During midnight hours as my landline rings, one can safely presume it is from the eminent professor of English Ziaul Qamar Sahib. It has to be on some significant topic. Rarely it’s about personal matters, and mostly academic, literary or something political. For the students of Ziaul Qamar Sahib, having taught generations of Edwardes College Students from the early 1960s till the late 1980s, it is always a delight to be regaled by his wit and wisdom, even at odd hours.

Having not only imbibed the Queen’s English in both diction and pronunciation, the professor is a lifelong repository of priceless knowledge, world history and rare insights, few could match in this age of digital information and split second electronic media – that has transformed many into robotic beings in a technology driven world…..the gullible victims of facebook, twitter, and God knows what not. The remotest corners of our souls, nevertheless, seem to cherish the close embrace of literary classics, the whiffs and scent of vintage books that have over the years shaped our limitless imagination.

Naturally when Prof Zia sahib would call at this odd hour it would also bring forth torrents of accumulated wisdom, zestful banter and sparkle to one’s humorless soul, perpetually devoured by the sheer velocity and volume of the technological bombast that has turned us into unfeeling zombies. In the twilight years, his sparkling candour and boundless energy remains unfazed and can still light up any gathering (especially old Edwardians) who seem to flock around him like moths to a candescent candle.

All this is hardly a fraction of what makes Professor Zia Sahib click, who I am still trying to fathom and decipher, despite having known him for almost 40 years of gradual learning and comradeship. He continues to inspire as well as befuddle, and all the same entertain us with quotes as diverse as William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Tennyson, TS Eliot, Harold Pinter, Faulkner or the iconic Quratul Ain Hyder, besides so many others. As I hopelessly attempt to jot down the gems of wisdom, his wit overpowers my panicked fingers trying hard not to miss a word or nuance of a brilliant mind, in both imagination as well as expression.

No other than the inimitable Feryal Ali Gauhar once being overwhelmed by Professor Zia’s Sahib’s candour famously quipped, “Oh what can one say about - Professor Zia’s Shandaar (brilliant) contradictions!”  Not easily awed, Zia Sahib retorted with a quote from his alter ego the famous Oscar Wilde, “The ONLY charm left in modern life IS contradiction!”

I am trying today to decipher the irrepressible professor as he bursts forth with his witty comments on the recent article “A few notes about our evolving culture” by the much admired writer Nasser Yousaf.

Obviously, the sensitive professor has been moved by the article’s satire but goes a step further. ”What culture vulture are we talking about” he bemoans? Naturally his quotes today are from Arnold Toynbee, Dr A H Dani and Ghani Khan’s lectures regarding Alexander (the barbarian)’s invasion while contemptuously dismissing Olaf Caroe’s seminal work “The Pathans” as “imperial nonsense!”

Elaborating further he added, “Pakhtuns were basically a wild pastoral and nomadic tribe who lived in wide and fertile lands, fighting against successive foreign invasions.  They reared livestock and never had a settled history, except during the splendid Mauryan (323–227 BC) and Kushan (75 AD) periods culminating in the world famous Gandhara civilisation. The famous university situated in Khar (Bajaur) was earlier destroyed in 305 BC by the marauding armies of “Alexander (the barbarian)”, never “great” in professor’s distinctive vocabulary. Finally, the White Huns (360 AD) totally destroyed the glorious Gandhara civilisation. And we were back to our fighting best.”

Both Mahmaud Ghaznavi and Mohammad Ghori were by stock, Seljuk Turk and Tajik Afghan respectively, yet Pakhtuns take pride in them as national heroes. They were in fact plunderers, who employed as mercenaries, the Pakhtun tribes during their repeated campaigns and invasions of the rich Indian subcontinent.

To Professor Zia Sahib, Sher Shah Suri (1539) remains the undisputed Pakhtun statesman, chivalrous and brilliant administrator in comparison An encounter with an erudite professor to other rulers in the entire history of subcontinent. Olaf Caroe too is effusive in praise, “Pathan administrators still delight in references to Sher Shah’s principles and methods. The secret to success in such matters lies in a carefully regulated delegation of authority. What wonders can still be achieved in Asia by the personal touch and superintendence that to Sher Shah was second nature. He had in him the root of the matter; he was always available, and he did not falter”.

Olaf Caroe writes, “I once asked Dr Khan Sahib,  my chief minister, to tell me who was his hero in the history of the subcontinent, half expecting he would designate Akbar, for his tolerance. “Sher Shah” came the reply, “and why?” Because he was such a true Pathan, he went straight to the point without equivocation, and he always visited the spot in person, when action was required. My friend, the doctor, followed his example.”

“Sher Shah was a tremendous man. The Mughals were formidable adversaries, in their veins the fresh blood of Central Asia, not enervated by the long residence in a torrid climate; but Sher Shah their equal in courage, was far greater in sweep of his genius and the concentration of his abilities, ad he drummed them out of India”.  

“Ruthless to the upstart, the rebel and the peculator, he showed mercy to the poor and the needy, and he cherished the cultivator. He built roads and the caravanserais up and down the country. Above all, his greatness is to be seen reflected in his buildings.”

In contemporary history, “Bacha Khan’s Khudai Khitmatgars are the only living example of composite cultural transformation of Pakhtuns from being traditional war mongers into a civilised human society”.

“Where is Pat for self-respect, Khegara for goodness, Toora for courage, and Nang for honour? These letters denoting Pakhtun character have been lost. Only Badal for revenge has taken over other attributes,” laments the learned professor.

Intolerance and vengeance are being projected as the “only” Pashtun attribute as our national character and to perpetuate a distorted history.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2015

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