Page 21 - Pakistan Link - May 17, 2019

COMMENTARY MAY 17, 2019 – PAKISTAN LINK – P21

n By Dr Asif Javed An Aff air to Remember (Ayub), had to be cleared by her”.
Williamsport, PA HM’s own assessment of Na-
hid is similar:
ahid Iskandar Mirza Nahid was not willing to keep
turned up in Qudratullah a low profi le. She aggressively pro-
NShahab’s offi ce one day moted her own image and inter-
and told him to get rid of Ruth fered in the country’s political af-
Boral, an attractive private sec- fairs. As an Iranian and foreigner,
retary, a left over from Ghulam her interference was highly resent-
Mohammad’s time. “Her pres- ed in Pakistani offi cial circles. She
ence here can only create more also took every opportunity, not
scandals,” she told Shahab. Th e only privately, but worse publi-
fi rst lady did not want another cally, to demonstrate her hold on
pretty face in the Governor Gen- my father.
eral House. Ms Boral was asked Life in exile was not easy: IM
to leave. had a part-time job. Some friends
Shahab has written of Gover- helped but London was expensive.
nor General House parties where IM was once hospitalized. Ardsh-
the high and the mighty used to er Zahedi came to visit once and
have fun: Alcohol was freely con- overheard Mirzas worried about
sumed; some would get drunk; the medical bills and IM saying to
some would fl irt with women and, Nahid, “Just let me die”. On anoth-
Iskandar Mirza (IM), the Gover- er occasion, IM was seen carrying
nor General, would enjoy the sight a bag of dirty linen on the footpath
of people making a fool of them- when a friend recognized him and
selves. During one such gathering, asked where he was going, “To the
when IM was seen getting too cozy laundromat; can’t aff ord a taxi”, he
with a female guest, Nahid burst The Shah of Iran and Empress Soraya with President Iskander Mirza and First Lady Nahid Iskander Mirza during the Shah’s said. Col. Abid Hussain, a land-
on the scene and put a stop to it. visit to Pakistan lord from Jhang, was hospitalized
Th e embarrassed female guest in London. IM came to visit. Th is
tried to explain that IM was only of 1958, she still sounded bitter suite in London in 1953: and was ready to start a scandal. writer’s late brother-in-law was
looking at her sari. “Th is is pre- about the unexpected midnight I was assigned the task of an- A while later, IM visited his present and noted that IM ap-
cisely the way he had approached visit, and the hostile attitude of the swering the phone to preserve fa- family and broached the subject peared short of breath; a heart pa-
me,” Nahid retorted. army offi cers who had delivered ther’s privacy. Everyday a woman of his marriage to Nahid. His tient, he had walked considerable
On a state visit to Iran with the ultimatum from Ayub. Shahab calling herself Nahid Afghamy daughters were upset and refused distance to the hospital.
IM, Nahid appeared obsessed with might have considered it impolite would call, and each time, under to allow Nahid in the house. Th e IM had some remarkable
Queen Surraya and would make to remind her of IM’s dismissal instructions from my father, I told newlyweds were forced to stay in fi rsts to his credit: First Indian to
every attempt to outshine the of Noon, Bogra, Suherwardy and her that the Secretary of Defense the Punjab Guest House. Just a few graduate from Sandhurst; the fi rst
Queen. Once she complained that Chaudhry Mohammad Ali. was not available. IM explained days later, IM failed to turn up for President of Pakistan. He was, by
the press had failed to notice that In 1960, Javed Iqbal was in that she was the wife of the Ira- his only surviving son’s marriage -- all accounts, an intelligent, hard-
while she was seen smiling in the New York, part of a Pakistan del- nian Military Attache’ in Karachi in the same city. HM is convinced working man who may have done
pictures, the Queen was not. Later, egation to the UN that included and that she was pursuing him. I that Nahid stopped his father from great things for Pakistan. But mar-
she asked Shahab to consider up- ZA Bhutto. As it turned out, the later learnt that such trips were be- attending. rying this ambitious, and schem-
grading her husband’s ADC: Hav- Mirzas unexpectedly turned up ing fi nanced by certain Pakistani A US Embassy’s confi dential ing woman led him to a path of
ing seen Shah’s ADC- a General in the UN lobby. Javed recognized businessmen to compromise the report dated Apr 2nd, 1958, de- self-destruction, and harmed de-
- she wanted the same in Pakistan. the former fi rst couple, greeted Sec of Defense to serve their own scribes Nahid as: mocracy in Pakistan. One won-
IM once asked Altaf Gauhar them and off ered coff ee. Just then, interests. An extremely ambitious ders why? Th e answer may lie
to allot a plot to the Iranian Em- Bhutto passed by, and having seen IM had two sons. Th e young- woman…lift ed by Mirza from the in the couplet by the Saint from
bassy that lay next to it. Gauhar IM, tactfully avoided his onetime er, Enver Mirza, was a pilot in Iranian military attache’ in Kara- Jhang:
was aware that Nahid and the Ira- benefactor. While Javed felt em- PAF, who tragically died in a plane chi … bitterly resentful of Begum Dil darya samundron doongay
nian ambassador were friends. He barrassed, Mirzas were, slowly and crash. IM received the news in a Viqar-un-Nissa Noon, whom she Kaun dilan diyan Jaaney Hoo
