Half Truth: A review of Ahmad Ali Khan’s book “In Search of Sense”

Half Truth

A review of Ahmad Ali Khan’s book

“In Search of Sense”

Bhopal, Pindi Conspiracy case, the socialist utopia: Disillusionment, Biases against the Punjab and Mian Iftiqar u din, joining hands with dictatorship, rise and fall of media, Pakistan times, Dawn, praise for power broker journalist Altaf Hussaein,  and many more things

Editor’s job is the important one and in many ways it plays vital role in setting the future agenda. That is why it is essential for an editor neither to become part of power politics nor to use his personal prides and prejudices while analyzing an event or commenting about a personality. There is a quote by Jarod Kintz which is a final word i-e “There are two typos of people in this world: Those who can edit and those who can’t”.  But the book under review is little tricky. Although the writer is an acclaimed editor but the book revealed how an editor can twist things too yet it needs attention. The book is written none the other but a seasoned editor who served as a journalist for 55 years.  Although we fortunately have a long list of seasoned journalist cum editors who served the media for long time yet in the introduction I A Rahman explained view point of Ahmad Ali regarding professional editors in a strange way. “However, he(author) regretted that professional editors were regarded as a ‘vanishing breed’ in both Pakistan and India and he doubted if post independence South Asia had witnessed a true flowering of journalism and the media’s accession to strength ‘as an agency of progressive, social and political change’ ”. What was the pre-partition legacy of media? It was largely one sided media in many ways . In pre-partition times media was either pro-congress, Pro-Muslim League, pro-government, pro-Hindu or pro-Muslim etc . It was largely based on sentimentalism and we also knew their communal and sectarian preferences too. There were reasonably good editors too in Pre-partition times but their political positionings were larger then journalism. It was a time of Party Papers. As par his own statement if post-independence scenario was shaky regarding media then why to praise any single media?

link of the Publisher

Ahmad Ali Khan was born in 1924 in a Muslim minority State Bhopal. Like Hyderabad Deccan and Oudh rulers of Bhopal had a strong legacy of using particular Muslim sects extensively in the statecraft yet Ahmad Ali Khan neither pointed it nor wrote a single line about Ahl hadith Nawab Siddiq Hassan Khan, husband of longest ruling Begum of Bhopal Amira Shahjahan Begum. His conflicting praise regarding Muslim Bhopal is itself an interesting study especially for those who want to understand minority mindset.
“Muslims dominated almost every department of life (in Bhopal)…” In a Hindu dominated area if Muslims of Bhopal had domination then at least author should condemn that attitude yet while praising Muslim Bhopal he failed to do justice. Contrary to his praise he simultaneously admitted that unlike Muslim ruled states (Hyderabad, Bhopal, Rampur, Junagarh and Bhawalpure) the States ruled by Non Muslim like Travancore, Cochin, Baroda, Indore were way ahead in education during the Raj. In this same chapter which is full of praise for enlightened moderation of Bhopal the author wrote “Hardly about 5% of effected 40 million Muslims living in Hindu Majority areas in 1947 migrated to Pakistan”. He did not give any reference for this claim. It is a reality that Punjabis and kashmiris were the main victim of transfer of population and among them Muslims of Ludhiana, Jalandar, Ferozpur, Gurdaspur and Amritsar suffered a lot. In all these districts Punjabi Muslims were single largest and had above 44% Muslim population.

Till 1939, the author was not only inspired from the critic of Mhatma Gandhi, Neta ji Subhash C Bose but strangely he also started using the title Khadim e Kaaba with his own name. It is prove of conflicting preferences the author had since early period. That conflicting attitude runs in his writings too. He narrated many events which made book more important than his own thoughts. Remembering his Aligarh days he revealed that one of the factors that helped the Muslim League’s conquest of Aligarh was immense appeal of Iqbal, his poetry, writings and speeches.

In 1946 he formally started his career as editor in Bombay and joined a pro Muslim League Daily name Iqbal. During that time he got chance to meet communists like Mirza Ashfaq Baig ( He was also from Bhopal), P C Joshi, Syed Sajjad Zaheer, Sibt e Hassan etc. He recorded his distant love with communists but he failed to do justice as usual. He penned a chapter in this book with a title “The socialist utopia: Disillusionment” and his thoughts got endorsement in the introduction yet it is largely an outsider’s view about entrench inner party struggle and that is why the editor failed to do justice with the subject.
Due to his cousin Quddus he met Ashfaq Baig and then started visiting CPI office in 1946 and had personal record about Sajjad Zaheer, Sibt e Hassan and as he was shifted to Lhore in 1948 so he remain in contact with CPP leaders who had head quarter in Lhore but he could not give us more details. "Sibt e Hassan showed a little reserve in his manner and seemed rather aloof and distant....as for as pretty women were concerned he was a charmer." A p-137-8 he narrated an interesting probably pre-partition debate regarding obscenity in PWA meeting where Sajjad Zaheer , Sibte Hassan called Mollana Hasrat Mohani "a habitual Obstructionist" because  Mollana defended pornography as a valid aspect or component of literature while Sajjad Zaheer and his associates thought it very necessary to state categorically that the use of obscenity or pornography was no part of the movement's aims. Was it a deviation from Angary? author did not discuss it. PWA used charge of obscenity against great fiction writer of the Punjab Saddat Hassan Manto in their historic November 1949 meeting and author attended that meeting too but he did not mention it too which is strange.

