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Moulvi Abdul Haque, who also devoted his
life to Islamic studies, was an authority over interpretative studies of the
Holy Quran. He was very famous of his dedication, as he would recite the
holy Quran even in his sleep. His only daughter is married to his nephew
Azizullah Memon who abandoned her after few years of their marriage.
Moulvi Rehmatullah was involved in local
politics and was elected chairman of Shikarpur municipality and remained a
member of City Council until he passed away. Several buildings and a street
of Shikarpur were named after him.
Haji Wali Mohammad became a wholesale cloth
merchant and supported the family. However, he moved to Larkana during
1946–1947. He had two children Abdul Fatah Memon, who was the general
secretary in the Pakistan Muslim League and Ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi
Arabia, and Nizamuddin Memon, who was an advocate in Larkana, also the
advisor to Late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan. Abdul Fatah
Memon has eight sons and one daughter: Dr. Ghulam Ali, FRCS a surgeon in
London; Ali Nawaz Memon, a senior World Bank Financial Analyst, former
chairman of National Power Regulatory Authority in the Government of
Pakistan, and an author of two books; late Ali Raza Memon, a businessman;
Sikander Ali, Petroleum Engineer, now a businessman in Cairo Egypt; Shafqat
Ali, Chief Financial Officer in Islamic Bank Bahrain; Major Mohammad Ali,
retired from the Pakistan Army now working with Pakistan General Tires as
Chief Security Officer; Shaheen is a banker; and Dr. Jamal Nasser is a skin
specialist. The only daughter is married to Anwar Memon, who is President
and CEO of an environmental engineering firm in Toronto, Canada.
Nizamuddin Memon has two sons and two
daughters. His son, Khalid Iqbal Memon, is an advocate and is a serving
member of the Pakistan National Assembly representing the Pakistan People’s
Party from Larkana, Sind. His son Pervaiz Memon is a marine engineer by
education but handles family agricultural land.
Abdul Rasool also worked with Haji Wali
Mohammed as a cloth merchant. He had two sons, late Attaullah, who practiced
law in Larkana; and late Zahoor Ahmed, who joined Jamit-i-Islami and
remained their local leader.
Moulvi Abdul Haque, who also devoted his
life to Islamic studies, was an authority over interpretative studies of the
Holy Quran. He was very famous of his dedication, as he would recite the
holy Quran even in his sleep.
Khuda Bux was a Hakeem. He has one son
Ghulam Mustafa Memon retired Mukhtiarkar, with five sons and three
daughters. Shukat Ali Deputy Director WAPDA, Akhtar Ali Revenue Officer
WAPDA, Dr. Imtiaz a practicing physician, Riaz Ali Divisional Engineer
Pakistan Telecommunications, Irfan Ali Engineer with NESPAK
Fazullah also was part of the family’s
business. He had two sons: Azizullah Memon an advocate in Quetta, who later
on became Attorney General for Baluchistan; and Tariq Ahmed, who is
presently serving as deputy collector in revenue department of Sind.
Calipho Mohammad Bachal married twice and
had his eight sons Muhammad Ibrahim from his second wife.
The Soomros of Shikarpur
Moula
Bux Soomro, Ahmed Mian, Illahi Bux, and Mohammad Mian Soomro
Moula Bux Soomro, one of the few people from
Shikarpur, had been involved in politics since pre-partition days. He served
as Chief Minister of Sind besides serving as member of various provincial
and national assemblies. Moulvi Rehmatullah Memon, brother of my grand
father, served with him on various positions in Shikarpur Municipal
Committee. Moula Bux Soomro was student of my grand father, Moulvi Abdul
Rehman. From him he acquired Islamic education and knowledge of Holy Quran.
This is the reason the Soomro family has high regard for our family,
particularly my father.
 Besides his political career, Moula Bux was
very much interested in herbal medicines. He had developed some stimulants
extracted from pearls, which he presented to the rich and famous. As a young
boy, whenever I visited his house, I witnessed many people working on those
recipes, called Kushta in our native language. Including President
Ayub Khan, many politicians, government officials, and army generals were
his friends due to a constant supply of these medicines to them. He, in
collaboration with Hakeem Moulvi Fazalullah Soomro, an expert in herbal and
Greek medicines; developed some stimulants that were in high demand by the
older men to satisfy their urges.
Moula Bux Soomro made ground for his
family’s political dynasty and produced politicians like his son Ahmed Mian,
Illahi Bux, nephew Rahim Bux and grand son, Mohammad Mian.
Perception has been that the Soomros always
gave consent to the party in power and were the few Sindhi leaders who were
always bestowed a green signal by the army high command. This is the reason
why they always enjoyed power in every administration except during a
democratically elected government.
Ahmed Mian Soomro, son of Moula Bux Soomro,
was originally from Shikarpur but migrated to Jacobabad. He was a practicing
attorney and was one of the few attorneys my father became friendly with.
During my father’s posting in Jacobabad as Additional District Magistrate,
we used to visit Ahmed Mian’s house almost two three times a week. I
recollect that he was a very soft spoken and friendly person. In the
political circles as well as in general I have never heard any thing but
positive about him.
Illahi Bux Soomro, an engineer by
profession, became Principal of NED Engineering College, and once in
politics, has served at various federal levels and was Speaker of the
National Assembly of Pakistan. I met him only for a short while so cannot
form any opinion to write.
Mohammad Mian Soomro, son of Ahmed Mian, has
been serving as Chairman Senate in Pakistan. He has been educated in the
U.S.A. and worked in the banking industry. He served as Governor of Sind and
at various levels of government during army backed governments. I met him
during his visit to Houston when I accompanied him for three days. Like his
father, he was very humble and friendly and gave opportunity to everyone. I
found him very patient during photo sessions with the general public.
Mohammad Mian was kind of reluctant to
discuss any issues about Sind. During his lunch speech with Asia society, I
publicly asked him to discuss the Kalabagh dam issue. His response was very
shallow in this respect. Moreover, during private discussions when I
inquired him of the issue of donkey carts in Shikarpur that restricted any
motor vehicle from entering the city limits, he did not show much care about
the local problems. I suggested him to initiate a Suzuki mini truck program
by the Government as it could put an end to a lot of local problems;
however, he did not pay much attention to this either and had a good time
and returned to Pakistan. Senator Azam Khan Swati, who had financed his
trip, entertained him. Ashraf Abbassi, brother in law of Senator Swati, had
also been entertaining him from time to time by inviting him to Washington
DC to achieve their personal political objectives in Pakistan.
As a native from Shikarpur, I do not have
very high regard for the Soomro family. The reason is very simple: they lack
a certain sense of public service, as they have not done much for the people
even to those of their own constituency. Keeping in mind the fact that their
family has enjoyed power since the creation of Pakistan, I cannot find a
single initiative on their credit observed for the betterment of their city.
The Soomros always got representation in every non-elected government. In
1971, when Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party’s won majority vote in West
Pakistan, most of the Soomros contesting in elections, lost their seats from
Shikarpur. The main reason was that they never worked for the general public
but catered to the needs of the etablishment. This might be the reason that in any
fair elections they do not have a chance to win any elected office. In
short, this family served themselves and history will always remember them
as the followers of the army junta.
The Kazis of Hyderabad
Like the Soomros of Shikarpur, the Chowdhrys
of the Punjab, the Kazis of Hyderabad were always in power when a
non-democratic government was installed in Pakistan. Kazi Akbar, the lead
person of this family, had been involved in political affairs since
partition days and was one of the most favorite persons of the army junta
and served as Federal and Provincial minister at many occasions.
The biggest contribution of this family was
to publish a Sindhi daily newspaper Ibrat that served the people of
Sind as well as served this family to keep a tight grip on the local and
national political power. The next generation of this famous family has
established two television channels which are serving the people of Sind in
promoting their culture that was previously overshadowed by the
government-sponsored television stations promoting Urdu and ignoring all the
regional languages. No family can match this clan’s contributions in the
field of media and promotion of Sindhi culture. This family has acquired
high level of education and many of their members achieved foreign education
and are serving at high-level government positions.
Kazi Akbar build the first multi story
centrally air-conditioned hotel named “Hotel Orient” in mid 60’s by securing
large loan from Sind government Co-operative Department. However, most of
politicians, who receive such loans as kickbacks, forget that one-day they
have to pay back the loans. Kazi Akbar with his power kept on postponing the
due payments of the loan until my father became Registrar of Co-operative
Societies Sind in the mid 70’s. As my father was given a special assignment
to go after all the defaulters of co-operative loans, he put his full
attention on to the major culprits who were rich but not paying the
government loans.
Kazi Akbar was issued a notice and he, as
usual, ignored it not knowing that my father would go ahead with the rules
and auction his hotel to the highest bidder to collect the government money.
Kazi Akbar with all his political connections could not stop the process and
lost the property and a landmark of Hyderabad was taken over by someone
else.
This was again a magnificent example of my
father’s honesty and integrity. He could have kept quiet like many of his
predecessors in exchange for some financial favors but, in contrast,
maintained his high standard of righteousness. For bureaucrats, this is a
holy war either to be part of the dishonest system to grow rich and achieve
higher positions, or to remain isolated and be deprived of promotions by
keeping their honest ethics to serve the people for which they were
appointed as public servants not their masters. My father was a solo example
of part of this holy war and served honorably and impartially.
Amber Memon
My wife and soul mate who is
blessed with angelic features
My meeting with Amber is a mystery for me
even up to today. During my job as Engineer in Pakistan International
Airlines (PIA), I had a friend, a flight engineer. He lived in Karachi
Administrative Society with a family as paying guest. During one of my
visits to him, he introduced me to the family where I met with one of the
girls of the family. The visits revealed to me that the family was
interested in me and was trying to come to a ground to get me married to
their daughter. One day we were taking an evening walk in the neighborhood,
when she pointed to a house where, she said, a friend of hers named Amber
lived there.
