The very first lesson a journalist learns is that the story is supreme, and that he or she has no place in it.

That is why at the very beginning of my career as a journalist - mind you I was a third-year student of GC Lahore - my main guide and companion was a distinguished journalist by the name of Nawab Mirza Safi ruddin Ahmed Barlas of Loharu.

Everyone in Lahore called him ‘Nawab Sahib’ and he was ‘royalty’ itself in every meaning of the word.

His competence and honesty were legendary.

In over the over two score and five years that I have been ‘on and off the beat’, seldom have I come across a more polite, honest and fearless journalist.

He was shy to a fault, yet come the moment he was at the fore no matter if bricks fl ew, or guarded VVIPs arrogantly stepped in the limelight.

He would step forth and deliver.

Of recent I have been looking up the ancestry of Nawab Sahib as we called him, and it is a story worth narrating and sharing.

For once the story of the ‘invisible journalist’ must be told.

But before I do that a small snippet to give you a flavour of the man.

When the new Hilton Hotel opened in Lahore (now called Avari), after a grilling reporting session at the Punjab Assembly he chuckled and said: “Majid, let’s try this new place they boast so much about”.

So we sat in the new glittering Hilton dining area.

The tea, cake and sandwich tray and starched serviettes lay before us.

Before we could touch anything Nawab Sahib summoned the waiter.

“Please bring the bill immediately.

We have finished,” he said very firmly.

He paid and we left without touching anything.

As we walked out he said softly: “I would never drink tea in a chipped cup, and a Rosenthal at that”.

Nothing of the matter was ever mentioned again.

That was Nawab Sahib in his element.

Nawab Mirza Safiruddin Ahmed was a Mughal of the Barlas streak just as the Mughal emperors were.

He belonged to the royal family of the Loharu State that lies between Hissar and Rajputana on the South- Eastern corner of what was then undivided Punjab.

The name ‘Loharu’ comes from the word ‘lohar’ (blacksmiths) because the gold coins of Jaipur State were minted there.

In 1803, the East India Company awarded the princely State of Loharu to Ahmed Bakhsh Khan, a Barlas Mughal, for services rendered in their fi ght against the Jats of Firozepur Jirka of Gurgaon.

Lord Lake declared him a ‘Nawab’.

In 1827, Nawab Ahmed Bakhsh’s eldest son Shamsuddin Khan became the ‘Nawab’, but in 1835 as he was involved in a plot to assassinate the British Resident to Delhi, Sir William Frazer, in what is now seen as the very first uprising to restore Mughal rule, he was executed and in his place Mirza Aminuddin Ahmed Khan Barlas and his brother Ziauddin were kept at the seat of Loharu, but under virtual house arrest in nearby Delhi.

After the events of 1857 they proved to be loyal subjects of the ‘Company’ in that they remained ‘silent in custody’ and so they were set free and their title restored.

During their stay in Delhi under ‘virtual house arrest’, the family lived in the ‘haveli’ known even today as Mahal Serah, and is in Gali Qasim Jan, Ballimaran.

Among the family was the Nawab’s son-in-law, the famous poet Mirza Ghalib, also a Barlas Mughal.

That lane is still known as ‘Kothi Nawab Loharu Gali’ in Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk.

In 1869, the eldest son Alauddin Ahmed Khan became the new Nawab of Loharu.

He was succeeded by his son Nawab Sir Amiruddin Ahmed Khan (1859-1937) who became just one of eight Muslims in the 41-member Punjab Lt.

Governor’s Council, the precursor to the present Punjab Assembly of Pakistan.

In 1903, he was knighted and allowed a ninegun salute.

He became member of the Viceroy’s Legislative Council.

The last Nawab was his grandson, who also had the same name, who in 1947 acceded Loharu to the Indian Union and moved with his family, including the young Nawab Safiruddin Ahmed Barlas, to Pakistan, settling in Lahore.

One account has it that Nawab Safiruddin actually walked like other refugees to Pakistan to feel their pain.

Once I queried him on this and he chuckled and said: “Jawani thee sahib”.

For some time Nawab Safiruddin worked in Bahawalpur as the Abbasi family were related to him.

But he returned to the huge new family house on Zahoor Afridi Road in the Lahore Cantonment.

He joined ‘The Pakistan Times’ of Lahore initially was as a correspondent and then a Staff Reporter.

In this house his uncle, Nawab Aminuddin Ahmed Khan, and his daughter Mahbano Begum and their family also lived, as did my GC college economics professor Behzad Ahmed Khan.

It would be of interest to narrate the other distinguished members of the Loharu family.

The poet Mirza Ghalib (1796- 1869) was married to Imrao Begum, who was the nawab’s brother’s daughter.

A cousin of the second Nawab was the great Muslim educationist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, as also was a first cousin of Nawab Safiruddin, the President of India (1974-1977) Fakharuddin Ali Ahmed.

The daughter of the Nawab of Loharu married the Nawab of Pataudi, Ibrahim Ali Khan.

His cousin, also named Nawab Aminuddin Ahmed Khan, took over the State after 1947 and was elected to the Rajasthan Assembly and was made Governor of Indian Punjab from 1981-1982.

Among others directly related was the Pakistani poet Jamiluddin Aali.

So it was that we were witness to Nawab Sahib and our Chief Reporter Mr.I.H.Rashid, another amazingly brave leader of the journalists of Pakistan, working in unison.

Military dictators did not dent their spirits.

He also saw a very brief spell of being jailed.

Whenever there was trouble in Lahore, and against the military dictatorships, we worked as a team.

From covering the proceedings of the Punjab Assembly, to covering the Islamic Summit Conference, we were together.

I remember meeting the late ZA Bhutto and he remarked: “He is a clever person, good for Pakistan but the military is against him”.

To the end he remained loyal to the progressive movements among journalists and in the country.

Friends called him the ‘Inqalabi Nawab’.

In his last days he was not well and passed away in December 2012.

He was unique among journalists, a class act, and honest to the core.

When I started my career I was made a Crime Reporter and went at a Press conference of the IG Police where I noticed everyone getting envelopes.

When my turn came the IG Police nodded to the conference handler not to give me an ‘envelope’ with the remark: “He belongs to a good family”.

This pleased Nawab Sahib no end.

When Nawab Safi ruddin Barlas learnt of this he presented me with an envelope with Rs50 in it, then a handsome amount.

A small note said: “You have kept your family honour intact”.

I still have that note.

The world of journalism has moved on considerably.

I am sure equally honest journalists are still, and always will, be slugging it out.

That lure of bringing the truth, of exposing, has a taste no amount of money can buy.

That is why the memory of Nawab Sahib, that blueblooded Barlas Mughal and a progressive journalist, will always be missed.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2017