Late Lt Gen Ch Shaukat Riza

Columnist Col (Retd) EAS BOKHARI remembers late Lt Gen SHAUKAT RIZA.

I cannot possibly match the fascile pen of Col Qayyum and his recent appreciation of Late Gen Shaukat Riza, with whom he had quite a bit of time to work with. Being a gunner, and Gen Shaukat was an artillery man through and through I thought I would say a few words about him which in any case is not a rejoinder to Col Qayyum’s masterly presentation.

I for one never had the opportunity of serving with or under Gen Shaukat, but being myself an artilleryman I know that his reputation as an excellent gunner officer and as an innovative and original thinker was known throughout the Army, and he held many appointments where these traits were pre-requisite for employment. I should say he was a general with a difference.

He was a man with great foresight, and deep study of his profession and I remember many years ago, it must be 1951 or so when I heard him say and discuss with Gen Mian Ijaz Ahmed, another distinguished gunner and a polished IG (Instructor Gunnery) like him that the future artillery weapon will be the ‘missiles’ which at that time were a novelty, at least for the Pakistan Army/Artillery. How true and prophetic he was can be seen now. We have all sorts of rockets in the artillery arm, and even Chinese supplied multiple rockets, which can saturate the target area with lethal fire within minutes notwithstanding the objections of the staid British trained gunner officers who prefer gun to rocket for ballistic and accuracy considerations.

As an example I can quote the 1991 Gulf War, where the most effective artillery weapon used by the US/Allied Forces were the Multiple Rocket Launchers, and satellite fixation.

I somehow do not agree with Col Qayyum when he says that Gen Shaukat did not write much - and of course he became the historian of the Pakistan Army, and Pakistan Artillery only late in his life. Strictly speaking an IG, and a DS (Directing Staff) in the Command & Staff College has to do a lot of writing especially in setting exercises et al.

I can relate a small incident that will show that he was not only a most voracious reader, as Col Qayyum has so vehemently confirmed, and he read almost anything that came his way, he was a very good and polished writer also. And he always advocated that good writing is ‘rewriting’ or perhaps writing it again. I was a student in the 1958 Staff Course, and Gen Shaukat was a DS in the Staff College, although I was never in his syndicate or with him in any way.

He was the Artillery DS, and was also incharge of the college magazine ‘Owl’, which I am told nowadays is named ‘Citadel’. Every good student worth his salt was supposed to contribute to this magazine, and cherish that his piece was published. I also put up a short presentation on military cartography, and I was absolutely sure that this rough hewn effort would never see the light of the day. But then I was surprised to see that the presentation had found a niche in the magazine. But the point to note here is that there was hardly any sentence which I had written, and which was not changed or improved upon by Gen Shaukat, just to tell me how good English is written.

And later when I got a good posting (BM Arty), he was the first DS to congratulate me on this prize job.

I had a short period of being his neighbour in the Air OP Mess Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi while he was working in GHQ, and was much impressed by his spartan habits, and his morning runs down the Peshawar Road, and back. He was absolutely regular, and almost religious about it, and I could never imagine that with his bony and lean frame, he could ever suffer a massive cardiac arrest. It was simply unthinkable.

Such outstanding and forward thinking officers, who are pseo-udvisionaries are neither popular, nor the mundane lot of officers appreciate their insight. While in the Mess, he often dilated on China, and told all of us that China is one of the most functional country, and how right he was. China has come a long way since then I am talking of 1954-55, and with the burgeoning Chinese economy China may well become as strong economically as US in years to come and thus break the myth of US unipolarity. He in fact liked everything Chinese, and was full of praise for cheap but functional Chinese pens and other items.

Such men could be compared to unconventional generals like Gen JFC, Fuller and are generally unacceptable to the mundane lot of senior commanders and others of a lower mental calibre and perception.

On the whole I should say, that Gen Shaukat’s contribution to the Pakistan Army is of a very high order especially as a strategic thinker, and a writer of the history of the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Artillery. And mind you this last monumental work was one while he had already suffered a massive stroke and was not in good health.

I had cherished to serve him in any capacity, but I never got the opportunity, and I pray that his soul rests in heaven. This indeed was a general of very great stature.

Perhaps the most characteristic trait of his personality was his diction, and style of writing. He wrote what he thought, and it was really worth putting on the paper.

He was lucid, accurate, scintillating, and obviously brief and to the point. He was correct and communicative, and some times his sentences were over brief, like the ones used by the famous Nobel Laureate Earnest Hemingway, especially found in his 'The Old Man and Sea'. No sentence exceeds a few chosen words.

To make the point still clearer, I have mentioned a short presentation of mine for the 'Owl', which related to the art of military cartography. I remember I had bogged down in the geodetic side of the cartography, and heaped up the article with mathematical formulae of triangulation, and other geodetic survey methods. I am sure no ordinary soldier is interested in the technology needed to produce a map, his main business is to read it properly, and use it accurately.

I remember, Gen Shaukat down sized my presentation by cutting down the mass of irrelevance and its wooliness. I still remember after good forty two years that he inserted such pithy and meaningful sentences like - a map is a commander's chess board. He fights and plans his battle on the map. A map is his essential perhaps seminal equipment. For that matter he continued even a shepherd needs a map to drive his cattle. And in the end, he said that Survey of Pakistan is a unique organisation, and it is an education to be there. He exhorted the readers to visit Survey of Pakistan if they can do so.

I have mentioned about his two seminal works i.e. 'The Pakistan Army' - 1947-1949 published by the Army Education Press - 1989 and the more voluminous IZZAT-O-Iqbal - published by the School of Artillery Nowshera - 1st Edition 1980.

The later book is perhaps representative of his crisp and down to earth style and diction. The first work is more of historical nature, and naturally lacks his arsenal touch. It is more of a research document, than ornate and compelling expression of his highly ornate style.

Here are some of the samplings culled from his book on the Pakistan Artillery.

"... The artilleryman is brought up for the purpose to hit the target...."

He continues in this context ".... The gun has always been a symbol of power and war..... And the precision in application of fire associated with artillery makes the gun an appropriate reference sign for framing national policy... The Regiment of Artillery is, therefore, not merely one of the instruments of national policy, it is symbol of national power...."

And as a word of warning "...The gunners are distinguished for their readiness to recognise mistakes. Without this recognition mistakes worm their way into accepted custom: the gunner loses precision of thought. He loses the purpose of his being...."

And then there is the classical write up about the visit of the Quaid-e-Azam to 5 and 6 AA Regiments on their arrival in Pakistan. Here is the passage taken out of his book. "As the Quaid-e-Azam stepped out of his car, the parade presented arms. The officers and men saw a tall skeletal figure, his straight back belying his age: his firm step belying his frailty; his impeccable dress indicating his honesty, his idealism; his monocle accentuating his Victorian discipline, his classical values; his gaunt features, his hypnotic smouldering eyes radiating power, etching the picture in their minds.

The parade froze in 'Present Arms'. In the later years some of us tried that a visiting head of state review the Regiment of Artillery at 'Present Arms'. The request was turned down. Fortuitously.

“We have only one Quaid-e-Azam."

So that’s the late Ch Shaukat Riza and his fascile pen.