 After a few weeks, while passing through the
street, I, outside Amber’s house, met a flight engineer, late Faheem Lodi,
an acquaintance then working in PIA. He was Amber’s brother in law. He
invited me in the house for a cup of tea. This was my first visit and
meeting with Amber’s family that consequently ended up in a relationship.
The girl who was instrumental to introduce
me to Amber and her family was very disappointed by this unlikely happening,
but this is an excellent example to quote that God makes the couples in
heaven. It is only the matter of right time and right place that your soul
mate joins you in the journey of life.
Amber was born in 1961. Her mother, Dr.
Jamal Yusuf, gave her under the care of her parents to remarry with late
Ahad Yusuf, former Mayor of Hyderabad and Provincial Minister of Health for
Sind. Amber’s father passed away and her maternal grand father, Syed Akhtar
Yusuf, raised her. Syed Akhtar Yusuf was a retired Army major; he worked as
General Manager for His Highness Mir of Khairpur Mirs; he also served as
General Manager, Pakistan Shipping Corporation. He retired in 1971, after
the separation of East Pakistan, and took the last outbound flight from
Dacca to unite with his family. Amber lived with her two aunts and an uncle
and four grand mothers in the same house. After Dacca’s fall, Major Yusuf
lost most of his savings and lived very modestly until he moved to USA where
also he could not rise and passed his life in seclusion and passed away in
Houston a few years ago.
Amber was brought up like a princess as she
lived with four wives of Major Yusuf who married a dozen times and had
children from each wife, surprisingly, all of whom living under the same
roof. Amber was educated in St. Joseph convent school in Karachi and went to
the same college until she was married to me. She was only 16 years old
then.
Amber gave birth to two of our children
Rakib and Sana and we all immigrated to the U.S.A. and have been in the
United States of America since 1980.
Since Amber’s childhood everybody had been
of the opinion that she had strange annotations and observations because
whatever she said, it came to happen. It is because of this foretelling of
hers that she was cursed by the people as someone who spoke the tongue of
evil. In our language it is called Kali Zaban. However, no one knew
that she did not have an evil tongue but positive gift to foresee one’s
future.
During our earlier years of marriage, we
were busy in raising kids and moving from Pakistan to the U.S.A. This kept
us too involved so I could not realize what special gifts Amber actually
possessed.
My first experience of this realization
process happened in 1988 when I asked her about two of my partners in
business: Rafique, a very energetic and hard working person, and Asim, a
laid-back, low-profile person. I liked to work with Rafique due to his
special qualities. Amber told me that Rafique would cheat on us in business
whereas she predicted of Asim to be very honest to me. At the end of the
day, Rafique embezzled about $ 30,000 from the company and Asim returned a
loan of $10,000 to the company, which I had forgotten to bring on the record
books. If he had not mentioned it at the end of the project, he could have
walked away with an extra $ 10,000.
In 1989 I visited Los Angles on a business
trip. My return flight was supposed to arrive in Houston at 10 p.m. and I
should have been at home by 11 p.m. However, my meeting ended earlier and I
took an early flight and landed in Houston at 7 p.m. I had a friend who
owned a club. He always invited me to visit him. I thought it to be a good
opportunity to call upon him that day. I spent my extra time from 7.30 p.m.
to 10.30 p.m. with him and arrived home at my scheduled time: 11 p.m. As
soon as Amber opened the door, she asked me which club I had been. Being
confused, I denied the charge and lied to her that I was coming straight
from the airport. To my amusement she said: “I saw your plane landing in
Houston at 7 p.m.” I still denied her statement and told her that she was
insane. She never argued and never repeated her comments. I just started
wondering how, in the world, she found out the truth.
Amber is a very religious-minded woman. She
prays five times as well as observes the Namaz-i-Tahajjid, a special
prayer performed just after mid night besides the five mandatory prayers
every Muslim is to perform. Due to her insight into religion, people always
approach her for spiritual guidance.
One day, we visited a Hindu priest in his
temple. When we entered his office, he asked me a strange question: “I
invited two of you; who is the third one you have brought with you.” I
freaked out, as there was no one with us. Later on a Christian clairvoyant
and psychic, S.L. Harribance President of Sean Harribance Institute for
Parapsychology, Inc, told Amber that she had extraordinary gifts and she
should meditate and develop her skills. I kept on pursuing her to work on
her skills and she started seeing clients and since then have been helping
so many people. Here are a few of her cases. The names of the clients have
been withheld.
A girl came to see her. She was not able to
conceive though had been trying to have a baby for the five years of her
marriage. Amber told her that she had been molested by someone and had gone
through a trauma. Due to this sexual contact, she actually hated to have
copulation and had no way to conceive. Initially, she denied but after a few
sittings, she revealed that the husband of her eldest sister, the bread
provider of the family, started molesting her since she was only 13 by
forcing her to have intercourse. Later on, this perverted man forced her to
bring her other two sisters for the same purpose and kept on molesting all
the three sisters. Due to this trauma, she could not have any relationship
with her husband. Amber told her that she needed to confront her perpetuator
to have peace with herself. She kept on promising Amber to counter the
person responsible for her problem but could not confront him and her
family. Unfortunately, the sinner passed away before she could reveal this
traumatic situation to anyone. Later on, she, along with her other two
sisters, confided with her eldest sister and revealed all the details of her
husband’s sinful life and came to a closure. Immediately after that, she
conceived and strangely delivered a baby boy on the same day as Amber was
born.
A Muslim married woman came to see her and
told her various problems and asked Amber for guidance. As soon as she
started her sessions, Amber told her that her basic problem is infidelity
with her husband. She denied the charge and insisted that she was very
honest with her husband. To break her consistent lying streak, Amber told
her the name of the man whom she was having sexual contact with. She was
very upset and started screaming and crying. Later on she confessed that she
was having an extra marital affair very discreetly but that no one knew
about it. She kept on questioning Amber about the source of her information.
She could not believe that Amber acquired this information from her inner
sources. She was so upset by the leak that for the next few hours, she kept
on trying to pinpoint the source of her leak rather than admitting that God
gives gift to some people who could see what a naked eye cannot. In the Holy
Quran it is very clearly stated that God knows knowledge of the unknown only
and only by those dear ones whom God decides to bless with a part of His
gifts. Fanatic people always confront Amber with a shout out that she is
doing wrong and it is against the will of God to pursue the unknown. But
they forget that she is helping the people to solve their problems. So many
people think she indulges in witchcraft and try to hurt her feelings. But
they do not know that she does help people and has no financial gains from
this practice.
In another case, one of our spiritual
friends recommended a girl for my son to get married. We visited the family
briefly and later on invited them to our house. Just after a few minutes of
their arrival, Amber asked the mother of the girl where her husband was. She
responded to her that he lived in Karachi and had not moved here as yet.
Amber immediately corrected her and said: “Yes, I know he is in Karachi but
he is in a jail (Penitentiary) and was arrested for smuggling drugs.” The
woman got so overwhelmed that she fell over Amber’s feet and kept on begging
her not to say anything to anyone. Later on she confessed that her husband
was a drug smuggler. Though very rich in his good days, was now serving
time. Superficially, the girl looked so delicate that if Amber had not had
this gift, I would have settled my son with this family without any
hesitation.
One of my biggest regrets has been to get my
son married without asking Amber while I was in Pakistan. The day Amber met
the daughter in law, she told me that she had been forced to marry our son
and that this relationship was not suitable for our family. Later on it was
found that she was in love with someone else. Her father forced her to marry
my son mainly for the money and for the reason that she could help the
family to migrate to the U.S.A. My son had to divorce her and we were saved
from a lot of future misery. However, it cost us at least $ 50,000 for the
wedding.
As far as politics is concerned,
Amber has always predicted about candidates and foreseen the results of many
elections. I always seek for her advice, as she was 100% sure about Lee
Brown and Bill White’s win as Mayor City of Houston. During the third
election of Mayor Brown, one day his opponent Orlando Sanchez met us in a
charity gala. When I told him about Amber’s vision, he asked her about his
election. Amber replied to him: “I see you winning first but losing later
on.” Orlando Sanchez and even I myself could not understand what it meant.
Amber could not explain to him what she just said. After some time, I came
to a realization as to what she meant that he would win the first election
but lose the run off election.
Similarly, Amber made predictions about
President Clinton that he would be impeached and later on exonerated from
the charges. I wrote down all the predictions she made for President Clinton
and mailed him a letter. I never received the response but on the day when
the Senate was supposed to cast a final vote, Amber and I were invited to
meet with the First Lady, Hillary Clinton at Tillman Feitita’s house. This
meeting took place around 5 p.m. and about an hour earlier, the U.S. Senate
voted in favor of President Clinton. I happened to have the letter written
to President Clinton, which I presented to the First Lady. She read the
letter very patiently and immediately asked Amber “Do you think I will win
senatorial race?” Amber replied: “You are already the Senator.” Mrs. Clinton
told her she was not the Senator as yet and was running for the seat. Amber
again uttered mysteriously: “You are the Senator.” Mrs. Clinton asked me:
“Does your wife follow politics? Doesn’t she know that Mayor Gulliani is
running against me and I am not the Senator?” Amber cut her off and said,
“But I do not see Gulliani running against you and you will be the Senator.”
Mrs. Clinton moved on to the other guests, without keeping faith in what
Amber said to her though she took the copy of her predictions. Just two
weeks later Gulliani was diagnosed with colon cancer and pulled out of the
race. By this time Mrs. Clinton understood what Amber was seeing she could
not conceive.
 During John Kerry’s presidential election
campaign, she constantly told me that George Bush was going to win which I
kept on ignoring, as I am a hardcore democrat. However, I did not invest any
resources in that election and everyone knows the result: Bush won the
election. During democrat primaries, I was one of the co-hosts for a
reception for Howard Dean. On the day of the reception, I was heading for
Hotel Wormick. I called Amber and asked her about chances for Howard Dean.
