pasha enter the same studio. There was a crowd of filmi people at the entrance. Hardly anybody noticed a subdued Pasha who quietly walked right through them. The times had changed. The successful film maker of the past had fallen on hard times. Pasha, and the others of his ilk, would have been well advised to remember the following verse from Surah Al Isra:
And walk not on earth with haughty self-conceit; for verily, thou canst never rend the earth asunder, nor canst thou ever grow as tall as the mountains!
(The writer is a physician in Williamsport, PA and may be reached at asifjaved@comcast.net)
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