REMEMBERING DR ISHFAQ AHMAD

Dr Ishfaq Ahmad former Chairman of the Pakisran Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) passed away on 18 Jan 2018. He had a gilded academic and professional career that has amply been described elsewhere. This blog reminisces about his style of scientific leadership through a rare look into the manners and traits he provided guidance to a scientist at various stages of his development from a junior scientist to the chief scientist in the Commission.

Although all of us have to go one day, the news of his departure from this world came like a bolt from the blue as if it was not supposed to happen. A paragraph of not more than a few lines in the newspaper said it all, he was ill and admitted in the hospital quite unknown to me and so many other scientists and engineers who worked with him and under him for decades. It's always a misfortune to lose someone who may not have been close enough but nearer to heart and as dear as Dr Ishfaq Ahmad was to thousands of people in the scientific profession all over Pakistan and also to many who lived abroad. 

 Dr Ishfaq Ahmad was one of the earliest pioneers in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. He earned a DSc degree from the University of Montreal in Canada in 1959. His Doctorate thesis was on Emulsion Technique in Nuclear Physics, which provided groundbreaking insight and detection of the sub atomic and elementary particles after they had been theoretically predicted by many scientists starting from Rutherford and Marie Curie. I will not go into the details of his research career, which is well documented and is available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishfaq_Ahmad

Here, I would rather go into my personal experiences of working with him often not of scientific nature, as his field of work was very different from mine then and always there after. When I joined the PAEC at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH), he was already the Director of the PAEC's Lahore Centre. After only a couple of months he was appointed the Director General of PINSTECH. I knew him since then at first from a little distance but gradually closely and a little later very closely. When I acquired his acquaintance he had stopped being an active scientist and had become a scientific administrator. In most cases such a transition is considered a career downhill but in his realm it was different. He continued to guide scientists and their research and development work all the time diligently. I still remember so vividly as if it was a meeting of yesterday. I received a call in those early days from his office that he wanted to see me urgently. That was not normal. It was rare that he would meet junior scientists directly by-passing the heads of the group and the Division concerned. I was then working as a member of Reactor Physics Group in the Nuclear Engineering Division of PINSTECH. To my utter surprise he had summoned me alone and not accompanied by any of my superiors. As bewildered, as any young scientist of age 25 would be, I entered his office. He always had very charming broad smile, which would put any one in distress immediately at ease. He would speak slowly in a friendly soft tone. After I had taken a seat directly opposite his very handsome and impressive persona. He gazed into my eyes and slowly informed me that the PAEC had chosen me to work for one year under a Bilateral Agreement at the Danish Atomic Energy Commission’s Research Establishment at Roskilde near Copenhagen. I had to proceed as soon as possible. From his talk it was obvious that he had very personal reminisces of his own of Denmark and the Danish people both of whom he seemed to have in high regard. He had worked earlier at the Neil's Bohr Institute of Physics, which I found out after arriving there, was adjacent to the Establishment I was asked to report and which was at a walking distance from the Guest House, I stayed all through my period of research and development work at Roskilde. Dr Ishfaq told me about the people, their etiquettes and mannerism besides their Noble Laureate Neils Bohr as well as the accelerators and machines installed there in great detail as if he had all the time that morning just for me. 

When I returned from my year long assignment at Roskilde, Dr Ishfaq Ahmad had already moved to the PAEC's Head Quarters in Islamabad as its Member Technology and a little time later I too was transferred to the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) as the Physicist responsible for Fuel Management and Nuclear Reactor Core with the additional responsibility of the Coordinator IAEA Nuclear Safeguards at the Plant. The later responsibility allowed me to interact with him from time to time, as he was then not only on the IAEA's Board of Governors but also the member responsible for all matters related to it. He accordingly needed to be abreast with the safeguards measures at the Plant. My monthly IAEA safeguards inspection reports were routed to him and I was always required to attend the meetings, which were held with the visiting IAEA staff at the PAEC HQ in Islamabad. It was on those occasions that I came to realize his in depth knowledge not only about KANUPP but also the subsidiary safeguards agreements between the PAEC and the IAEA. He was also well acquainted with the provisions of the Non Proliferation Treaty. On account of his knowledge and proficiency in English he was always in command on the basis of which he could not only negotiate well but could also steer the meetings and ensuing dialogue as per the requirements of the time with the profound interests of Pakistan upper most in his mind. At the conclusion of those meetings he would smilingly look at us and enquire, "How did it go? and on our approval, he would chuckle and give a rare audible laugh, very obvious of the delight of having accomplished the responsibility he always thought the nation had entrusted him with.