She told me that it would be a waste of time and $1000 donation and that I
should rather come home. I returned home and a few weeks later; Howard
Dean’s popularity declined and John Kerry surfaced as the candidate for
Democratic Party. So far she thinks that Hillary Clinton would be elected as
first woman President of United States of America.
Most of the Pakistani politicians who visit
us talk to her and get her analysis. Most recent ones are former Prime
Minister, Benazir Bhutto; former Chief Minister, Syed Ghous Ali Shah; former
Chief Justice Supreme Court, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah; former Minister, Pir
Mazhar Ul Haque; Senator S. M Zafar; Rasool Bux Palejo; and many others. The
best part about Amber is that she never reveals her intimate talks with her
clients and works very discreetly and does not charge for her services.
One of her astonishing cases was
when a couple visited us with their child. The woman was very talkative and
kept on daring Amber for her supernatural capabilities. Suddenly, Amber
asked the man a very strange question: “Who is this child in your lap?” The
man replied: “She is my daughter.” Amber said, “I know she is her daughter,”
pointing to the lady, “but not yours.” The man was very upset but the woman
was very clever and kept on giggling and changed the subject. Next day the
man came to my office and spoke to me about the comments my wife had made.
He wanted to know more about it. I had so much faith in Amber that I was
ready to pay for the paternity test (DNA Test). I made the deal with the man
that if Amber was wrong I should pay for the fees and would also extend him
a written apology. However, if she was not his daughter he would have to pay
the DNA test fees. We mutually agreed and got the test performed which came
negative and it was confirmed that she was not his daughter. Amber generally
doesn’t tell negative things to hurt people until someone challenges her
abilities.
In a similar case a family
approached us with a marriage proposal for my daughter. The boy was a doctor
with a very respectable family background. After our first meeting, we
visited their home and were introduced to the whole family. The father of
the boy had remarried a younger woman. He had four children from the first
marriage and two from the second. He remarried because his first wife had
passed away. On the surface, the family was very educated and nice and had
all the ingredients that a normal family would want in another to form
relations. Amber had many reservations about the boy and kept on analyzing
him. She told me that the man did not father the younger two daughters but
it was the older son who was the biological father of those little girls.
After a few days, the father of the boy came to see us and wanted to talk to
Amber in private. Strange to note is the fact that he told Amber that he was
doubtful about the paternity of the girls and had DNA tests done for them
and was sure that they were his kids. I think he knew that Amber had figured
out the incest and illicit relationship between his wife and his eldest son
and was covering the ground with us to pursue marriage with our daughter.
Subsequently, Amber very bluntly told them about the boy that he is having
an affair with one of the nurses in the office besides his involvement with
the stepmother. This is one of the cases that she was right on target to
weigh the character of the boy. I always wondered that why sex perversion is
becoming an epidemic in the Muslim society as we now often hear horror
stories of molestation and incest.
 Amber shows different dimension of her gift
with every person she works with, as she is excellent in reading people in
person as well as through photographs. In case of a Hispanic family, they
brought photographs of all their family members to be analyzed. Once all
pictures were spread out on Amber’s working desk, she picked up three
photographs and returned to them. She refused to read about those people and
told them that those people were dead and it is a sin to get into dead
people’s past life. This family was hugely overwhelmed by her assertion and
I always wondered how she found out that those three people were dead.
At another occasion, we were
attending a wedding when the father of the groom came to invite us to come
on to the podium and take picture with the newly weds. Amber told him that
she would follow him in a minute. After he left, she made a comment in front
of all the friends sitting on the table that she would not like to take a
picture with this witch. I got very embarrassed and asked her to be quiet
but she said that this girl has choose this boy just to get the green card
and was going to leave him merely in four months. It is so strange to note
that just before four months they were divorced.
Lately divorce is also becoming an epidemic
in the Muslim community and Amber has been counseling several girls but
unfortunately some of them do not listen to her advice and suffer. Amber has
told several families not to pursue marriages due to mismatch and in many
instances her advice was ignored and all of those marriages have failed. In
recent past she has told three girls to evaluate more about the man they
were getting married but they married them and ended up in divorce. Most of
the divorces are occurring due to either financial reasons or because of the
infidelity of either of the partners. Since our society is getting too open
and sex before marriage is becoming more acceptable by either of the
partners, it has opened a new dimension of the marriage, which is the major
reason of too many divorces. Parents need to counsel their children and
educate them to marry to make a family and try to adjust with each other’s
problems rather than divorce. If this epidemic continues, our next
generation will be as messed up as other advanced nations of western
countries.
Dr. A.Q. Afghan, Shikarpur
Dr. A.Q. Afghan, originally from Shikarpur,
was first came into my contact when I joined Sind University Engineering
College where he was Principal of the college. He was a typical Pathan a
very powerful and hardheaded man. Though our college was under the
jurisdiction of the Vice Chancellor, Sind University, he had established his
own kingdom and ran a parallel government. He always sponsored gangsters who
would give him absolute power that even his boss, the Vice Chancellor, was
intimidated by his strength. His major contribution was a liberal policy for
the Sindhis to get admissions to Engineering College, which gave a big but
inferior breed of Sindhi engineers. If he had been sincere with the cause of
Sind, he would have created a competition within the Sindhis and could have
produced a more highly educated class of engineers. As he gave admissions to
lot of weak candidates, unfair means in examinations became common and he
kept his eyes closed for such actions. However, looking behind, it seems
that his policy though did not produce high quality engineers but did
produce enough quantity of Sindhi engineers to capture jobs, which were
mainly occupied by the Urdu-speaking candidates. NED Engineering College, on
the other hand, though claimed to be high standard, was silently helping the
Urdu speaking candidates and discouraging students from Sind. His actions
can be justified to counter the action of the Urdu-speaking people in
Karachi to bring the Sindhis at par with them.
During my third year in college, I became
editor of a monthly engineering bulletin and annual magazine. It was then
that I had some interaction with Dr. Afghan and found him very abusive and
arrogant. He had no respect for good students and gangsters who ruled the
campus were well respected in his office.
Meanwhile, Sind University was administrated
by Vice Chancellor (VC) Hassan Ali Abdul Rahman, who never got along with
Dr. Afghan. Pir Mazhar UL Haque, former Sind Law Minister and prominent PPP
leader, was working as Public Relations Officer for the VC who was my elder
brother’s childhood friend. I used to share a room with Ghulam Nabi Memon
Morie, who was then elected as Vice President of Student union.
One day he told me that Pir Mazhar had asked
both of us to come and see the VC, but at dawn time so that our movements
are kept in secret. When we visited the home of the VC, Hassan Ali Abdul
Rahman, we were told that government had approved the upgradation of Sind
University Engineering College to a University of Engineering. We were told
that Dr. Afghan had been working against this cause, as he knew that he
would not be appointed as the VC of the new university. As he was being
selfish and was working for his own interest and hurting the only chance our
people would be getting to have an engineering university, Hassan Ali Abdul
Rahman wanted something to be done to eliminate Dr. Afghan from the scene. I
told him that it was practically impossible and we could be in danger if he
found out that we were making any move to dislocate him. During the
discussion, the Vice Chancellor gave us a lot of ammunition to attack Dr.
Afghan but Ghulam Nabi was not ready to make any move which could put our
lives in danger. I, after deep reflection, decided to take the required
action without telling anyone. My father was serving as Registrar
Co-operative Societies for Sind with head quarter office located in One Unit
Building at Hyderabad. I went to my father’s secretary and took him in
confidence and made him type up a questionnaire addressed to Dr. Afghan for
his activities. He made me 500 copies of the hand out and I dispersed those
very systematically and secretly by dropping 10 copies of the hand out in
each rest room of the Sind University. This was done between 2 a.m. and 4
a.m. when all the students were asleep. The next day the hand out was in
everyone’s hand and I left a copy of the hand out in Pir Mazhar’s office
without his knowledge. Dr. Afghan could not handle the allegations and the
Vice Chancellor asked legal experts to hold an enquiry against him to prove
his innocence against the allegations. However, the third day of the week,
Dr. Afghan tendered his resignation and within next one month the government
announced appointment of Dr. S.M. Qureshi as the Vice Chancellor of the new
Mehran Engineering University. Most of my close friends, who were
associated with Dr. Afghan, often wondered about who was behind that White
Paper against Dr. Afghan. I never revealed this secret to anyone till today
when it has been more than thirty years. I hope this is not going to hurt
the feelings of Dr. Afghan’s family. If they neutrally analyze, they will
realize that this was done in national interest, as creation of engineering
university was essential to produce highly qualified engineers from Sind. I
hope his relatives will forgive me. I always wondered why Dr. Afghan, who
was a very well known national leader of Sind, opposed the up gradation of
college: may be just to satisfy his own ego. I have no regret that I did
this and achieved the results.
On the other hand, this incident
gave a strong boost to Dr. Afghan’s career that later on he became Federal
Secretary for Science & Technology and served the country very well.
Abdul Fateh Memon, Larkana,
Sind
 Abdul Fateh Memon, son of Haji Wali Mohammad
Memon, was born in Shikarpur. He was my father’s first cousin. His father
was a cloth merchant in Shikarpur. He moved to Larkana with his two sons
where Abdul Fateh started his legal practice. He was very active in local
politics during partition time. He joined Muslim League and was elected as
general secretary for Sind Muslim League during Ayub Khoro’s tenure as
President. He was elected as member of West Pakistan Assembly and remained
active in politics until he was nominated as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi
Arabia in 1963 during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s tenure as Foreign minister of
Pakistan.
During the early 50s when Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto first came to Larkana after his foreign education, a historical
meeting was held at Abdul Fateh’s residence attended by Sir Shah Nawaz
Bhutto, Z.A. Bhutto and Sikander Bhutto. On the other side, Abdul Fateh, his
brother Nizamuddin, and my two cousins Dr. Ghulam Ali FRCS; and Ali Nawaz
were present. In this meeting a historical statement was made by Sir Shah
Nawaz Bhutto to request Abdul Fateh to teach Z.A. Bhutto the ins and outs of
Sind politics. This relationship lasted for several years. However, during
this time Z.A. Bhutto got closer to Uncle Nizamuddin and drifted from Abdul
Fateh.
