Unsung
Mowahid Hussain Shah

Nearly 50 years after the Dacca debacle, the wound still has not been cleansed. False narratives abound. It could have been a teachable moment for searching self-examination. In its immediate aftermath, those who benefited from the vivisection of the nation also had the means to cover up.

The more damaging consequences are that the current Pakistan youth is, in effect, clueless about 1971 and, at best, has a hazy notion, if at all, that Bangladesh once was East Pakistan. There has been no discernable attempt to dig deep to ascertain the lessons learned. It is demeaning today to see Pakistan beseeching Bangladesh to play cricket in Pakistan.

1971 ruined reputations – some good ones. 1971 also enabled a few to build their political fortunes on the grave of united Pakistan.

30 years ago, one of the principal figures caught in the vortex of 1971 left his mortal abode in the Washington, DC area. He was Air Marshal Rahim Khan, the last Air Chief of united Pakistan. I happened to know him and his refined wife, Princess Mehrunissa Khan, quite well. They lived in the same neighborhood, on the same street.

Rahim had a stellar professional career, being the first Asian pilot to break the sound barrier. He kept his personal dignity as well as the reputation of the Pakistan Air Force intact during those bleak days. After the fall of Dacca, he helped facilitate a bloodless transition to civilian authority (vide New York Times, “Man in the News” by Malcomb W. Browne, December 29, 1971.)

In the spring of 1977, there was popular unrest against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s autocratic methods. Rahim, at that time, was serving as Pakistan’s ambassador to Spain. Appalled by Bhutto’s violent crackdown, Rahim quit with no “Plan B” and left for the United States. For being a conscientious objector, I witnessed him endure tough times with ineffable grace. He was distinct from so many of the expats who are soaked in materialism. To cite Robert Frost, he chose “the road less traveled.”

When Zia was bent on executing Bhutto, Rahim tried to dissuade him, warning about the lethal implications. He also interceded with Bhutto in rehabilitating Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, who had run afoul of the military junta following his noncompliance on the crackdown, in his capacity as GOC, East Pakistan. Mehrunissa was a daughter of the Nawab of Rampur. And Yaqub also hailed from Rampur. Rahim, however, had no ISPR to document his role.

Always neatly attired, Rahim exuded modesty and knew how to treat and fete friends, being particularly attentive and caring about their comfort. A man of few words, he mostly communicated in English. And I never heard him bad-mouth anyone.

When old friends, Clara and Aman Khan, hosted a major farewell event for me on the eve of my move to Pakistan, Rahim spoke, wishing me well and hoping and predicting at the same time that I would be back. In Lahore, he made it a point to visit my parents at our family residence in Muslim Town.

His curiosity was infectious. I remember how interested he was when I wrote an article about my meeting General Adolf Galland – one of Hitler’s greatest Luftwaffe aces – during a World War II reunion of pilots in Crystal City, Virginia.

In Pakistan, sweeping generalizations are often made about the venality of elites, but honest exceptions are not duly noted and do get brushed aside. Not everyone has had their hands in the cookie jar. Rahim had the self-respect not to go with the flow.

The lazy proclivity is to base opinions on hearsay and to swallow what the media dishes out. Few bother to probe deeply into character.

Rahim didn’t encash his past position and never lowered his moral standards. Perhaps, his mistake was not writing and recording his recollections of 1971, which could have led to an accurate and instructive diagnosis of the Dacca debacle. Its misdiagnosis paved the path for recurring mishaps, which continue to divide and metastasize, with no lessons learned.

In a social landscape where the unscrupulous and venal bloom, Rahim remains unsung. But what endures and grows larger is the imprint of an upright gentleman.