Former diplomat goes down memory lane

Shahryar Khan recalls time as ambassador, foreign secretary.

ISLAMABAD: From General Zia’s request for canaries to a cup of tea with the Jordanian crown prince and from the longest hijack in aviation history to the Islamabad accord, Nawabzada Shahryar Mohammad Khan remembers it all.

A former diplomat, and the present head of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Khan went down memory lane with a small audience at the Nazara Lounge at Serena Hotel on Friday.

General Zia’s request for canaries

“General Zia was a very polite man. Extremely polite even when he was talking to younger people,” revealed Khan, adding that Zia had a habit of offering prayers very early and his calls would come at 4am, 5am.

“I hope my call didn’t bother you. I have a request to make,” Shahryar quoted Zia as saying in an early morning call. “Not at all,” was the answer even though Khan had woken up to the call. “I want you to find some canaries for my daughter Zain,” Khan recalled.

People kept coming back unsuccessful, Khan recalled, adding that a man was sent to Syria when they failed to find the bird in Jordan. “Two, three birds out of nine died before they could be delivered to the president,” he regretted.

Tea at a shepherd’s hut

Khan confessed that he has not seen monarchy so closed to the people as it is in Jordan. In one of the rare experiences where Khan walked along with the crown prince of the Arab kingdom, he said, they reached to the hut of a shepherd and sat together for tea. “The shepherd was a very humble man. The crown prince introduced me as a foreign friend. And the best part – the shepherd didn’t know he was meeting the crown prince.”

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s hanging was the next big event, Khan recalled, adding that the Jordanian king called asking the president to “spare his life” but nothing happened despite requests from across the globe, Khan recalled.

Longest hijack in history

Khan was there when the longest hijack in the history of aviation was under way. Three men had seized a plane, diverted it to Kabul, and demanded the release of ‘political prisoners’ from Pakistani jails. The plane finally reached Syria and since the Pakistani ambassador in Syrian was on leave, Khan was asked to go and negotiate with the hijackers. “It was intense time. I would be able to recognise the crew as some of them had literally fallen in our arms when released after weeks,” he said.

The Islamabad Accord

Being the foreign secretary, Khan remembered what happened when the mujahideen, chiefs of ISI and intelligence agencies of Iran and Saudi Arabia were called at the PM House for negotiations in order to make an interim government in Afghanistan.

“From 8am to 10 pm, it wasn’t looking good as the mujahideen were just not listening,” he recalled, adding that finally Turki Al Faisal Al Saud took out a copy of the Quran, read some verses and told the audience that they were going against tenets of the Holy Book. “There was pin drop silence,” he said, “Afghanis said that whatever you say we will agree to that.”

Within a few hours after the meeting, some of them had gone for Umrah while others went to Iran. “Within two weeks, the agreement had fallen apart,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2015.