During national elections in the late 50s,
Abdul Fateh filed nomination against Z.A. Bhutto. At the time Z.A. Bhutto
was Industries Minister in Ayub Khan’s cabinet. Due to close relationship
between Nizamuddin and Bhutto, the younger brother forced Abdul Fateh to
withdraw his nomination and let Z.A. Bhutto win the election unopposed.
Subsequently, Z.A. Bhutto returned the favor by appointing him as Ambassador
of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia.
His major achievement was to get Pakistan
Airlines landing rights in Saudi Arabia, which had been denied for so many
years owing to internal politics. This happened due to his close friendship
with Kamil Sindhi, Minister of Aviation for the kingdom, and an agreement
was reached to give General Sales Agency to Aziz Al Hussaini, an insider of
the Royal family.
He also authored a book titled Oil and
Faith and presented it to King Saud, who was so happy that he issued a
royal decree to send a yearly royal invitation to Abdul Fateh to visit the
kingdom for two weeks with first class airfare and accommodation until he
was alive.
His major accomplishment in my view is that
of establishing the first Commerce College in Larkana Sind, which produced
first generation of financial experts from Sind. He remained patron in chief
of the college till the college was taken over by the government of Sind.
Historically, there has been another
incident, which could have changed the course of Sind politics. As soon as
Z.A. Bhutto resigned from Ayub’s regime, he announced the formation of the
Pakistan People’s Party. Z.A. Bhutto approached Abdul Fateh through his son
Ali Nawaz Memon, who was then working in World Bank. By this time, Abdul
Fateh had finished his tenure as Ambassador and returned to Pakistan,
settled in Karachi and started his legal practice. One day Ali Nawaz tried
to talk to his father by conveying the message to his father about Mr.
Bhutto’s desire to join his party. Somehow, Ali Nawaz did not get the
response; therefore he did not go on with the same subject. Twenty-five
years later, one day, Ali Nawaz asked his father why he did not join
Bhutto’s party. His response was that he never heard the message as he had
developed deafness in one of his ears and Ali Nawaz happened to be close to
his deaf ear. According to experts’ views, if Abdul Fateh had joined the
PPP, he would have been the first Chief Minister of Sind.
On the other side, his brother Nizamuddin
was very close to Z.A. Bhutto and has remained loyal to the party for next
generation. His son, Khalid Iqbal Memon, was nominated for the party seat
from Larkana to represent the People’s Party as Member National assembly in
current assembly.
Uncle Abdul Fateh had eight sons and one
daughter: all well educated and well established. Dr. Ghulam Ali FRCS
serving in London; Ali Nawaz served World Bank for thirty plus years; Ali
Raza (deceased); Sikander lives in Egypt; Shafqat is chief financial Officer
of Islamic Bank; Captain (army) Mohammad Ali; Dr Jamal, a skin specialist;
and Shaheen, the youngest, works in a bank. His only daughter is married to
Anwar Memon, President of an Environmental Engineering firm in Canada.
Abdul Fateh Memon remained loyal to Muslim
League throughout his life and died peacefully a few years ago. He was again
a symbol of honesty and integrity and kept his head up and never traded his
conscience for money. His major achievement was to educate his kids to the
high level; besides, he produced so many talented people from his college.
Abdul Jabbar Gupchani, Nawabshah
Professor Abdul Jabbar Gupchani met me at a
very crucial juncture of my life. After my Matriculation (Junior High
school) results that I passed with first class, I was sent to Karachi to
attend DJ Science College to complete my Intermediate (Senior High school).
My two elder brothers Professor Shabir Ahmed
and Late Irshad Ahmed were also attending DJ College and N.E.D. Engineering
College at the same time. My cousin Khalid Iqbal (MNA Larkana PPP) was
living in the same Metha Ram Hostel.
New atmosphere and my romantic involvement
with someone kept me from studying properly so I barely passed the first
year college. My father was very upset and I was immediately shifted to
hometown Shikarpur. Here I was admitted in a hostel and was grounded to
visit the home till I could achieve my goal: first class degree in
intermediate school examination.
On the first day of my college there, I met
with Professor Abdul Jabbar Gupchani Khoso. He was in charge of the hostel.
When he heard that I have been sent there for a punishment, he gave me a
deal for the life. He wanted me to start praying five times and in return,
he promised, he would tutor me for English, Mathematics and Chemistry all
free of charge. What I perceive today is that he was a God-sent angle for
me. I took upon his offer and was successful in achieving my goal. Once I
passed my examination with a first class (equivalent to today’s grade A), my
father came with all his friends and honorably brought me to our home.
I can never thank my father for the
punishment he imposed upon me to mend ways of my life that consequently took
me to higher level. To me, my father and Professor Gupchani are the two
heroes in my life who helped me surmount the peaks. I wish there were
teachers like him who could steer students to high level and bring the
talent of our nation on the crossroad where they can serve their country.
During my visit to Pakistan a few years ago,
I went to see Prof. Gupchani and traveled to a small village twenty miles
off Nawabshah driving along dirty roads but unfortunately could not meet
him. However, I was delighted to know that he was busy teaching CSS students
in Nawabshah after his retirement. I wanted to thank him for my success and
hope he is well and healthy.
Abdul Jabbar Memon, Karachi
Jabbar Memon met me during my third year
engineering studies in Sind University Engineering College, Jamshoro. I used
to live in a special one-bed room suite in Mehran Hostel. This favor was
extended to me through Ghulam Nabi Morie, who used to be the Vice President
of student union. Once Ghulam Nabi graduated, I had the option to bring any
engineering student to live with me in this special hostel accommodation
which was offered to the professors of the college living in the hostels.
Jabbar met me through someone and I took him
with me. He was very smart and talkative and I knew that it would be an
educational experience to live with him. However, some of his habits made me
request him to move out from the room; nonetheless, we remained friends
afterwards.
Years later I found out that he had
established an auto parts industrial unit in Karachi that included
manufacture of oil filters, etc. He visited the U.S.A. several years ago and
I entertained him here. He invited me to visit him in Pakistan and after
several attempts I finally met him in the office of Pakistan Business
Federation where he was serving as Vice President.
I think among our college mates Jabbar was
one of the few who chose to be an entrepreneur and was also successful in
the venture. Though I disliked some of his habits, still his typical
Karachites style was the reason of his success. The main difference between
people from interior Sind and Karachi was the slickness and sharpness.
Jabbar had both the features engraved. He was smart and paid attention to
his education and had a vigorous nature to make money and I see him as one
of a few Sindhi successful businessmen.
Abdul Kadir Siddiqui, Sukkur/Karachi
Abdul Kadir Siddiqui belongs to the family
of Siddiqui’s from Shikarpur who subsequently moved to Sukkur. His brother
Jamal Siddiqui had opened the first restaurant at Lib-e-Mehran (on the bank
of the Indus). Jamal passed away of a sudden heart failure.
I met Abdul Kadir through my father long
after he was married to my cousin sister. Once I moved to Karachi in 1974,
he got friendly to me mainly due to my father whom he respected a lot. Once
he was posted in Karachi and I was married, we became close family friends.
His wife Saeeda was my most favorite cousin sister as my mother raised her
after her mother passed away. Kadir was one of the few honest judges I met.
He was a very competent professional and rose from Civil Judge to District
Judge and subsequently retired as Secretary Law for Sind Government.
He was never nominated to the High Court
Bench due to his unfriendly attitude. He was very reserved and sometimes
very rude. I have noticed one thing in the bureaucrats who are very honest:
they are not friendly and suffer in their career building process. Once I
asked Justice Retired Sajjad Ali Shah, Chief Justice Supreme Court, about
Abdul Kadir. He concurred with me that his career did not flourish mainly
because he was very secluded and rude even to his own colleagues.
Abdul Kadir had the reason to be bitter as
he was in love with some girl and while still engaged she passed away
suddenly giving him a shock for life. Saeeda being the best girl I have ever
met could not get him out of that trauma. He used to visit my sister in law
Rezm’s home frequently in the evenings and shared so many of his personal
thoughts with her and reason of his seclusion and bitterness from the trauma he went through.
I drew closer to him after the news of his
younger brother’s sudden death. That time Kadir was in Australia on an
educational mission. I took care of the funeral arrangements and was there
for him all the time until he came back to make the formal funeral
arrangements. Our relationship continued after my migration to the U.S.A.
In 1988, I met Sajjad Siddiqui, son of Jamal
Siddiqui, through Badur Sheikh, now living in New York. Sajjad had just
completed his MBA program and was looking for some sponsor for work and the
green card. Due to Kadir’s relationship I immediately offered him a job and
sponsorship and moved him to Pasadena, Texas to work for me.
In 1989, he received his green card and
married the daughter of Kadir’s sister. I loaned him $ 5000 to take care of
the wedding arrangements and he came to Pasadena with his wife. After the
marriage his expenses started rising. As a result, he started stealing money
from the company where he was in charge of the finances. He started using
third party credit cards and pocketing cash. Eventually, he was caught. Once
FBI contacted me over some illegal activity going on in my travel agency
where third party credit cards were being used for airline tickets. Once I
came face to face with about the issue, he had no answer. A total audit was
conducted that reveled that he had embezzled some $ 30,000 or so merely in
one year’s time.
Unfortunately, the audit report came on the
night of Eid day and I fired him before waiting for Eid. His family was
devastated by confronting the harsh fact. I sent all the documents to Kadir
not in order to get any money but to keep him informed. He did not
acknowledge my good will that I saved him from getting arrested by FBI as
well as paid the money to save him. The biggest regret was that Kadir
claimed to be honest. He should have had the guts to stand up for the truth.