In spite of his mild and mellow nature, he could be very stern and ruthless too. An example of that side of his personality came to my notice when an IAEA safeguards inspector took an exposed photographic film by mistake to his hotel during an on-going inspection. That was grossly against the subsidiary safeguards agreement according to which he was required to deposit the film inside a box under the joint seal of the IAEA and the PAEC at the plant. The matter was reported to him by fax. He flew over to Karachi overnight and was at the plant very first thing the morning. The inspector in question was summoned into his presence at the office of the Plant Manager. I was present when he entered. I can only say I have never seen such an outpour of diplomatic burst of anger reprimanding him never to repeat, which he acknowledged was his mistake. The poor man kept on trembling for a long time after and I of necessity took as much time to smooth his nerves. He was incapacitated and unable to work to say the least for a good part of the morning that day.

Next time, I had a person to person meeting with him was when he summoned me in his capacity of the Chairman PAEC with the express assignment for me to negotiate with the IAEA the proposed new installations of certain state of the art safeguards equipment at the plant. He could always delegate the details of the assignment to me through the Member Power and the Plant Manager KANUPP but being very careful about the sensitivity of the matter involved, he chose to do it himself. I was impressed. The Director International Affairs and Member Power both wished to be present in the meeting but they were summarily asked not to bother after only a brief enquiry whether I was being looked after during the brief visit to Islamabad well? He wanted to have just one to one meeting with me. This was on account of the confidentiality of the matter that he wished to discuss with me, which was in accordance with the rules of the procedures that only those needed to be present who were directly involved with the matter under discussion. He understandably was very careful and all of us understood that well. The meeting continued for well over two hours, during which he allowed me a thorough probing into the intricacies involved. He told me without any reservation that he had chosen me for the discussions at the IAEA, for he trusted me. I was more than aware that his trust was the trust of my country and I felt proud of that. During the meeting at one point he looked at his watch. It was time for lunch. He pulled and opened his bag from under the table and brought out a sandwich, enquiring at the same time with a smile if I would care to take a bite! I smiled telling him politely but respectfully that he could go ahead. He then told me that it was just a sandwich of a mashed banana in between two thin slices of bread and that I may not like that after all. That was not the last of the encounters with the great man that he was. On my return back to KANUPP from Vienna, he telephoned me late in the night to learn about every single detail of my interactions at the IAEA asking me at the end to send him a written report, which I of course complied with forthwith. 

Soon there after I was promoted as the Chief Scientist and appointed the Director of the Institute for Nuclear Power in Islamabad. He subsequently retired as the Chairman PAEC. Long after that I spotted him at the Islamabad Club taking tea with a much younger person, who could be his son. Passing by the table I was sitting with my wife, he stopped to say hello. He asked me what I was doing. On telling him that I had retired into the outskirts of Islamabad, where I had a small farmhouse, he gleamed with happiness and promised me to come someday to personally see my farming skills, which he never did in view of his advancing age and not too good a health situation. That was the last I ever saw of him. His memories will however stay with me till I live.

The Lost Tribe of Omais Bhai

I had a cousin brother Muhammad Omais, whom I never met but after seeing his photograph I have a feeling I knew him. His face looks friendly and familiar. I discovered him only after he unfortunately is there no more in this world. His story and that of his family besides being melancholy is also thought provoking and at times pleasing and interesting. I thought I must share it through this blog with our larger family in Pakistan and elsewhere. 

Before I begin it is necessary to emphasize that in our families at large, we address our elders with utmost respect and dignity. Accordingly we never call or talk about them just by their given names. It is considered indecent and undignified. It could even be a matter of shame and disgrace. In the following passages I am overwhelmingly constrained however to deviate from that noble practice, for it is impractical to attach suffix of 'Sahib' with the name of every one. Since I have similar and identical relationships with many of them, mentioning them by my relationships with them too might leave the readers wondering as to who I was talking about. With this regretful but unavoidable overload on my mind I take the start:

My great grand father Zahoor Ali was a saint like holy man. He had three sons Abul Hasan, Ali Karim (my paternal grand father) and Mehdi Hasan. Abul Hasan and Ali Karim were wedded to two sisters who respectively came from a Syed family of Mohiuddinpur Gilani. From his matrimonial relationship Ali Karim Dada had a son Shams ul Hoda and a daughter Qudsia before his wife passed away. He subsequently was wedded to Salma Khatoon (my grand mother to be) the daughter of Syed Abdul Ghani of Asthawan. Abul Hasan had three sons Anwar ul Hasan, Aftab Hasan and Muhammad Hasan and three daughters Humaira, Asada and Syeda. The son Shams ul Hoda from the first marriage of Abul Hasan was wedded to Humaira and after her demise her sister Asada. From his first marriage Shams ul Hoda had a son named Muhammad Omais and from the other a son Muhammad Owais and three daughters.

