DAWN is doing a fabulous job of enacting the history of Pakistan by publishing rare photographs with enthralling narrative to celebrate the 70th Independence Day befittingly.

These pictures have taken me through the charming maze of nostalgia as I now live in my sunset years. The picture of a young boy (Dawn – Aug 13) sitting on a heap of heritage rubble in a refugee camp in Delhi has kindled some of my faded memories.

On the eve of partition in 1947, my father, Shujaat Ali Siddiqi, who died in Karachi in 1980, was posted in Meerut (UP) as Command Comptroller of Military Accounts. Since he had opted for Pakistan, he was directed to assume responsibilities as Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan at Delhi when the divide actually took place in August 1947.

My father had managed to send his family to Karachi where we lived in a portion of a bungalow on Somerset Street, Karachi. He then devoted himself to the cause and service of Muslim refugees in Delhi and worked round the clock to manage their safety and evacuation to Pakistan when rioting and carnage were rampant.

Despite the life-threatening situation in Delhi, he frequented the Muslim refugee camps and did everything possible to alleviate their sufferings to a great extent within the limited resources of a nascent state and extremely hostile circumstances.

He was a devout Muslim who lived by the Islamic values of humility, equality and honesty. May Allah rest his soul in peace and long live Pakistan!

Haroon R Siddiqi

Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2017