Where Was Burney?
By Dr. Ghayur Ayub
London, UK
How can we forget a jubilant Ansar Burney sharing smiles with Kashmir Singh in front of TV cameras at the Wagha border when the latter was handed over to Indian authorities like a Dewali gift? Most Pakistanis are wondering where Burney was when the grief-stricken mother of Khalid Mehmood was receiving the mutilated body of her son at that very spot. According to news items, he knew about the killing when he walked triumphantly on the ground showered with tears of the mournful mother the following week.
In 1992, as Executive Director PIMS, I admitted Ansar Burney following his ‘bhook hartaal’. After persuasion by the then health minister he decided to end the hartaal, but not before I had arranged electronic and print media on his insistence. I can’t forget the wink in his eye and the smile on his face when he demanded the presence of the media. I found his photo passion unchanged when he visited Mr. Nawaz Sharif at Duke Street, London a few months ago. They say old habits die hard and it seems Burney’s passion for publicity hasn’t changed much during all these years.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