Kadir never responded to my letter and was so mad at me that when I visited
his house during my visit to Pakistan, he stole out from the backdoor and I
was told that he was not available to see me. However, I had seen him
slipping away and could say that may be he had no guts to face the truth. To
talk about honesty, preaching about honesty and practicing honesty are all
essential components of honesty on the whole. At this juncture I think that
even though he was called one of the most honest judges, he was not honest
with me.
After retirement Abdul Kadir practiced law
and passed away a few years ago due to a sudden heart attack. Most probably
heart disease was in their genetics as most of his brothers died of heart
attacks as well as he lost his 19 year old son by the same disease. He has
two daughters and one son and his wife lives in Karachi.
Overall, I think he was an honorable man who
kept the standard of honesty high and I consider him one of the few honest
officers of Sind government.
Abdul Majeed Bughio, Dadu/Karachi
Abdul Majeed Bughio is by birth from a small
village close to Dadu, Sind. He met me during my college days in Sind
University Engineering College, Jamshoro. We lived in the same hostel and
went to the same class from first year engineering until final. Majeed is
presently serving as Professor of Electrical Engineering at National
Engineering College, formerly known as Dawood College.
Majeed is one of the most soft-spoken and
sweet persons I have met in my life. He was always friendly and never showed
any temper. Our friendship blossomed even after college and he is still in
contact with me. Later on he married one of my first cousins and became a
relative too. I consider him one of my few best friends.
Majeed and I spend a lot of time together
during our stay at Government Hostel, located at Garden road where we
dwelled for several years. Majeed was a very handsome and well-dressed
person hence very popular among girls. During 1974-75, I used to conduct a
television program from Karachi TV Station when we both had a lot of friends
from both sexes. We enjoyed friendship of many good-looking girls. At that
time making friends with opposite sex used to be very difficult since our
society never allowed contact between opposite sexes. Most of our hostel
mates living in government hostel used to be very jealous but never knew the
trade secret of Majeed for being so popular. He was very considerate and
generous and had a lavish lifestyle that consequently impressed the girls.
Majeed was married to his cousin in his
village but never revealed this secret to anyone. During his marriage
process to my cousin, he kept me in darkness. I always regretted this. I
feel that he knew that his second marriage would not take place if his
previous marriage status was became known; therefore, he kept it hidden from
me. All I can opine is that God makes the pairs and no one could have
stopped that marriage and it was in his destiny to marry my cousin. He now
has two beautiful and credulous kids and a good family. Whenever I visit
Pakistan, they all show tremendous amount of love and respect and are very
hospitable.
Academically Majeed was not very bright but
due to his positive and friendly attitude, he adjusted himself well in a
professional institution like National College of Engineering. In my view,
he could have been a better administrator and could have been more
successful if opted for doing a business.
Aijaz Mangi, Shikarpur/Karachi
Aijaz Mangi, now settled in Karachi, is
originally from Shikarpur. I met Aijaz after he married my father’s first
cousin. Then he was Civil Judge in Sehwan, Dadu District.
Aijaz is an open-minded, friendly human
being; however, he has little mind for money. During my stay in Karachi,
1975-78, we were very close to each other. He was living as a paying guest
at the residence of a Punjabi family. It was when he got involved with the
sister in law of the landlord and eventually married her. His fate changed
as soon as he married the second time when his services as a Civil Judge
were terminated due to corruption charges and he was forced to practice law.
As an attorney he could not carry himself to a high rank. Thus he had to
work on minor cases or represent small companies and semi government
agencies as their legal advisor.
While he was involved with his landlord’s
sister in law who was from a very loving and nice family, I tried to let the
girl know about Aijaz’s first marriage. But as they say love is blind, they
got married without my knowledge. On the other side of the picture, his
first wife always blamed me as if I was solely responsible for Aijaz’s
second marriage. Unfortunately, people always blame others for their
mistakes and never realize why people tend to drift to seek new
relationships. In today’s competitive world, women have to work extra hard
to keep their husbands faithful to them. I see that working women,
particularly, have problems in keeping their husbands faithful. On the other
side there is always poetic justice and people suffer because of their own
mistakes committed in the past. One should look within him or herself for
the punishment God gives for the deeds they have done in the past.
Interesting to note is that Aijaz’s first wife was instrumental to get her
elder brother married to a Punjabi girl while he was already married to his
cousin. History repeats itself and one gets punished for the wrong one has
done to others. The only regret I have is that I got blamed for some one
else’s actions.
I am still on friendly terms with Aijaz and
his second wife treats me like a brother. She is one of the finest human
beings I have met in my life. Aijaz has one son and one daughter from his
first wife and two sons from his second wife. The kids are very nice and
well settled.
Congressman Judge Al Green, Houston
 Judge Al Green, member of U.S. Congress, is
one of the few congressmen who have supported the Pakistanis and other
Muslims of Houston any time we have turned to him for help. Al Green has
been an admirable personal friend and supporter and I see great potential in
him to rise to a higher level. Al Green has a friendly posture and his
affectionate style is similar to President Clinton, who gave 100 % attention
to anyone he was speaking to. Though I was a strong supporter of him during
his election campaign, some of the MQM gangsters joined him: this sidelined
me from his office. However, I knew that by the time he found out the
character of those people he would revert back to us to seek our help. And
now I can see him, by the passage of time, getting closer and closer to us
than many others. He meets us regularly at private dinners and discusses our
issues and has extended all the help possible. In politics, some time bad
elements support candidates to make their ends meet. In return, politicians
are forced to support them. But smart politicians keep them at an arm’s
length. They make efforts only to support the genuine causes of the people.
Al Green has supported not only our community but also all the minorities.
He is a strong voice in the congress for the poor. As soon as he was
elected, he became member of Pakistani caucus in the U.S. Congress and has
visited Pakistan several times and supported our issues inside and outsides
Congress.
Ali Nawaz
Memon, Larkana/Washington DC, U.S.A.
 Ali
Nawaz Memon, son of Abdul Fateh Memon (my father’s first cousin), was born
in Shikarpur. After uncle’s migration to Larkana, he was educated there and
secured first class first position in High School Examination of the whole
province of Sind. Ali was sent to the U.S.A. in the 50s where he obtained a
degree in electrical engineering and masters in business administration. He
joined World Bank as Financial Analyst and worked over thirty years in this
prestigious institution. He rose to a high diplomatic rank that was
equivalent to ambassadors of various countries, when he was posted at
foreign missions. Whenever Ali visited Pakistan, he was received by Chairman
WAPDA, Chairman KESC, and many top officials due to his position in World
Bank where he was loan-approving authority for water and power projects. As
he is an expert on water and electricity, he is still invited as an expert
and consultant to help various agencies including Pakistan Government
Ali was
our first relative and first Memon who migrated to the U.S.A. and has been
my mentor in certain ways. He is one of the few cousins I have been in
regular contact. He is a man of principles. I will never forget the incident
when he supported me instead of his own brother. In an issue, he trusted my
word more than his brother’s. Ali is a very loving, friendly and social
person and always hospitable to people coming from Pakistan. He has written
two books and presently serves as Vice President of Pakistan People’s Party,
U.S.A. I think it is very hard to find anyone better traveled than him as he
used to being on foreign missions three weeks a month.
 Ali
married one of our cousin sisters who was raised by my mother after the
death of her mother and was as close to us as a real sister. Ali has been
blessed with three children. Kamran is civil rights attorney practicing in
Chicago. He is very much involved in affairs related to the Muslims. Reshma,
a freelance writer for various USA’s mainstream newspapers, is married to
Aamir, son of Dr. Yaqoob, former Governor of State Bank Pakistan. Nouman is
working in Washington DC. Ali and his wife are one of the best couples known
in our family. The only thing missing in them is that they could have helped
many of our relatives to migrate to the U.S.A. when the U.S. immigration
policy was so liberal. Contrary to him, many of my friends have settled so
many of their friends and relatives in the U.S.A. Ali could have done better
in this field.
 Ali
was invited by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to serve as chairman of
NEPRA (National Electrical Power Regulatory Authority). He served a few
years on the post and returned to the U.S.A. due to family reunification.
During Benazir Bhutto’s recent visit to Houston, he was invited exclusively
to chat with her. The chat lasted three hours past midnight. Due to his
close relationship I was also invited to have an open discussion with her on
all issues and got aquatinted with Benazir Bhutto and have been in touch
with her since then.
Ali has
been deeply involved in theological aspects of the community problems but
has always been bashful to take practical part in solving any problems. He
has a nature of not getting dirty in problems. I conjecture that he thinks
that his efforts might not bring the desired results. In contrast, I differ
from him as I always jumped in the battlefield and tried to change the
things and have also succeeded a few times though failed many a times.
However, I always enjoyed the fight and made a difference. Ali is an expert
on water issue facing Pakistan particularly Sind; however, he is not as
vocal on this issue as I would expect him to be; it is may be because of his
job where he cannot be so blunt and bestow his truthful and honest public
opinion.
Ali is a
generous person and always helps his relatives in need and does it very
discreetly. In my opinion he could have been more effective in getting his
community people job opportunities while he enjoyed high and prestigious
position in society. However he feels that utilizing his position to help
any one would have compromised his integrity. In my view, our community
underutilized his talents as he could have produced better results in many
national issues in particular Water and Power problems facing our nation.
Ashfaque Memon CSP
Hyderabad.
Ashfaque was classmate and childhood friend
of my elder brother, late Irshad Memon. When I joined Sind University
Engineering College, Jamshoro, in 1969, Ashfaque was in final year
engineering. He was always very loving and nice to me and treated me just
like his own brother. When we lived in GOR (Government Officers Colony)
Hyderabad, he used to visit us on a regular basis. He was a very smart and
intelligent individual and acquired first position in most of his
engineering examinations. After that he appeared in CSS examination and
achieved his goal by getting appointed in DMG group. He has served as
provincial secretary of so many departments and I anticipate seeing him as
federal secretary any time these days.
