April 12, 2003

After Pakistan had emerged on the world map, its first prime minister, Mr Liaquat Ali Khan, began to look for the right person to lead scientific and industrial progress in the new country that neither had an institution nor an industry worth a mention.

Fortunately, a prominent stalwart of the Pakistan Movement, Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman, had a very learned brother, Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, who was serving in Delhi as the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research at that time (1948). Dr Siddiqui had obtained his doctorate from the Frankfurt University in 1927. He was very well known around the world for his research work on the arrhythmia drug that he had extracted from the plant Rauwolfia serpentina, and had named after Hakim Ajmal Khan, who is still considered the most illustrious practitioner of Unani system of medicine in the subcontinent.

In a letter, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan requested Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to relieve Dr Siddiqui and to ask him to head for Pakistan to establish a scientific research organization here.

Dr Siddiqui mentions it in these words: “Jawaharlal Nehru showed me a letter from Liaquat Ali Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, requesting my services to lay the foundations of science in the new country” (quoted in Salimuzzaman Siddiqui by S M Ismail. PASSP Publication No 3. 1994. page 57).

Dr Siddiqui could migrate to Pakistan not before 1951. On arrival, he began setting up the laboratories of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) in Karachi. The task was concluded in 1953. Soon its regional laboratories were set up at Dacca (now Dhaka), Rajshahi and Chittagong in the then East Pakistan, and at Lahore and Peshawar in the then West Pakistan.

Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui believed that it was necessary to create awareness of science among the masses. With this idea, he also began to publish popular science magazines and research journals from PCSIR. Three such magazines were Karawan-i-Saa’ins (Urdu), Yuro Gami Liggan (Bengali) and Science Chronicle (English). Two other journals, Science & Industry and The Journal of PCSIR were published for professionals in English. All the periodicals, except the PJSIR, were phased out in a few years after Dr Siddiqui left PCSIR in 1966.

Because of his rich contribution to scientific and industrial research, Dr Siddiqui was granted several extensions after superannuation. In February 1966, however, Dr Shafquat Hussain Siddiqui was designated in his place, and Dr Siddiqui got retired on February 15. The next day, Vice-chancellor of the University of Karachi, Dr Mahmood Hussain met Dr Siddiqui and asked him to set up a post-graduate research institute of chemistry in the university. He agreed and became the founder of another research institute.

Dr Siddiqui was born probably on October 19, 1897 (at some places the date of birth is mentioned is mentioned as Oct 17 and at other as Oct 9), at Subeha, Barabanki. After completing his early education in Lucknow, he proceeded to study philosophy and Persian from MAO College, Aligarh. He graduated in 1919, and then went to England (1920) for learning medicine at the University College, London. Having stayed there for over a year, he shifted to the University of Frankfurt-on-Main from where he got his PhD in Chemistry in 1927.

Dr Siddiqui returned to India the same year and was asked by Hakim Ajmal Khan to establish the Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbi Research Institute at the Tibbi College, Delhi, which was inaugurated in 1931. He continued as the institute’s director until after Hakim Ajmal Khan’s death. In 1940, he was called by the British Indian government to serve the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. After working there for 11 years, he came to Pakistan and laid the foundations of PCSIR.

Prof Siddiqui’s contributions to applied and pure research comprise about 150 published papers and 50 patents. His most important work is on the alkaloidal constituents of Rauwolfia serpentina from which he isolated many alkaloids in his early researches. They include Ajmaline, Ajmalinine, Ajmalicine, Isoajmaline, Neoajmaline, Serpentine and Serpentinine. Many are used worldwide for treatment of mental disorders and cardiovascular ailments.

Prof Salimuzzaman Siddiqui was a much celebrated and decorated scientist. He was conferred OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1946. He was Foundation Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, and was elected General President of the Pakistan Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also a Member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Council, and the Scientific Commission. He was elected chairman of the Scientific Commission’s Drafting Committee.

In 1960, he was elected President of the Pan-Indian Ocean Science Association, and the next year, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).

The Soviet Academy of Sciences awarded him Gold Medal.

He was appointed the first chairman of the National Science Council in 1962.

At the “International Seminar on Holarhena Chemistry” held at Prague University in 1966, Prof Siddiqui presented such a comprehensive research paper on Holarhena (a native forest plant) that he was dubbed “father of holarhena chemistry” by the Prague University.

He was also conferred Fellowship of the Pontifical Academy of Science at Vatican.

The Third World Academy of Science at Triesty, Italy, elected him a Foundation Fellow.

He was awarded Tamgha-i-Pakistan, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pride of Performance and Hilal-i-Pakistan.

Several seats of learning conferred honorary doctorates on him.

Prof Siddiqui is widely respected for being an illustrious scientist, but he had an artistic side too. He was a painter, an artist, a poet, a musician and a writer. Very few people know that when he was a student of science, an exhibition of his paintings was held in Frankfurt (Aug 1924). The German newspapers had mentioned him as an ‘artist’ and not as a ‘student’ of arts. His first earning in life, a thousand gold marks, also came from the sale of his paintings exhibited at the Uzielli Gallery, Frankfurt, in 1927. His paintings have also been exhibited in India and Pakistan.

Professor Salimuzzaman Siddiqui served the Habib Ebrahim Jamal Research Institute of Chemistry at the University of Karachi till 1990. After that, he kept himself busy in his personal laboratory until, after a brief illness, he died on April 14, 1994. He rests in the graveyard of the University of Karachi.

The writer is a journalist, and has served in Suparco

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