Ali Karim from his second marriage to Salma Khatoon had five sons namely, Wase ul Hoda, Rafe ul Hoda, Waze ul Hoda, Shafe ul Hoda (my father) and Zia ul Hoda. Further spread of the family took place mainly through matrimonial relationships made with the daughters of the two brothers Syed Mohi uddin and Syed Taqi uddin  (my maternal grand father) who both were the sons of Syed Abdul Ghani (my maternal great grand father). Both the brothers were in the employment of Hyderabad State. While Syed Mohi uddin was the Principal of Aurangabad College before getting appointed as the Secretary Religious Affairs, my Nana Syed Taqi uddin was the Interior Secretary. That may have been the reason a major chunk of the family moved to the Hyderabad State from Bazidpur on one side and Asthawan on the other. Among the families that shifted were those of Wase ul Hoda, Waze ul Hoda and my father Shafe ul Hoda. While Wase ul Hoda had been wedded to the stepsister of my maternal grand mother the daughter of Syed Muhammad Husain of Asthawan the other two were respectively married to the daughters of the two brothers Syed Mohi uddin and Syed Taqi uddin. Among others who migrated was also Aftab Hasan (one of the sons of Abul Hasan) by virtue of the fact that he too had married a daughter of one of the brothers (Syed Mohi uddin). Over a period of time the two brothers built large residential mansions called Gulistan and Bustan in Hyderabad Deccan. Another house that was built adjacent to Gulistan was that of Aftab Hasan Sahib.

Among many other relatives who moved to Hyderabad was my cousin brother Muhammad Omais, who went there in search of employment and lived with Aftab Hasan. Just before the Indian occupation forces entered Hyderabad and the state as it was remained no more, the families of both Syed Mohi uddin and Syed Taqi uddin and those closely associated, were evacuated to Karachi but my cousin brother Omais stayed back. He did not return to his ancestral home Bazidpur either. He subsequently married there and raised a family of his own. Slowly and gradually those who migrated to Pakistan forgot about him. That unfortunate circumstance was compounded by the fact that he had married out side and our family at large did not know his wife. It was heard that he once came to Karachi but he did not meet other relatives except the family of his maternal uncle (Manjhle Mamoo) Aftab Hasan to whom he was greatly attached. His wife and children never came to Pakistan mainly on account of the travel inconveniences. As Shams ul Hoda, my eldest uncle was much older to my father; there was only a little difference in the ages of my father (Abba) and Omais Bhai. They grew together and were sort of playmates in Bazidpur where they spent their childhood. I remember my father reminiscing about those days with fond memories of Omais Bhai. It was the Facebook through which, I came into contact and got introduced to his eldest son Khursheed Ahmed. On making this surprising and at that a pleasant discovery I wrote to him that how delighted I was to establish contact with him. I told him that I had never met Omais Bhai but knew well that he was very close to Abba (Dr Shafe ul Hoda), for they were contemporaries both at Bazidpur and later at Hyderabad. I mentioned to him that Abba frequently used to talk about his younger days. In all those stories of the past, Omais Bhai used to figure prominently. I lamented, "alas! For what ever reason he could not come to Bazidpur to attend the wedding of his younger brother Owais Bhai in 1956 when Abba and I were there and we accordingly missed the only opportunity to meet him." Khursheed told me that his father too talked about Abba whenever the topic of the 1940s came under discussion. Here on, is the story of the 'Lost Tribe of Omais Bhai' that his son Khursheed narrated to me and which I would like to share verbatim with all those who might happen to read it.

About Omais Bhai Khursheed said, "My father served in the Department of Information and Public Relations Govt of Andhra Pardesh. He had a smiling face. He retired from service in the year 1977 at the age of 55 years. My father visited Pakistan in the early sixties. He wrote a book Chacha Ka Aimal Nama Aur Doosre Afsane that was published by Maktaba Matbooaat Milli Karachi. I have a copy of that book. My father dedicated the book to Rafe ul Hoda Sahib who inspired him to take to writing.  My father had good command over Urdu as well as English language both spoken as well as written. After retirement from the government service, my father was entrusted the task of translation of the monthly house journal by a company. The company used to give the English copy of that journal to my father who used to translate the articles from English to Urdu and after translation he used to handover the matter to Siasat Office for printing the Urdu version of the House Journal of the company for the benefit of the Urdu-speaking employees. My father suffered a heart attack in November 1984 and passed away within a month of my going to Saudi Arabia a little later".