After I migrated to the U.S.A., I lost
contact with him. But when I visited Pakistan during the mid 80s, he was
posted as Registrar Co-Operative Societies Sind. During my evening walks I
met his private secretary who an acquaintance of mine as my father also
served in the same position several years ago. I told Ashfaque’s PS to let
him know that I was there. Our houses were in the same vicinity so I thought
that he would make an effort to meet with me. Within a few days I met his PS
for two more times during my walk and he gave me Ashfaque’s message. The
message stated that if I needed some help, the PS would take care of the
problem. I was very furious and sent him a return message: “You bureaucrats
just think of material things and have forgotten all the values of
friendship and love.” I never met him during that visit and kept on
wondering that perhaps times have changed and we in the U.S.A. still carry
the old values.
A few years later, one day I got a call from
Ashfaque saying that he would like to visit us during his trip from
Pennsylvania to Los Angles. I was very mad at him and started being
outspoken on him. On the other hand, he justified his action by telling of
the new trend and prevailing culture in Pakistan that people see each other
only when they have some work. According to him, selfish interests have
superseded friendship and love. He thought I had some favor to be taken care
of in his office and so he instructed his PS to take care of it as he was
going through some physical problems. Once I heard his point of view, I
fully agreed with him that our culture has changed and people with only some
material interest to pursue will meet you. Once you are of no use to anyone,
they avoid seeing you. After his visit to us with his family we revived our
old friendship and have been in constant touch with each other and since
then he has treated me like a friend and not a man in material need. He has
a loving family and sweet children who are always cordial to my family and
my children.
Ashfaque has done a lot of work to help his
people particularly from his hometown. One day I visited him at his office
when someone came to see him and I overheard that there were only two boys
who needed jobs from his hometown. He wanted to help them to accomplish
their goal. I wish our bureaucrat friends take the task of developing their
own hometowns during their days in power and help the country to prosper
instead of accumulating wealth and spend on unnecessary activities.
Late
Ashfaque Memon (PIA)
Ashfaque Memon, younger brother of Justice
Hafeez Memon (former Justice of Supreme Court), got acquainted with me in
1968 when I joined D.J. Science College Karachi. Ashfaque was one of the
most soft-spoken and loving friends I ever met. During our class breaks he
would come to the common room of Metha Ram Hostel where I resided and played
table tennis with me. He used to live in Muslimabad near P.E.C.H.S.
Society. He often invited me to his house at weekends. Because I acquired
poor grades in first year college studies, my father sent me back to
Shikarpur where I was grounded until I achieved first class in my
Intermediate Science examination. I lost touch with Ashfaque until I joined
PIA in 1975. By then he had earned his engineering degree and was serving as
lecturer in Dawood College of engineering, presently known as National
College of Engineering.
Ashfaque and I socialized on constant basis
and I kept on pursuing him to join PIA as flight engineer as he loved to
fly. His elder brother Shafi Mohammad was also working in PIA as ground
engineer. I often talked him into helping Ashfaque to get a job in PIA.
Upon my insistence, he pushed his elder brother, Justice Hafeez Memon to ask
the then Chief Minister Mumtaz Bhutto to request Air Marshall Noor Khan, the
then Chairman PIA, to help Ashfaque to join PIA.
Ashfaque was asked to meet with Noor Khan
but he was somewhat shy and was not ready to meet with him. One day I forced
him, took him with me, and played as his elder brother and got him face to
face with Noor Khan. He issued instructions for Ashfaque’s appointment and
in a few months he was flying. However, God, Almighty, had some other plans
for him as one day, when I was working in my PIA office, I heard the news
that a PIA flight had crashed in Taif Saudi Arabia. Immediately I received
the news that Ashfaque was flight engineer on board the flight. This was one
of my saddest days as it was me who always pushed him to join PIA as flight
engineer. He never served more than six months: good people are summoned
backstage by the Almighty Director much sooner. The worst part of my
saddened self was to visit his room after his death. It was still decorated
with flowers of his wedding, which took place just a few months ago.
Ashfaque’s loss was as shocking to me as the loss of my elder brother,
Irshad, who died in a car accident outside Pakistan Machine Tools Factory in
1971. The following poem is dedicated to Ashfaque.
AROUND THE
CORNER
Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet days go by and week rush on,
And before I know a year is gone.
And I never see my old friend’s face,
For life is swift and terrible race.
He knows I like him just as well
As in the days when I rang his bell
And he rang mine.
We were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men;
Tired with playing a foolish game,
Tired with trying to make a name.
“Tomorrow “, I say, “I am thinking of him
But tomorrow comes; and tomorrow goes;
Around the corner yet miles away….
“Here is a telegram Sir, “…. Jim died
today.”
And that’s what we get and deserve in the
end
Around the corner, a vanished friend.
--
Charles Hanson Towne
Ashraf
Jehangir Syed, Houston
My wife Amber has been always infatuated by people with spiritual gifts. At
a spiritual sitting, we were introduced to Ashraf Jehangir. He claimed that
he had control of Jins (supernatural elements) and he could cure spiritually
afflicted people. As Amber is gifted with some special power to see through
people, I became interested in knowing if there was any truth about the
existence of supernatural spirits. Ashraf, my wife, and I worked as a group
for the next one and a half-year. Going from door to door, we tried to help
people with spiritual problems. Ashraf fell highly impressed by Amber’s gift
and started using her talent to help people overcome their problems.
I never believed in the existence of spirits but Ashraf showed me a
different world where there was existence of all kinds of spirits good and
bad ones. In our initial sittings, I took a video recorder to tape the
sitting. To my amusement, when I replayed the tape after arrival of the
spirits, the humans disappeared from the video. Only the audio was left. It
really fascinated me as to what process occurred when the human bodies
disappeared though physically he or she was present.
Time elapsed and I noticed that though Ashraf had a gift to get spirits
appear before us, he could not have cure for the people who suffered from
spiritual diseases. He kept on using Amber’s gift to impress people as if he
knew what to do and he could see through them. Once I figured him out we
slowed down our visits.
Despite
the fact that Ashraf had the gift to make the Jins appear before him, he
could not help people. Therefore, he recorded conversations with spirits
and replayed before new clients to impress them. Initially he never charged
any money from people but later on providing his services commercially.
One day a friend
of mine called me and told me that Ashraf played a tape of my close friend’s
wife who was having some problems. I was very upset with Ashraf and met him.
When he denied that he had played no such tape anywhere. I reprimanded him
that recording people’s voice without their consent and then replaying in
front of others was a federal offence and he could be jailed for it.
However, he lied to me and insisted that he never played any such tape. And
my friend was ready to produce several witnesses to prove that he was lying.
Unfortunately, our relationship ended at this junction as I lost faith in
him because I expected him to be man of God to help people not to exploit
their weaknesses. Also he stared charging money from his clients and had been
very successful in proving to be a spiritual healer to many. He left his
engineering job and is working full time curing people of spiritual diseases
whereas in my view he has only the power to diagnose a spiritual wound and
no power to cure.Dr. Aziz Siddiqui, Houston
Dr. Aziz Siddiqui and I became
acquainted when I was working as advisor to the Mayor of Houston. Aziz was
very active in Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH) which was led by
Saeed Siddiqui. After completion of Saeed’s tenure, Aziz was elected the
President of ISGH. After living in Houston for more than twenty years, Aziz
is the only President of ISGH who showed broad vision and used the influence
of his position to represent the Muslims of Houston. Aziz became president
in the post 9/11 era and worked tirelessly with interfaith groups to send a
strong message to the mainstream politicians that all the Muslims were not
terrorists. Aziz has since devoted himself to upgrade image of the Muslims
in Houston and its surrounding areas. He has developed a very close
relationship with the American media and homeland security officials. He has
hugely contributed in the efforts to spread the message of Islam.
For instance, once he and a few of
us were invited to address a convention of homeland security officers where
there were at least 500 plus FBI and law enforcement agents. He brought 200
copies of Holy Quran and gave away free copies to the law enforcement agents
to help them to understand Islam. To my amusement there was so much demand
that I took addresses of about seventy-five agents who wanted a copy of the
Quran. Aziz later on mailed a copy of Quran to each person who asked for.
Aziz and I worked very closely and
started a tradition of celebrating Ramadan Dinner at the City Hall. Since
then every year the Muslims of Houston gather in City Hall and invite every
one to participate in Ramadan dinner.
Unfortunately, due to friction
caused by a few of the local leaders, Aziz lost election on his second term,
which can be called the biggest defeat for the Muslims. We need people like
Aziz who can penetrate in mainstream American society with their look and
education and let the people know that Islam is a religion of peace and
harmony and that it does not, at any rate, promote terrorism.
It is so interesting that Aziz
even not holding any position in ISGH is working in mainstream and educating
people about the basic essence of Islam.
Aziz by profession is an
environmental engineer and has earned his Ph.D. in Environmental engineering
and is shy of writing the title of Dr. before his name because of several
people who buy fake Ph.D. degrees for
$ 200 and proudly present themselves as
doctors. I always jest upon him and often remark: “How come you are shy of
revealing your doctorate status to people when fake degree holders are
appointed as ministers in federal cabinets.”
Aziz is one of the few inspiring
personalities. Though he is a little media conscious like all of us but his work is so much
superior that he deserves to be entitled with, at least, a little benefit.
To my analysis, he carries a high standard and can work on the higher level
and confidently represent the Muslims Ummah at all levels.
Aziz Soomro,
Houston
Aziz Soomro got acquainted with me while I
worked as an electrical engineer with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)
at Karachi Airport. As I was involved in community service right from the
beginning of my career, I organized a Sindhi Employee Association to support
cause of the Sindhi employees of PIAC. At that time I served the people
coming from interior Sind. I helped them in getting jobs and tried to solve
their problems in government offices.
Aziz, Nasurallah Yusufani, and I took some
timely action that resulted in the employment for at least 350 candidates
from interior Sind. Though it was my idea, however I do not want to deny
some credit to Aziz, Nasurallah Yusufani and Abdul Kadir Jamoot. They all
helped me in this venture that settled so many people from interior Sind who
had no chance to compete with people from Karachi.
