SHAKING MR M.A. JINNAH'S HAND

Columnist Col (Retd) EAS BOKHARI writes about his close encounter with the QUAID

I have known Col Mehdi (Killer) - MC for some time first when he was in PMA as an instructor - though I was in 'Khalid' Company - and he had not much to do with me. All the same his reputation was rampant all over the PMA. His very name meant terror.

My next encounter with him was in the Command and Staff College Quetta during 1958 and at that time he was member of the Training Team (a sort of a collection of officers who set and revised the old exercises). His domain if I can recollect correctly was reverie warfare - a sort of an impossible topic to be taught realistically in Baluchistan. At the best he could set up a map exercise based on Punjab rivers. I never served under him nor had the good fortune of seeing him from very close quarters - but his reputation as a thinker and strategic expert had already grown.

And now coming back to the early Forties. I was a student in the First Year - in Islamia College Railway Road - Lahore which was run by Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam - and was obviously the hub of all political activities. I, however, was totally apolitical.

I had just shifted from village environments - but was doing well in my studies - specially in Psychology and Arabic. And as lunch would have it I managed to top my class in these two rather arcane subjects. I was thus eligible for the prize during the Annual Prize distribution which was to be held in the end of the year. I think the year was 1941.

A huge Pandal had been set up in the small college ground where the Prize Distribution was to be held. The prizes were to be personally awarded by Mr. Jinnah. At the very best I could call myself - a rough-hewn - if not a brute and a hefty rustic who was the member of college hockey team - and occasionally dabbled in cricket too- but there I had absolutely no chance as the college cricket team had such celebrities as Nazar Mohammad (father of Mudassar Nazar) - Gul Mohammed - a left armer, Imtiaz Ahmed the famous keeper and batsman - and Jugal Kishore a Hindu cricketer with good performance.

Islamia College versus Government College Lahore's university cricket duel was just as charged an affair as the present Pakistan-India cricket matches. Usually our college won notwithstanding the performance of such government college players like Ram Parkash - often called 'Latoo'. His stature, performance and cricketing calibre could be compared with the present Indian cricket player Tendulkar.

The prize distribution hour had come - and I can well remember that no briefing whatsoever was given to us the prize winners - and I had to shake Mr Jinnah's hand twice as I had won two prizes.

I asked one of my friends - who was equally rustic like me and his advice was that according to his information Mr. Jinnah liked people to press his hand as forcefully as possible at the time of shaking of hands.

With this advice at the back of my head I went to receive my first prize. I shook Mr Jinnah's very frail artistic and bony hand with full might which I could muster. It was so stupid of me that Mr. Jinnah shrunk back -perhaps pained a bit and only then I realised how stupid I had been in wrenching his frail and noble hand so ferociously.

And just before going for the second time I told my friend what I felt about his mischievous advice - and what Mr. Jinnah must have felt about it. The second time I was ashamed of myself and my previous stupidity - and did not repeat it.

Though I did see the Quaid - many times later - but never from close quarters - nor I had the opportunity of shaking his artistic and articulate hand. I never had the courage of writing to him or even speaking to him as I was absolutely awed by his personality.