He was one of his kind in Pakistan. He made strict rules for himself and followed them zestfully. His interests were very versatile, and he was full of enthusiasm for his pursuits and passions, and yet found a balance between them lest he was overwhelmed by some of them at the cost of others.
Ahmed E.H. Jaffer was known for his varied interests and the vigour with which he pursued them. He had irrepressible energy, a prodigious memory, and a passion to pursue national interests at the cost of his own pursuits. He came from a well-known business family of Bombay but did not let his business envelop him.
Founder of the English Speaking Union of Pakistan, he was its active president for long, a spirited Rotarian as well as a keen tennis player. He was famous for his passion to be punctual. He could attend four parties in a night and still be in bed by 10:00pm.
Jaffer’s fine qualities were recalled and his services to the nation as lieutenant of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah eulogized at a meeting presided over by the Governor of Sindh, Mohammedmian Soomro, to launch an excellent book, Ahmed E.H. Jaffer and the Making of Pakistan, prepared by his sons Abdul Kader Jaffer, now our high commissioner in London and Wahab Jaffer, an accomplished artist.
The well-produced book compiled by Farishta Dinshaw was distributed free at its largely-attended launching ceremony where many spoke, including Sharifuddin Pirzada Hashim Raza, who knew him very well, our former high commissioner to London, Shahryar Khan, Qutbuddin Aziz and Kader Jaffer, who had come here accompanying Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister.
Much was said about his varied life, but not about the yacht he had for long at the East Wharf and to which he used to invite many of the VIPs and good friends. The old but reconditioned yacht used to sail around to the tune of cool music and give a lovely view of the sea. Later, it broke down and as repairing it would have cost too much, it was disposed of.
A lady at the meeting noted that no one had made any mention of the carnation in his buttonhole without which he could not be seen in the evenings. Nor did they mention the presidential contest which he lost. He came from London and to the surprise of his friends, contested the election against Ghulam Ishaq and lost. He said he simply wanted to prove that everyone, including Pakistanis abroad, had the right to contest the elections.
Talking of his passion for punctuality, a Maulvi from his family said he had gone to a family wedding with Jaffer and the invitation card read dinner at 8pm. He asked for dinner at 8pm sharp, but the caterer said it could not be done as even the host had not arrived till then. That made no difference, said Jaffer, and got the food out for those who had arrived punctually.
I was at a farewell lunch hosted by Jaffer for the Iraqi Consul-General. But the latter arrived 25 minutes late and found the guests had completed the second course. The chief guest and others were embarrassed, but Jaffer said that as a diplomat, he should have been on time.
Jaffer who lived to be 81 and died in 1990, took me on a visit to four major clubs in London in 1989, ending with a club way out which had 40 tennis courts. He might have done about 100 miles that night and he was driving the car himself, and would not give up until the club-crawling, that he wanted me to be put through, was over.
He had good friends in the British Parliament. Once, when I was going to the US with a stopover in London for a couple of days, Jaffer asked me to meet some of his friends and said he would write to them. When I reached London rather late, as the plane was delayed, I had a heap of invitations from dukes and lords and members of parliament. If I had accepted those invitations, I would have had to spend at least ten days in London. And I chose not to get involved in that kind of electorate social circuit.
I had seen his performance in the Constituent Assembly in Pakistan. He would give notice of a great many questions which the government found too tough to cope with. A rule was made that he could ask only five questions. Immediately, he fed his questions to other members and defeated the government’s rule.
Jaffer was offered ambassadorship in the US or high commissionership in London. He chose to be in Pakistan and serve it as a businessman. The young Pakistan needs good businessmen, he always said.
Stamp collection, playing tennis, promotion of sports in the country and playing fields were among his many passions.
Kader Jaffer
Kader Jaffer was feted at a round of parties in the city, particularly by those who visit London often and whom he entertains generously. The former prime minister, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, held a lunch for the high commissioner with a large diplomatic presence. The British Deputy High Commissioner, David Pearey, was there along with the envoys of Turkey, France, Switzerland and Japan. Jatoi is very popular with the diplomats as Arif Jatoi, too, is becoming. Javed Jabbar was there as was also the Talpur clan, including Mushtaq and Mumtaz Talpur who are cousins.