Omais Bhai and wife Shireen Begum

Book written by Omais Bhai

About themselves, he told me, “The name of my mother was Shireen Begum. She lived for almost twenty years after the demise of my father and herself expired in 2013. I am the eldest among my brothers and sisters. I did my MA in Public Administration the same year my father retired from service. Within a fortnight of his discharge from hospital after suffering from an heart attack, I had to leave for Delhi enroot to Makkah Al Mukarrama to join my job at a Makkah Housing Project of Bin Laden Company. I was posted in the Mechanical Workshop of the Project situated at Rusaifeh. I worked alongside uncle Banne (Hassan Ahmed s/o Yaqeen Ahmed and Syeda Phoopi) who too worked in that project. Even though I was given a return ticket and visa for re-entry  (on completion of two years of service in Makkah Housing Project) l did not return to the Project and continued with my service in the University of Hyderabad. I later studied law at the Osmania University where from I earned a LLB degree in 1989. I served the University of Hyderabad in various positions from 1978 to 2013. I enrolled myself as an Advocate in the Bar Council of A.P. High Court. In 1993 my marriage took place but did not last more than a year. 

Khursheed Ahmed working in his office (Bin Laden Housing Project, Makkah

My Sister Ghizala Yasmeen (eldest among sisters) has retired as Principal of a Government Degree College. She holds a PhD from Osmania University in English language and literature. She wrote a story book for children which was published by an American publishing firm Partridge. The title of the Book is Bed Time Stories. The book is on the Amazon Website. She got several awards and rewards during her Government Service. The second sister (Manjhli) Suraiya Jabeen was a lecturer in English in Govt Degree College Hyderabad. She passed away in 2006. The youngest sister Zahida Nasreen who had an MSc degree died in 2015 after suffering brain hemorrhage. My brother Shahzad Ahmed who is the youngest among brothers and sisters is settled in UK. Shahzad did his B. Com and LLB from Osmania University. He got a job in the AP Board of Intermediate Education in the early eitghties before he migrated to England in the nineties. He resides in Eltham, a London suburb with his family. He has a 12 years old son and two daughters aged 7 and 8 years respectively. His wife Arshia and her sisters are settled in London. She hails from Hyderabad. Her paternal aunt (phoopi) who was running a hospital in London helped her in settling down there".

Khursheed & Shehzad with Mother

Sisters of Khursheed Ahmed

About the places they lived, Khursheed told me "In our childhood the first house in which we lived as tenants was Iqbal Manzil. We resided on the first floor. The area was called Bazar Ghat. It was at a distance of one furlong from Nilofer Hospital for women and children and Mehdi Nawaz Jung Cancer Hospital. My sister Ghizala and myself live in the house, which was purchased by our father from the Housing Board in 1978. My father applied to AP Housing Board and was allotted an independent house in Santoshnagar. We moved into the house in January 1978. Since January 1978 to date excluding the years (2004 to 2006) we have been living in the Santoshnagar House. I added a Hall on the first floor of my house in Santoshnagar in 2014, which serves as my office as an advocate. In another room I have a Desktop Computer, Scanner and a Laser Printer. It is my communications room. My sister Suraiyya Jabeen who was a lecturer in English language and literature applied for an independent House in 1993 and she was allotted a High Income Group house in Bharatnagar by AP Housing Board.  We extended the first floor of the House later. In 2008-09 we added second floor and a pent house. The second floor and the pent house were inaugurated in 2010. There are two Railway stations in Bharatnagar.  The train going from Hyderabad to Bombay passes through Bharatnagar. The Hyderabad Metro Train also passes through Bharatnagar. As such there are two Railway stations in Bharatnagar.  We stayed in Bharatnagar from 2004 to 2006".

About the contacts Omais Bhai and after him his family maintains with Bazidpur, Khursheed Ahmed informed me, “My father used to visit Bazidpur and the last he visited Bazidpur was in the year 1983. In 1979 My father, Shahzad and myself attended the marriage of Uncle Shaukat Anwar and Shaiq Bhai at Kosi. In the year 1991 my mother, sisters Shahzad and myself attended the marriage of our sister Tushi  (daughter of Uncle Mohammad Owais) in Patna Bihar. I occasionally go to Bazidpur and keep a liaison with Munawwar Ali s/o Zia ul Hoda Sahib".

Khursheed Ahmed can be reached at his email address: akhursheed90 @gmail.com