After my immigration to the U.S.A., I once
again met Aziz in Houston when he and I organized Houston Chapter of Sindhi
Association of North America (SANA) and worked very closely to help Sindhi
immigrants to settle in the new environment. Side by side, we started
playing tennis on a regular basis and bonded very well. As soon as Houston
Chapter of SANA was organized, there was a struggle for leadership among the
members. With the support of Iqbal Tareen, some young and eager members of
SANA gave me a feeling that my services were not needed to them. At this
time Aziz also supported the opposite group and we chose separate ways.
I started taking part in mainstream American
politics and Aziz remained involved with SANA. This was a turning point of
my political career. As I got out of the ethnic politics and worked in
national politics, many doors opened up for me. I served as Advisor to Mayor
of City of Houston, President of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Trustee
for Pakistani Association of greater Houston besides being Democratic Party
prescient chair and prescient election judge and served as member of so many
boards. In a way I thank the people who sidelined me from SANA because if
after all opened new venues for me to serve my people.
Aziz was a clerk in PIA and did not have any
professional degree. But he worked as an insurance agent and earned enough
to support him and his family. Unfortunately, he did not have any children
from his first wife and it ended up in divorce and he subsequently married a
few more times and has struggled to make a family. He is very much involved
in affairs of Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH). Overall, he is a
decent human being. However, he lacked assessment of human culture and did
not know who was friend and who was an enemy.
Azizullah Memon, Shikarpur/Quetta
Azizullah Memon Advocate was my
father’s first cousin. My grand father had eight brothers and he was son of
the youngest late Fazaullah Memon. After his law degree, he, for a short
period, tried to practice in Larkana where my other uncles Abdul Fateh and
Nizamuddin Memon had also started practicing. But he immediately moved to
Quetta, Baluchistan. He went up to a level to be appointed as Attorney
General for Baluchistan and was nominated to serve as High Court judge but
never served on the position.
He was married to his cousin and had two
children from this wedlock. After his moving to Quetta he married again and
had several children. Due to his second marriage and abandoning his first
family, he was somewhat discarded from the family; thus, only few family
members associated with him.
I met him a few times but found
him very arrogant and like someone who lacked love for youngsters. One of
his sons is serving in DMG group of Civil service and has served as Deputy
Commissioner at various locations.
The reason I picked Azizullah’s name
to write about him is not to expose his weaknesses but to narrate a story of
poetic justice. Azizullah’s sisters never got along with his first wife
therefore encouraged their brother to marry again which made him abandon his
first wife and children.
His first wife was daughter of a very
virtuous, pious and religious man who was so much involved in Islamic
knowledge that he used to recite holy Quran during his sleep. Azizullah’s
first wife was a decent and honest woman and dedicated her whole life to
support her two children by working at petty jobs. At the end of the day her
one child became Ph.D. Doctor and another is serving as medical
practitioner.
On the other side, all sisters of
Azizullah suffered and could not settle in their family life. The story of
this section of the family is an example of God’s justice: one pays for the
ill doings right here and suffers for their bad deeds. I wish people tried
to love other humans and accept each other as God Almighty has created them
and adjust with each other rather than hurt innocent creatures of God. One
should not forget that there is poetic justice and God always punishes
people who have done wrongs to others. I do not know about Azizullah but
rest of his family always suffered and remained in seclusion.
Bashir Ahmed Moriani, Shikarpur
Bashir Moriani passed his PCS exam
in 1963 and was posted as Assistant Commissioner Khandhkot Jacobabad
District. At the time my father was serving as Additional District
Magistrate at Jacobabad. Mohammed Yusuf CSP, one of the few honest central
superior service officers, was serving as Deputy Commissioner Jacobabad at
the time.
One day DC Yusuf called my father
and asked him to hold an enquiry of a false traveling bill submitted by
Bashir Moriani. Bashir was asked to attend a government meeting at Karachi
and he claimed that he had traveled by train in the Air-conditioned
compartment. Unfortunate for him was the fact that a local MNA and Barrister
Darya Khan Khoso had already uttered unintentionally to DC Yusuf that Bashir
had traveled with him in his car to attend the meeting.
My father was a man of principles
and always upheld the law. During the enquiry he found out that Bashir had
tried to cheat on the government. Bashir expected that my father would
support him as he also was from Shikarpur. Irrespective of so much influence
and pressure exercised by him, my father wrote the report against him and
asked the DC to reprimand him for the illegal action he observed. Bashir
never admitted his mistake and never appreciated what my father did to him
by avoiding to write a report demanding to dismiss him from Service.
In 1974, when I had earned my
degree in electrical engineering, I wanted to join the Industries Department
of Sind Government where there was a vacant position requiring my
qualifications. Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi was the Chief Minister of Sind and my
Uncle Nizamuddin Memon was working as Advisor to the Prime Minister Shaheed
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for political affairs. Bashir Moriani was the provincial
secretary for Industries Department. I asked Uncle Nizam to get my
appointment order issued from the Chief Minister who did and the file was
sent to Bashir for issuance of formal appointment order. This process should
have been completed within one week but Bashir kept on dodging and never
issued my order. After about three months I was approached by a good friend
of mine Nisar Channa who informed me that he had made a deal to pay Rs
50,000 to Bashir Moriani for the same position which I was seeking. He asked
me if I could ask my uncle to get his application endorsed by the Chief
Minister Jatoi for consideration only. When I told uncle Nizam he wanted to
experiment with Nisar’s story and got his application endorsed by the chief
minister. Nisar was appointed as Assistant Director Industries next day and
started his work immediately. Uncle Nizam was very furious and reported this
matter to the Prime Minister Bhutto during an open town hall meeting called
Kuchahry. Bashir was dismissed from his job on the spot and PM Bhutto asked
uncle Nizam to send me to meet with Salahddin Qureshi, General Manger
Employment PIAC. Next week I joined PIA as ground engineer. In about next
two years, I was appointed as Electrical Engineer Public works PIA and was
in charge of qualification of contractors who would bid for PIA construction
projects.
One day I received a call from
Shamsheer Haideri, Editor of Nain Zindagi (a renowned monthly
periodical of Sindhi language) asking me to do a favor to his friend whom he
wanted to bring to me. Shamsheer and I were working in association on my
weekly program being telecasted from Karachi Television station; therefore I
told him to visit me at his convenience. To my astonishment, the person he
brought with him in my office was no one but Bashir Moriani who at that time
was making a living as a contractor. Once I introduced myself to him he
could hardly lift up his face and never returned to my office due to
embarrassment and humiliation.
The moral of this story is that
Bashir took revenge of my father’s honesty and denied me the job and
appointed someone after receiving illegal gratification. As such he was
punished by God to come to me asking for a favor. On the other hand, Nisar
Channa, who had started his career with illegal activities was eventually
sentenced to jail for illegal practice of power. I was sent to a superior
place to work where I came across Faheem Lodi, an engineer in PIA, who was
instrumental player in having me marry to his sister in law. This ended up
on my immigration to U.S.A. and changed the course of my life.
This is the reason why I always preach
people not to ask for anything from God but to always ask for His guidance
and let Him make the right decision for you as He can never put you on the
wrong track. This is one of the most fascinating stories of my life where
someone tried to hurt me but it resulted in my advantage. I am glad I did
not push for it and followed the path God choose for me and today I perceive
to be a winner.
Benazir
Bhutto, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
 I met Benazir Bhutto for the first
time when she visited Houston few years back. Though my family was very
closely associated with the Bhutto family for three generations, we grew up
in different environments so never finding a chance to interact. However, I
always kept an analytical look on her political career and wrote some papers
for her during her tenure as Prime Minister of Pakistan. She was very
impressed from my articles and complimented generously.
During our first meeting in
Houston, I was serving as Advisor to Mayor of Houston Bill White who
happened to be the classmate of Mir Murtaza during Benazir’s education in
Oxford University. I connected two old friends and it was a very emotional
time for her as well as for Mayor Bill White to recall the tragic murder of
Murtaza Bhutto.
After the public gathering,
Benazir invited my cousin Ali Nawaz Memon to have dinner with her and later
on I was asked to join her for political discussions. I gave her my views
about the reasons of her failures and gave several recommendations to
regroup herself and her party to come back in power. She was very patient
and listened to my advice very carefully. Later on when she found about my
wife Amber’s gift to see through past and future, she revealed her want to
see her. As Amber had already left for home, she spoke to her over the phone
for 45 minutes and Amber gave her views where she stood in her personal and
political life and suggested few ideas which could bring her back in power.
I found Benazir very tactful and to
the point. When she was meeting people, she had already made an observation
if she would shake hand and move to the next person or she would talk to the
person or invite him to be seated with her. As soon as she was finished she
had a very cordial way to end the conversation and moved on to the next
person very without a slight faltering.
I spend three and half-hours with
her that night and gave following few ideas to her.
Considering that most of the
political decisions are done by the US government it was necessary for
Pakistan Peoples’ Party to form an advisory council consisting of supporters
of the PPP who are deeply working in mainstream American politics. I
suggested her that she should encircle ten big cities of USA and create
local councils and ask them to lobby her cause among local congressional and
senatorial contacts to raise a unified support to bring democracy in
Pakistan. In my view even today if there is a fair election in Pakistan, the
PPP will take the majority seats and will be able to form government at
center and at least two major provinces Punjab and Sind.
Also I suggested her to contact
the old generation of the PPP supporters and try to bring the old guard back
and revitalize the party. Simultaneous to it, the PPP had to find common
ground with the Army leadership and give them assurance that they were well
fed. Unfortunately, this is a fact that the Army has established themselves
not only as defense organization but as political and financial group that
directly or indirectly controls all major institutions. The politicians are
always portrayed as the failure because they do not have control of the
major institutions.