Other than letters from Hajra Masroor (his wife), Abdullah Malik and some articles written by others, there are two important chapters which threw light on his change of heart when he worked in Lahore at Pakistan Times (PT) and when he worked in Karachi in Dawn.

He took liberty to criticize owner of Pakistan Times (the learned statesman Mian Iftiqar u din) but failed to maintain his critical thinking about the editors and owners of other newspapers where he worked.
He discussed closure of Civil & Military Gazette in late 1940s by Liaqat Ali khan’s government in his own style. At that time there were two main newspapers (Dawn & PT) but he smartly declared that Pakistan Times was the ‘unintended beneficiary of government action’. But when he wrote the story of closure of PT he dare not to mention which media group was unintended beneficiary at that time. It showed his preferences. 

As par author it was Mian Iftikhar u din who always talk about the Punjab and its interests while analyzing Pakistani politics which pinched author strangely. He himself wrote lofty claims regarding Bhopal, a place he left in 1947 but he had expectation from a native to leave his connectivity from the land where he is living.

His analysis of Pindi Conspiracy Case of 1951 is close to Government justification as he missed importance of timing. Linking Pindi conspiracy with Kashmir issue of October 1947 rather then McCarthyism is an intelligent/intelligence wrap. Kashmir conflict was a 15 month old story but it was used, just one day before first provincial election of the Punjab by the ICS fame officers sitting in Karachi and it was a message for all opposition parties. It was a Machiavellian Trick often used by colonial masters in British India. After Objective Resolution in general and before the first public meeting of Progressive Writers Association held at Lhore in November 1949 a massive anti-communist campaign was started under the international agenda of McCarthyism. They called communists anti-religion, anti-Pakistan and even fatwas were circulated against communists and in this campaign many people were inducted i-e Aga Shorish Kashmiri of Ahrar, Muhammad Hassan Askari, Intizar Hussain, Waheed Qureshi and many more. Those who read the book " Mustaqbil Hamara Hai" written by Abdullah Malik knew very well about those who circulated fatwas and who participated in that mischievous campaign. Pindi Conspiracy was an effort of the State to make attendance in international anti-communist campaign. Learned editor himself attended PWA meeting and he was part of PT but he did not write a line in that regard but tried to justify the purge.

From 1949 till 1962 he worked in PT. Faiz Ahmad Faiz was editor but due to his arrest in Pindi conspiracy Mian Iftiqar u din, the owner of PT nominated Mazhar Ali Khan as acting editor but author was not happy with that decision. Interestingly, he himself proved that decision of Mian Sahib was correct. Mazhar proved a time testing friend of PT and its progressive policies when hard time came. In introduction Rahman rightly wrote “He (author) had to stop writing when he had just begun recalling his days at The PT where he stayed for 13 years”. General Ayub had seizure the PT on April 18, 1959 because PT was not ready to obey the military dictator. At that important time, Editor Mazahar Ali Khan had courage to resign yet the author opted for editorship. He gave many explanations and tried to hide behind professionalism but more he wrote, more he expose himself. After some time the author and editor Imroz too had to resign but both failed to understand importance of timing or they had no courage to face the challenge. When Ayub annexed the paper great Mazhar Ali Khan assembled his senior colleagues including Qasmi and the author. Mazhar uphold his credibility and self-esteem and announced his resignation. According to author, among others in this company were Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, editor Imroz, Zuhair Siddiqi, Abdullah Malik and Hameed Akhtar . Government assured Mazhar to stay as editor but he refused. Now read what Author wrote in the book. “Now having announced his unalterable decision to quit, Mazhar asked the assembled company what their plans were…no body spoke……I broke the silence. I said as professional journalists we were helpless in the face of the forcible takeover and that we could do nothing to prevent a forced change of policy.”  So after that Qasmi continued as editor of Imroz while author worked as acting editor PT till 1962 and when Z A Sulehri entered in the scene he finally had to resigned. As Qasmi was opted brother of his wife hajra so both had personal nexus too. Interestingly while analyzing closure of PT Ahmad Ali did not mention ‘unintended beneficiary of government action against PT’. After PT, the author joined Dawn which was ruled by Altaf Hussain since 1947.  Altaf Hussain was among the power broker journalists and had considered as close ally of establishment. It was Dictator General Ayub who awarded him Hilal-e-Pakistan in 1959. In 1965 he joined Ayub’s cabinet as minister. The praise for Altaf Hussain by the author raised many questions but I think it is up to readers to decide who was who in media and politics.

There are many details regarding journalism in this book and it is an interesting study to understand why press remains in chains not only due to policies of the State but also due to pitfalls of journalists and media owners. So in this regard it is history of Pakistani journalism yet one should read it carefully. In late 1940s while in Lhore, the author worked in Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ), a pioneer trade union organization of Pakistani journalists that later transformed into Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) so he also pinpointed issues of working journalists. As SAMA has good reputation regarding high quality of editing yet this particular book is not up to its own standards. In index Altah Hussain and Altaf Hussain Hali are included in a single entry. Instead of adding letters and articles written on Ahmad Ali Khan one can write a detail biographical sketch. The author earned lot of respect during his career yet a write-up based on critical appreciation could make this book more valuable.

Memoires of Ahmad Ali Khan

By Aamir Riaz

Book               In search of sense

Pages               616

Author             Ahmad Ali Khan

Publisher         SAMA, Karachi Sindh

Price                Rs: 1200

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