KARACHI: Since the last Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), Jamsheed Marker appears to have aged a lot but the former ambassador still has an amazing memory for a 93-year-old, and he’s not too happy about it. “I keep thinking that at the end of 30 years [of foreign] service, all sorts of thoughts come. As they say old men forget and I have forgotten quite a lot, but not the things I should not forget,” said the former ambassador to Russia, France, Germany and Ghana at the relaunch of his book on Friday.

Mr Marker was speaking at a session “Cover Point: Impressions of Leadership in Pakistan” — the same title as his book that was published last year and was relaunched at the 7th KLF — moderated by former ambassador Aneesuddin Ahmed with Ishrat Hussain, the dean of the Institute of Business Administration, as a speaker.

The session kicked off with Mr Marker talking about the creation of Pakistan. “This was a country that many people thought would never exist, and if it did, would not last long,” he said while speaking to a packed room of the Aquarius hall.

He said: “Those were heavy days, we knew things were happening but didn’t know how it would happen, we knew Pakistan was coming.

“I remember sitting at the Delhi Gymkhana where a group of people were discussing Pakistan when one of them said, ‘I give it three months and they will come back to us’. After Partition, I remember going from Drigh Road to my house in Bath Island. At the Cantt railway station, there were refugees with blood-stained clothes, tired and hungry but they had this spirit. Pakistan Zindabad motivated them and somehow despite the hardship of having left everything behind, they were determined to make Pakistan.”

What happened afterwards, he said, where did this spirit go?

“It didn’t disappear, it moved away,” said Mr Marker. “We’ve had 68 years to think about it and I still haven’t found a definitive answer. Does the fault lie in us or in our stars? The Pakistan we have today is not the concept of Mohammad Ali Jinnah,” he said.

The former ambassador added that it was unbelievable to witness the determination and motivation of the people. “When you drove past Cantt Station, there were goods wagons filled with those dusty files from Delhi — stacked to the top, and we didn’t have any offices allotted to us. In Delhi, they had moved into new buildings, while the clerks and chaprasis here worked out of these goods wagons.”

According to Mr Marker, Pakistan has come a long way. “Has Pakistan succeeded? If you think where we were five or 10 years ago, the jury would be out but if you think of 1947 when a large part of the world’s population didn’t believe Pakistan would exist, I think we have done well.”

Dr Ishrat Hussain asked Mr Marker about his time spent working with Gen Ziaul Haq. “There were a lot of things I disagreed with Zia about and I said it to him. I never knew how he took it, as he always had a hooded expression,” the former ambassador laughed and added that while working with Gen Ziaul Haq, many people did not know they would hit the ground till they bit the dust as “he did it with such finesse”.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2016