Additionally, I suggested that
Asif Zardari, her husband, had been trapped as an escape goat to label him
the cause of her problems. Though it is not true but the army and opposition
parties like MQM had been systematically busy in his deforming his character
and portrayed him as a villain in Pakistani political arena. I said: “Asif
has to change his style and play a positive role to create an understanding
with Army generals to come back in power.”
At present, due to full support from U.S.A.,
Pakistani Army does not entertain any need to negotiate with the PPP or any
other party to share the power. It has been history of Pakistani politics
that whenever the army needs democratic institutions to recover from their
disastrous state, they drag to the forefront the politicians keeping their
power limited and bring wipe them off from the scene as soon as their
existence becomes fruitless. According to me, Benazir should have stayed in
opposition rather than accepting position as Prime Minister with very little
power. I think this time around she is more experienced and wiser and will
make a right decision when the time comes; for instance, when the army is
ready to bring the politicians to run the government.
During discussions with me, she
had a genuine complaint from the educated party workers who used the party
as a ladder to switch to the side of establishment and caused her
embarrassment. This is the reason she has to keep balance between those
uneducated workers who are loyal to her rather than those educated people
who cannot take the pressure and sell their integrity to the dictators for
petty favors or a temporary position as senator or minister. I very strongly
agree with her that a lot of people have merely used the PPP and abandoned
the party. Unfortunately, our people lack character and honesty and sell
themselves and never stand up for the democratic values to serve the poor
people of Pakistan.
 I am confident that if Benazir is
re-elected as Prime Minister, she will try to bring some dedicated and
honest people to work for her who can run some programs for poor masses of
the country that will uplift her image. She will have to learn to share
power with the army, bureaucracy, and opposition groups to take the country
to political stability. The major item on her agenda should be an acceptable
power sharing formula that could guarantee the political process. Asif can
play a pivotal role with her if he can mature himself and be politically
conscious as how to handle the people, how to interact with the army,
bureaucracy, and financial institutions. The major exploitation against him
has been of making money from various deals. Being myself a businessman, I
know that power can be used to make a lot of legal deals to make money. Asif
being a seasoned businessman made so many deals to make money legally. And
this caused him so much pain in exploitation but at the end of the day no
court could prove that he had done anything wrong. I think money making
should not be the prime target to get in power. If we serve the people and
improve living standard of the masses, people would love to re-elect us. One
has to decide if one wants to be a politician or a businessperson and what
is his/her prime target: fame or money. One has to set his or her priorities
in life and act accordingly.
As far as I see, Benazir will get
one more chance to rule the country and this will be her last chance to
leave her legacy as a strong and seasoned politician. If she has learnt from
her mistakes and does not commit those blunders and finds common ground to
solve the problems, she will be remembered in the pages of history for
saving this fragile country which is already at the verge of failing both as
a nation and as a country.
2007:
Why Benazir Was Assassinated?
Since last four
decades Pakistan is controlled by a group of people called "Establishment"
which consist of top feudals, businessmen, bureaucrats, officers of the
armed forces and ISI (Inter services Intelligence Agency). This group of the
people has controlled Pakistani Politics to attain and serve their own
interest and have been using politicians as pawns who has appetite for
power.
Late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto former Prime Minister of Pakistan was inserted in
this group to serve the agenda of this establishment and as soon as he
deviated his plans to serve the people he was first removed from the office
as Foreign Minister and then eliminated from the Pakistani politics.
Nawaz Sharif former
Prime Minister was also creation of this establishment and was fired once he
deviated from their program.
Benazir Bhutto was
made Prime Minister with so many stipulations and was used and fired once
their purpose was fulfilled.
President Pervaiz
Musharaf was selected by this elite group and has been puppet of the
establishment since last several years and once he stared deviating a little
from their agenda he was weakened by them.
Once Benazir Bhutto
arrived in Pakistan with a massive mandate and historic welcome by 3 million
people her assassination plans were on the drawing board and were very
systematically executed to keep this cluster of evil in full domination and
control. Today’s events will give full justification to them to eliminate
Musharaf and bring another Army rule and this process of exploiting the
system will carry on.
In my view this is
not an act of Al-Quida but an inside job with the blessing of our
establishment to eliminate Benazir from political scene to achieve their
sinister goals.
United States must
immediately cut off all the aid in fighting fake war against terrorism which
has been twisted by these elements to extract foreign aid. USA must invest
its resources to upgrade lives of poor masses of Pakistan instead of giving
free hand to billions of dollars to this group to improve our international
image.
Bill White, Mayor, City of Houston
 During my tenure as Advisor to
Mayor Lee P. Brown who was serving his last term as Mayor, everyone was
discussing about the next Mayor. Orlando Sanchez, who had lost his bid
against Mayor Brown, was very strong candidate. With blessings from White
House and Republican Party he looked the best candidate. In August 2003, I
was invited by someone from the Mayor’s office to attend the announcement
party for Bill White. He was unknown to many of us but I was told that he
would emerge as the leading candidate. I discussed the matter with my
spiritual guide, my wife Amber, who had also foreseen that he would be the
winner and she encouraged me to attend the party. I attended his
announcement party at minute Maid Park and waited till he was left with only
a bunch of people. When I introduced myself to him he asked me: “Where are
you from?” “Pakistan,” I told him. “Where from Pakistan?” he asked. I
replied: “From Sind province.” He inquired of me: “Where from Sind?” I
solemnly uttered “Larkana.” He then came up: “I have been to your hometown
four times.” I later found out that he was roommate of Mir Murtaza Bhutto
and classmate of Benazir Bhutto in Oxford London. When I told him about my
affiliation with the PPP, we immediately made a connection and he invited me
to visit him in his office. On our second meeting my first question to him
was if he would support city of Houston affirmative action program which
guarantees thirty percent of the contracts to the minorities. (Keep in mind
that I had no interest in any city contracts.) He stated that he would
support the program. We discussed political strategy and I handed over some
suggestions to him, which he appreciated. (Copy of my ideas is given in
chapter American political system).
As soon as he accepted me on his
team, I started working part time in his campaign office and made gross root
efforts to get him elected. I established a satellite campaign office for
him in Clear Lake area, which is an affluent neighborhood of Houston. My
main thought to join his campaign was to continue serving the community and
help the minorities to be part of main stream American politics. Bill White
was very open-minded and his wife Andrea White, who worked shoulder to
shoulder with him, was also very inspiring. He always portrayed himself as a
self-made person offering opportunities to everyone and speaking about his
Hispanic heritage. We all thought that he would be excellent choice for the
minorities and I forced several of my friends to support him financially
with huge checks even though they were close to his opponent Orlando Sanchez
who was a Cuban immigrant.
During the campaign
besides raising more than $ 75,000 I organized a group of local restaurant
owners to supply daily food for the campaign staff. This program lasted for
almost three months till the last day of election when we served food for
approximately 600 workers. All this hard work was done to get access for the
community in the new administration just like Mayor Brown provided us during
his tenure.
After the election,
things started changing. Once Bill white was elected and took oath to
office, most of the old staff was displaced and new people started working.
This was a routine to change the staff except for the people who worked
closely with the new candidate. As I used to work for
$ 1.00 per year salary and was not a
financial liability to the city and I was sure that Bill White would fulfil
his commitment to have a representative from our community in the City Hall.
However as things changed rapidly and instead of offering me some task to
work on; an attitude of ignorance was observed towards me so that I should
leave the office myself. At this time new chief of staff Michael Moore
invited me several times for meetings but it became evident that minorities
were not very much welcome in the new administration.
During Mayor Lee Brown’s time a
homogeneous staff consisting of all colors and religions worked in the City
Hall. Suddenly, a colorblind atmosphere transformed into one predominant
color. All key positions were assigned to the Caucasian staff. By this time
Mayor White hired people from various media organizations to attract media
attention like all politicians who are conscious of what the media gurus are
writing or airing for them. On the other side, he hired several Republican
Party members to show that he was working bipartisan. His choice to appoint
a former staff director of Republican Congressman Tom Delay, gave an
impression that he was working on a different agenda. However the policy was
very visible that minorities were not welcomed and the Mayor was more
interested to use them as a ladder to climb up to achieve a national
position as a senator or governor of Texas. This was the time I thought
appropriate to leave though I was asked to choose any board chairmanship
where he would appoint me. I politely declined and left the City Hall with a
sour note.
Today, after four years of Mayor
White’s tenure, he is politically as strong as rock but inside the minority
communities he has very poor scores. My speech on Pakistan Chamber of
Commerce U.S.A. 8th Gala predicted very early about his changing
attitude to our communities. Once he got elected he dumped Afro-American and
Asian communities and made political coalition with the Hispanics to cover
the majority. Both these communities feel deceived by him as from a
homogeneous and colorblind City Hall it changed into one color business. The
Asians lost seat of Mayor Pro-term and seat in the Houston Metro and were
sidelined in most of the committee appointments. As time went by, Mayor
White proved not to be fair in dealing with our communities. The biggest
problem we encountered was that the political contributors who gave large
checks wanted to see him and discuss some issues. But he never met anyone
and diverted all his calls to his sub-ordinates. The only way to get
audience with him was to be part of some fund raising efforts where one
could shake hand with him but still no issues were discussed and no action
taken. Since he enjoys command over powerful political brokers and has
raised huge amounts of campaign fund, he knows that he will continue for
three terms; therefore, he does not care about significant minorities. In
the long run, if he intends to run for a higher office, his character is
very much like an open book to the minorities and he will certainly face a
tough resistance from many quarters.
My biggest regret in political
field has been of betraying my friends by supporting a candidate who has not
served our community. His fancy speeches have proved to be words only and no
action. He is as media conscious as any other politician and loves to stay
in front of the camera but so far has not served the local communities.
Most of his policies have failed;
particularly his decision to accommodate New Orleans refugees in Houston has
backfired on him. His decision to evacuate Houston during Katrina proved to
be a big mistake that dragged millions of people on the roads in burning
heat. In my view Mayor sh |