tactfully turned down the request painfully, getting used to the new London hotel. Th at is where HM suspects of having designs on the As far Nahid, having gone
on the grounds that the vacant plot life. saw Nahid: fi rst-ladyship herself. through a whirlwind romance, and
was meant to be a children’s play- Born Nahid Amir Teymoor, My father, pointing to a wom- HM ran in to President Ayub a few years of power, she endured
ground. IM accepted his plea but Nahid had royal lineage, being a an sobbing by the window, said: in Washinton DC one day. Ayub a decade of painful exile, followed
Gauhar was alarmed at the infl u- descendent of Tamerlane. She was “Look, Mrs Afghamy is crying for had known HM as a child, and by fi ft y years of widowhood. In
ence that Nahid had on her hus- born in a wealthy and infl uential your brother.” In his grief, IM was spoke to him aff ectionately. Ayub later years, she became interested
band. family of Khorassan: Her father touched by her performance. No asked about his father’s wellbeing in poetry of Hafi z, and wrote some
Javed Iqbal was invited to was the interior minister in the one at the time realized that Na- and then enquired, “Is that woman herself. Th e fading Hollywood
lunch by IM in the Governor Gen- Mussadaq cabinet and her broth- hid was using this tragic occasion still with him? “Having been told star, Ava Gardner, came to live in
eral House. Also present were Na- er was a diplomat. Her obituary to ensnare the future President of that she was, Ayub made a deroga- the same London neighborhood
hid and the US ambassador. Alla- in Kaihan mentions that she was Pakistan ... Nahid did not conceal tory remark about Nahid. and they became friends. Th ey had
ma Iqbal’s son was surprised to see in an unhappy marriage with an her intentions and openly fl irted On a subsequent visit to Paki- met during Ms Gardner’s visit to
that the entire conversation was ei- army offi cer. IM was a descendent with IM, much to the embarrass- stan, HM visited Ayub. Th is is Pakistan to fi lm Bhawani Junction.
ther in English or Persian; missing of the infamous Mir Jafar of Battle ment of others. what HM writes of that meeting: Th e movie turned out to be me-
was the national language - Urdu. of Plassey fame. IM married Nahid, who was Ayub spent the better part diocre but Lahorites were thrilled
Years later, while in London, During a reception at the Rus- 20 years younger, in London, in of the discussion trying to justify to see George Cukor, Ms Gardner,
Shahab saw the former fi rst lady sian Embassy in Karachi, the fi ft y- secret. He may have expected her his coup against my father…He and Stewart Granger at work. Old
at a grocery store, approached her two year old, and father of six, IM to stay abroad. But he was in for an put the blame squarely on Nahid’s timers still talk about those days.
and asked to visit. Ayub allowed walked up to Nahid and simply unpleasant surprise, writes HM: shoulders …“I used to visit your Nahid had sunk into oblivion
the visit grudgingly, having made declared, “You shall be my wife”. IM was alone in the house (in house and was always graciously years ago. Th e news of her death
a sarcastic remark: “So she has Humayun Mirza (HM), IM’s son, Karachi) when he received a fate- received by your mother. But recently was hardly noticed. “I am
come down to earth; she wanted on the other hand, is convinced ful phone call…His face turned when this woman showed up, she just a speck of sand in the desert of
to be the Queen of Pakistan.” that it was Nahid who pursued his white as he listened to the caller, treated me like a lackey…was rude time,” wrote a wise man once. Just
Shahab found Mirzas residing in father relentlessly, and that IM fell put the phone down, and without and off ensive in her behavior and a reminder to those who seek false
a modest fl at in Kensington. Th e for her, making an error of judge- saying a word, rushed out of the tried to impress on everyone the glories. Rahe ga naam Allah ka.
former President appeared hard ment. In his autobiography, From house…Th e caller had informed a hold she had on your father…Th e (Th e writer is a physician
of hearing, and in poor health. As Plassey to Pakistan, HM recalls shocked IM that Nahid had turned appointment with the President, in Williamsport, PA and may be
far Nahid, years aft er the debacle being with his father in a hotel up in Pakistan without warning his Military Secretary told me reached at asifj aved@comcast.net)
I Welcome You, Oh the Sacred Month of Ramadhan!

(From my book ‘Voice of Heart)

n By Dr Mustafa Kamal Sherwani I welcome you, Oh the sacred month of Ramadhan !
Lucknow, India month of Ramadhan! May your advent shower on
ith new sprouts of faith Your name brings forth a fl ur- this trembling world,
emerging in my barren ry of soothing throbs, Th e heavenly serenity, lasting
Wheart, From which countless hopes of peace and moral grace;
With the Unseen showing the salvation arise; May the fi rst glimpse of your
blaze of my Final Goal, Your name comes to the rescue moon on the globe’s horizon,
With a blissful blend of belief , of my worries and shame; Dissipate the dark and threat-
joy and fear, It seems to blow the breezes of ening clouds from its face.
With a Divine aura overpow- the gardens of Paradise . I welcome you, Oh the sacred
ering my mind and soul, I welcome you, Oh the sacred month of Ramadhan!
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