O My ALLAH

“Sir, there is a family outside Gate No 1 and they say that they want to meet you.”

It was the Guard supervisor calling from the Gate No 1 of the General Headquarters of Pakistan Army.

“What family? Why they want to meet me?  What for?”  I asked.

“I don’t know Sir. It is a family of four, a Husband, Wife and their two children, a boy and a girl. I told them it is not allowed to go in but, they won’t listen and asking that you should be called.” The Guard supervisor replied.

I said to tell them that I am not available.

The supervisor said,” I told them already. But they say that they will not leave unless they meet you even if they have to spend the night here. They are strange people. They are weeping. They are crying and they are laughing and praying to ALLAH for you and your family’s health and wellbeing. I reckon Sir; you better come and meet them”.

This was quite surprising for me.

Well, it was 11 O’clock in the morning when this call came, and I was at my office at the General Headquarters Rawalpindi. I was a Grade II Staff Officer at the prestigious Judge Advocate General’s Department (JAG). Gate No 1 was quite a distance from where I was sitting. I told the supervisor to get the person on the telephone. When he came on the telephone, I asked as to what the issue is and why he is so anxious to meet me. He introduced himself as Naik Ahmed of X infantry Battalion of Baloch Regiment. He gave a quick brief of himself.

It was then that it struck me and all was recalled to my memory. Let me start from the beginning and give the details.

I was serving in the JAG Head Office at the General Headquarters of Pakistan Army at Rawalpindi. As a routine, a case file was forwarded to me by my head of the department. I was at that time part of the pre-trial department where the discipline cases of the entire Army are analyzed and on this department’s recommendations, the fates are decided. This case file was of a soldier of Baloch Regiment, who was declared as “Black” by the intelligence. It had a very strange case history. The soldier was recommended for the Military Court Martial on charges of treason. The soldier belonged to a village situated in Kashmir. My head of the department has sent it to me with the remarks “May I have your views”. Normally, if a case was processed and finalized and placed before the Head of the department for his signatures and he has some iota of doubt, he used to send it to me for review with the remarks as I mentioned above.

As a habit, I used to go into details of the cases as I knew that we were actually playing with the lives of the people and each and every word counts. Normally, on receiving a case with such remarks, I used to become extra careful. I was allowed to keep all the earlier received cases pending and accord priority handling to the case having the above mentioned remarks.

            It was a real complicated case. With quite difficulty, I was able to unearth the truth behind it.

The story goes like this; that a Soldier Ahmad was serving in the Baloch Regiment. He was much disciplined, hardworking and was liked by all. He went on a few days vacations to his home at the village where he had a mother and a wife. He also had some agriculture land which was well situated and was quite fertile. It was only a week or ten days after he had joined back from leave that the Military Police came with some Intelligence people and took him under custody. It was told to the unit that he has been declared as ‘Black’ by the Intelligence.

Normally, there are three Categories namely White, Gray and Black in the intelligence language. 'White' are those who are patriot and there is no doubt about their loyalties towards the country. 'Gray' is the one who have a dubious character and their loyalties are doubtful. Whereas, 'Black' are those people who are confirmed anti country and there is no doubt about their disloyalty towards the country.

Nothing was heard for almost two years after the arrest of the soldier. His Commanding Officer wrote letter to the authorities and tried to convince them that the soldier is not of the type and was very loyal, his reputation was excellent and his case be reviewed but, to no veil. The soldiers’ family also tried to locate him but his whereabouts could not be traced. The Commanding Officer of the Soldier was very consistent and he kept his efforts. Finally, after two years of the consistence efforts, the soldier was released after been declared ‘White’. He again started serving in the Unit with devotion and enthusiasm. Meanwhile, the unit was marked for UN mission abroad and went on deputation to Saudi Arabia. The soldier also accompanied as part of the unit. With the passage of time the soldier has passed his exams and was promoted as Naik (Corporal). Like others, he also became quite well off as during deputation the salaries are paid in US dollars.

