Reminiscing session: A talk with the man who left his mark

Former diplomat Jamsheed Marker shares his career's experiences .

KARACHI:

He has been living abroad for more than three decades now and has been around for 92 years now but there was one fateful meeting that former diplomat Jamsheed Marker still cannot recover from.

"It was the worst moment in my diplomatic career," said the man, narrating the incident in a soft tone to an audience of mostly middle-aged men and women.

When Marker was serving in Paris, a Pakistani was caught smuggling heroin and was sent to jail. As the ambassador, Marker went to meet him and told him that his actions had shamed the entire country. But the reply from the offender left him speechless, an answer which he still remembers today. "The man said to me that he knows full well what he was doing and said that regardless of the consequences, he was content to know that that evening, his son will have roti to eat."

This was one of the stories shared by Marker at a talk on his book, 'Quiet Diplomacy: Memoirs of an Ambassador of Pakistan", held at the Oxford bookstore at the Khalid Bin Waleed Road on Saturday.

In impeccable English, the ambassador spoke of a Pakistan Chowk in Paris where Pakistanis used to gather and French textile merchants used to come and hire them for the day. Marker said that he served nearly 10 years in communist Eastern European Soviet Union countries and said that none of them were on friendly terms with Pakistan but were all on friendly terms with India. He then discussed the foreign office service in Zia's era and said that it was used as a glorified 'post office' to send messages, a comment that caused the audience to snicker.



Regarding the country's foreign policy, he feels that a lot is guided and framed by emotionalism. "We got into emotionalism from idealism," said Marker. "Ever since I joined the foreign service, I felt that our foreign policy could have been better."

He then shared tips and advice for budding diplomats. "It is important to listen to the other side," he said. "Take their views into account in your negotiations even if you are in the right. Whatever message you receive from the president or the prime minister, keep in mind that there is always another side to the story."

Marker also stressed upon the importance of ethical diplomacy. "There needs to be honesty," he said. "In diplomacy, you have to pursue people. There should be truth in dealing, and by no means should one distort the truth."

Even though the country's foreign services are often lauded, Marker believes that Pakistan has fallen behind. "If I was to rate our foreign service when I was working, I would have said that it was one of the best in the world but it has gradually regressed over time." To address the decline in quality, the former ambassador believes that the government needs to once again focus on the service.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2014.