ARTICLE: Mazari’s intellectual pursuits
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/books/books4.htm
By Bahzad Alam Khan
In the main, politicians of the subcontinent have never been overly fond of intellectual pursuits. Reading, for instance, has not figured high on their list of priorities. In his eminently readable book, Pakistan: the formative phase, Dr Khalid bin Sayeed writes: “It has been reported that Gandhi confessed to the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, in 1942 that he had just read for the first time the Government of India Act 1935 and that had he read it when it was first passed, the course of recent Indian history might have been very different, for the Act could have given India all she desired.”
There have obviously been exceptions to this rule. One-time politician Sherbaz Khan Mazari is certainly one. His admirers say that he has spurned attractive political offers all his life while purchasing valuable books. In the twilight of his career now, Mazari regrets his youthful forays into the murky world of politics. He is simply the happy possessor of some 9,000 dog-eared tomes that sit proudly on the wooden shelves of his spacious study.
“Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and I fell out with each other over a book. I had purchased a rare old book called Scinde on Sir Charles Napier. It had first come out in 1851. The book also had handwritten notes by John Jacob in the margin. Mr Bhutto wanted the book for himself and asked for it. I refused point-blank. I am afraid he took my refusal to heart.”
Vengeful as Bhutto was known to be, he never forgot what he perceived as a grave slight. In Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: his life and times, Bhutto’s biographer, Stanley Wolpert, notes: “By now Zulfi claimed to believe that the ‘United States had actually formed the PNA’, as he told Turkish Ambassador Nihat Dinc on June 27, 1977. He said it was ‘simple’ and ‘inexperienced’ Sardar Sherbaz Mazari of the National Democratic Party, who had written to all the other leaders initially ‘suggesting’ the alliance.”
Stanley Wolpert was more charitable to Mazari than Bhutto. The erudite biographer sent Mazari a signed copy of his book when it was published in 1993. Other luminaries who sent Mazari signed copies of their works include the distinguished historian Phillip K. Hitti (The Near East in history), the much-quoted professor Ayesha Jalal (Jinnah: the sole spokesman), the celebrated journalist-cum-historian Khushwant Singh (Ranjit Singh: Maharaja of the Punjab), the cynical politician-turned-publicist Mohammad Asghar Khan (Generals in politics in Pakistan), the evocatively politico-romantic poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Hamaray sukhan saray), the revolutionary poet Josh Malihabadi (Yadon ki baraat) and the Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (a collection of poems).
Disgusted by the venality of the many demagogues who have enriched themselves at the country’s expense, Mazari abominates politics now. He spends leisurely hours browsing through the books he has acquired and cherished over the years.
Despite being constrained by the infirmities of old age - he turned 72 on Oct 6 - Mazari still knows exactly where a certain book is. “I have not been keeping well. I have had cardiac surgery five times. I also have a diabetic problem. I feel my memory has been impaired. In the years gone by, I could quote chapters and lines precisely from books.”
While Mazari’s library is not compartmentalized into well-defined sections, history books and biographies occupy a prominent position. A large number of books on firearms and horses speak volumes for his tribal origins. His favourite books - Sabres of paradise by Lesley Blanch and Saladin by Sir Hamilton Gibbs - are at his elbow.
In his memoirs, which are plaintively titled A journey to disillusionment, Mazari describes in detail how he went to extraordinary lengths to purchase some much-sought-after volumes. He writes: “For book lovers, such as myself, there were a host of bookshops [in Karachi]: Paramount, Greenich, Thomas & Thomas, Pak-American Commercial and Mackwin’s. For the avid bibliophile there was the enterprising Safdar Mehdi, who would bring piles of books strapped on his bicycle to the homes of customers. He specialized in rare volumes on the subcontinent which he obtained by sniffing about among older book collections in other parts of the city…Mehdi never had any qualms about playing one customer against the other.”
The flinty candour of the memoirs raised quite a few hackles. “Yes, I am aware that a lot of people took umbrage about what I wrote in my book. But the truth must come out. I know it’s a cliche but I refuse to compromise my principles. I have not gone to my ancestral home in Dera Ghazi Khan since 1989. Indeed, I have been living in Karachi because of a self-imposed exile. I will not return to my hometown as long as I have differences with my brother, Balakh Sher Mazari.”
Sherbaz Mazari is in the doghouse with many friends because he chose to call a spade a spade in his memoirs. However, fair-minded reviewers are still raving about the book. Journalist Ahmed Rashid, whose insightful book on the Taliban catapulted him to stardom following the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on US soil, writes: “Pakistani politicians typically write self-serving autobiographies that are short on analysis and big on ego trips. The exception is Sherbaz Mazari’s contribution to recording Pakistan’s unfortunate political history, which simply is the best autobiography of a Pakistani politician written in the past 50 years.” (Far Eastern Economic Review, Jan 2000).