When the unit returned from deputation, with their utter surprise, the soldier, who has now a Naik, was arrested right at the airport. The charges were the same and he was declared ‘Black’. This time, his whereabouts were not known till next five years until his file came before me for preparing his charge sheet, for Field General Court Martial, on Treason charges. Yes, this was Naik Ahmad and this is his true story.

I went into details of the case and called for all the papers about the history of the case. In those papers I also discovered the letter of his present Commanding Officer reposing his full confidence on Naik Ahmad and his loyalty.

 I used my good offices and carried out discrete inquiry. His commanding officer was also contacted. Here is what was unearthed.

Naik Ahmad was a very poise and gentleman. He was the only son of his parents. His father died when Ahmad’s first child was born. Naik Ahmad was the bread earner of his family. He had a mother to look after. He also had a small piece of agriculture land which, he had given on it on Patta (contract) and was getting good income from it. He had a maternal uncle, a Havildar (Sergeant) in the Army, who was serving in an intelligence battalion. His name was Afzal. Naik Ahmad’s land was adjacent to his Uncle Havildar Afzal’s land and Havildar Afzal was interested that Naik Ahmad should give his land to his uncle and for that he was ready to pay a token price, which was of course quite less than the market value of the land. Even otherwise, Naik Ahmad was not interested in selling his land as, he had little needs and he was happy. Havildar Afzal tried to pressurize Naik Ahmad but failed. So he threatened him of the dire consequences. They had a hot talk over it when Naik Ahmad was on leave in his village and incidentally at that moment of time his uncle Havildar Afzal was also there. When Naik Ahmad came back from leave Havildar Afzal maneuvered, used his intelligence sources and Naik Ahmad was arrested, declared ‘Black’ and his land was confiscated. After two years of consistent efforts of NK Ahmad’s Commanding Officer, NK Ahmad was released, his land was restored and he went on deputation, all to the dislikes of Havildar Afzal.

When Naik Ahmad was serving abroad for three years, Havildar Afzal was promoted and became Naib Subedar. Now he had more powers. He used those and again managed to declare Naik Ahmad as ‘Black’ and put him behind bars. In these five years, when Naik Ahmad was under confinement and his whereabouts were not known, his mother died, as there was nobody to look after the family and to take care of their basic needs let alone the doctor’s expenditures. There were no resources for bread and butter what to talk of mother’s medicines/medical care. The agriculture land, which was a source of income to the family, was forcefully occupied by Subedar Afzal, as the link which was the source of stopping Subedar Afzal, his sister and Naik Ahmad’s mother was dead. The conditions became so bad that the wife of Naik Ahmad had to resort to prostitution to earn the livelihood of her children. This was quite pathetic and sad.

On revelation of the truth, Subedar Afzal was removed from duty, arrested and court martialed.

Naik Ahmad was honorably released and family was united. But, nobody could retrieve his mother, who died of this shock. Nobody could bring back the lost years of Naik Ahmad, which he could have spent with his mother, wife and children with joy.

This has never ever happened, as far as I know, in the history that a person was declared ‘Black’ and then declared ‘White’ and again declared ‘Black’ and then again declared ‘White’. Normally once a person is declared ‘Black’, he/she has to remain behind bars and usually die there. They are never released and would never see the Sun again. Their families keep wondering as to where have they gone.

This was that Naik Ahmad, who had come to the gate of General Headquarters to thank me personally with his family, after hearing from, ALLAH knows where, that I was instrumental in his honorable release and bringing Subedar Afzal to justice.

One cannot imagine what I felt and saw there that day. Ahmad, his wife and two children were crying/ weeping with joy, graciousness, thankfulness and Allah knows what. Nonstop tears were flowing from their eyes. I also cried with tears in my eyes. The entire family was trying to embrace, kiss and touch me as if I was, Naozobillah (ALLAH forbid), God.

With quite an effort I was able to beg leave from the jubilant and gracious family. I thanked ALLAH for honoring me.

This is one of the greatest achievements of my life and a pearl/ feather in my cap and I will always cherish it.

ALLAH IS ALMIGHTY