TWO Indians — Morarji Desai and Dilip Kumar — were, in the past, awarded Nishan-i-Pakistan, but no one deserved this highest civilian award more than Khushwant Singh.

The eminent journalist, writer, columnist and historian always painted a favourable picture of Pakistan. No wonder, he was once dubbed ‘the last Pakistani on Indian soil’.

Born in Hadali, a village in Khushab district, 99 years ago, Khushwant died this year on March 20. He played an important role in creating awareness about the need to release Pakistani PoWs after the 1971 war. His doors were always open to Pakistanis and I had the privilege of seeing the poster, that he designed for his campaign, displayed prominently in his office at the Illustrated Weekly of India, a magazine he edited with great success.

His conversation was laced with couplets from Urdu, a language he loved immensely. One place which all Pakistan high commissioners visited happily was Khushwant’s residence in Delhi, where they invariably got a warm welcome.

If you read the compilation of obituaries Khushwant Singh: The Legend Lives On by his son Rahul Singh, now locally available, you will realise how frequently he championed the cause of Pakistan. The book carries obits by eight Pakistanis out of a total of 48. Writer Faqir Aijazuddin, who honoured his late friend’s wish to bring some of his ashes to be mixed with cement and plastered on his old school, is one of them.

Khushwant tirelessly denounced communal riots, be they against the Sikhs in 1984 in Delhi or against the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. His first novel Train to Pakistan (1956) amply displays his hatred for extremism.

Once the current political crisis is over, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should seriously consider awarding Nishan-i-Imtiaz posthumously to a titanic figure who was an all-weather friend of Pakistan.

Asif Noorani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2014