Mrs Jatoi, who had arrived from London, was also there greeting the wives of diplomats. M.I. Akbar was there talking of how the foreign air services he represented were coming back to Pakistan in full, one after another.
A. Shahbaz, chairman of Sui Southern Gas Company, and his floral art expert wife, Kaukab, gave a dinner at their new residence which is being steadily embellished for Kader Jaffer. Shahbaz, who loves acting and is scheduled to appear in a play soon had also actor-director Sohail Malik and his fashion-designer wife, Shaiyanne Malik, as guests.
Azhar Malik, the new chief executive of ICI, was there with wife Lubna. Marble designer Azra Ashfaq was looking at the new acquisitions of Shahbaz along with Najma Husain, the cargo dispatch specialist.
French Consul-General, Gilles Bonnaud, fresh from a holiday, was having a long chat with Anwar Mooraj on cultural issues.
Yet another fashion designer and model there was the daughter of the Shahbazs, Pomme.
Hamid Adamjee and his wife Hawa, who spent a long time in London recently, gave a dinner for Kader Jaffer where his younger brother, Wahab, and son, Adil, who represents Brazil as the honorary consul, like this father, were also there. Kader had some diplomatic exchanges with Zia Ispahani, former ambassador to Rome. Shams Lakha, president of the Aga Khan University, discussed social issues with some of the ladies who were eager to hear his views. Nafis Siddiqi spoke of the legal aspect of such problems.
Honouring the doctor
His friends, among the doctors, take good care of him when Mumtaz Rahim, chief of Brinks Security Agency, goes to London or the US. And he and his wife take good care of the doctors when they visit the city. So when Dr Khalid Hameed, chief of Cromwell Hospital in London, to which Pakistanis usually go for serious treatment, came here recently, Mumtaz held a lunch for him and his wife.
Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a schoolmate of Mumtaz in Karachi Grammer School, was there as was also Makhdoom Amin Fahim, senior vice-president of the PPP; Sardar Sherbaz Mazari and former senator, Zulfikar Jamote. Inevitably, in-depth political discussions followed along with some spirited speculation about the future.
The non-politician there was V.A. Jafarey, adviser on finance to BB as prime minister, who was more interested in the economic issues of the times and how things were taking shape on that front.
Dr Khalid Hameed was here to participate in the wedding celebrations of his nephew, Omar Osmani, son of M.M. Osmani, chairman of the Sindh Public Service Commission. Omar works for Citibank in Dublin and has married another banker who works for Standard Chartered Bank.
Nawabzada Hasan Ali Khan of Continental Biscuits, makers of LU Biscuits, and his wife gave a dinner to meet Dr Khalid with a large guest list.
There was an impressive array of political leaders there such as Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Makhdoom Khaliquzzaman, Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani whose Jacobabad has been in the headlines for long and Amir Bhutto, son of Mumtaz Bhutto. Begum Shamsi Khaliquzzaman was there saying that after having learnt higher French, she is now taking interest in Italian which pleased Zia Ispahani as he was our ambassador in Rome.
The bankers were well represented. Shaukat Tareen, who heads Union Bank and has great expansion plane, was there along with Zakir Mahmud of Habib Bank and his wife, Ali Raza of National Bank of Pakistan that is bringing out an excellent monthly bulletin on banking and the economic statistics of Pakistan.
Sindh Finance Minister, Abdul Hafiz Shaikh, and his wife were talking to major corporate barons such as Jawaid Anwar of British Oxygen and Dr Arif Mufti of General Tyre, while Nisar Memon, former president of Reformers, discussed social issues.
He was one of his kind in Pakistan. He made strict rules for himself and followed them zestfully. His interests were very versatile, and he was full of enthusiasm for his pursuits and passions, and yet found a balance between them lest he was overwhelmed by some of them at the cost of others.
