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A personal farewell An officer and a gentleman

Lt Gen (Retd) Attiqur Rehman, former Governor of the West Wing of Pakistan pre-1971 and later on of the Punjab Province when one Unit was dissolved, died a few months ago of throat cancer on June 1, 1996 in Lahore. He had been suffering from the disease for some time and had been admitted in CMH Lahore. He is survived by a widow and two daughters. An ISPR release stated that “born in 1918 in Messoorie, Lt Gen Attiqur Rehman was commissioned in 1939 from the Military Academy, Dehradun where he won the Sword of Honour and the Silver Spurs for being the best all-round Gentleman Cadet. On Commissioning, he was posted to the Frontier Force Regiment. Later, he commanded different battalions of the famous “Piffers” including the one he had served as a young officer. During the World War II, he saw action at various fronts including the Burma front where he earned his Military Cross. His early schooling in England was richly improved by a series of courses that he attended during the service, both at home and abroad. He graduated from Command and Staff College, Quetta in 1945. In 1950, he attended Command and General Staff Course in America”, unquote.

My late father, Lt Col Abdul Majeed Sehgal, was one of his battalion commanders in 53 Brigade at Comilla, CO of the 2nd Battalion of the East Bengal Regiment (Junior Tigers). Comilla Cantonment (or Mainamati as it was known) was about 5 miles from Comilla Town, spread over a range of dirt hills known as the Lalmai range, straddling the road from Comilla to Dhaka. Mainamati Cricket Club (MCC, if you please) had been formed with then Brig Attiq as Patron and Skipper, among the notable (in later life) players were then Capt (later Gen and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee) Iqbal Khan, Adjutant 2FF, Capt (later Maj Gen and COAS Bangladesh Army) K M Shafiulla, Coy Comd 2EB and Lieut (later Lt Gen COAS Bangladesh Army and President Bangladesh) H M Ershad, Assistant Adjutant 2EB. Included was then Naik (later Honorary Captain ADC to the President) Mannan, a tall basket ball player whose selection as a cricket player was based on the obscure fact that since he was a member of the Pakistan Army Contingent to the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, he must be knowing cricket! At the age of 10, I was more than happy to be the General Factotum i.e. I carried the equipment, fetched the water and got to play occasionally, mostly fielding at “deep third man” or “deep fine leg”. The high point was the tea and sandwiches after the match that came from the Brigade Commander’s House, not the least being included by Brig Attiq (despite my youth) as a full member in the post-play discussions. What do they learn on the playing fields of Eton and Harrow that I did not learn better on the playing field of Mainamati? Interestingly the ground was named by Brig Attiq as Fateh Stadium after late Brig Choudhry Fateh Khan, who was Brigade Commander 53 Bde in 1952-53, my father serving then as his Brigade Major. One of his sons Lt Gen Iftikhar Ali Khan is presently Chief of General Staff Pakistan Army while Choudhry Nisar Ali Khan, one of Pakistan’s outstanding political personalities, was Federal Minister for Petroleum and Special Assistant to the PM in the last PML(N) Cabinet.

One incident I vividly remember is about the sepoy who ran off with a service rifle from 2 EB, a crime of some proportion in the Army, only to return 2 days later. He had gone and shot two men who had abducted and raped his sister. Once the initial flap about the rifle and the missing sepoy was over, my father decided in the logic peculiar to such times that the man had done the honourable thing and he would be damned if he was going to hand him over to the police. A couple of days later Brig Attiq turned up in his shorts in the afternoon to see my father, who was sitting on the lawn reading a newspaper. Over a mug of tea and after some desultory conversation, Brig Attiq told my father, “Majeed, you know you are wrong, the man is guilty of murder”. My father replied “I know, what would you do in my place, Turk? “ (“Turk” was Gen Attiq’s nickname, used only by his close colleagues and friends in private). Turk sat there for some time, sipping his tea and thinking. He then stood up and said “You know, Majeed, Bano makes very good tea”. End of Story.

2 EB was one of his favourite Units, as GOC 7 Div we were again privileged to be under his command when it moved from Comilla to Peshawar in 1958. Driving past a squad of soldiers in PT dress one afternoon, he noticed the squad leader was late in giving the command to salute. “Is this 2 EB? he asked, in scorn. “Yes”, replied the Squad leader, “I am sorry but neither your stars or the flag on the jeepster is showing”. “Right”, replied the general and ordered his driver to give him 10 push-ups because of his failure to remove the cover and put on the flag. The squad leader was then given 10 push-ups because even though the flag and stars were not showing he should have been more alert. The general then proceeded to join them both in 10 push-ups because he should have checked to see whether his driver had complied with the standing instructions.

The ISPR release goes on “At the General Headquarters, he served as Vice Chief of General Staff (1957-59). He served as the Adjutant General, Pakistan Army (1963-65). He also commanded many active formations including an Infantry Division during the Indo-Pakistan War 1965 and a Corps from 1966 to 1969”.

As a Gentleman Cadet (GC) in the PMA Kabul, I was on leave in Pindi in 1964, staying in the Pindi Club. As the Adjutant General (AG) of the Pakistan Army he was totally in a different orbit to that of a plain GC. He invited GC Salman (later Col Salman, CO 3 SSG) and myself to tea on a Sunday, tense as we were we eventually felt at home as he ruminated about his Cadet days at Dehradun. When next our paths crossed he was a Corps Commander, inspecting 2 EB’s defences on the BRB at Bedian near Lahore in 1966. No quarter was given because of the fact that I knew him! His description of my siting of a Machine Gun (MG) as a platoon commander was not complimentary, “MGs are not to be played around like monkeys (referring to the monkey I owned in Comilla). Get into a defiladed position, young man, make sure you are giving enfilade fire” , a lesson I was never to forget, even in real life !

While flying an OH(13)S helicopter with 1 Army Aviation Squadron in support of HQ I Corps at Mangla, I was also the Adjutant of the Squadron. The afternoon tennis foursome included the Corp Commander, Maj (later Maj Gen, now High Commissioner in Brunei) Saeeduzzaman Janjua (UZ) and Capt (later Brig) Saeed Ismat. The Corps Comd was usually my partner and as such both “UZ” and Saeed avoided him and directed all their shots at me, on the ground, at my body and over my head, these who know “UZ” would realise that if the ball hits you it hurts. Gen Attiq constantly chuckled at my discomfort, saying “better you than me, mate”, that made the two increase the number of shots directed at me. Carrying out the Corps Adm Inspection, Gen Attiq arrived at the HQ I Aviation Squadron. The CO I Squadron, newly promoted and newly posted, hyper-active Lt Col Akhtar was all over the place, particularly about our dress code and military bearing. He kept yelling at us for all sorts of lapses till the Corps Comds Staff car arrived. The Corps Comd went down the line meeting the officers (there were 28 pilots in the Squadron) till he came to me, the junior-most, standing last in line. “And who might you be?” he enquired. On my reply that I was the Adjutant, he said “Well, well, well, you are the person I have been looking for, haircut still long I see, about pleatless trousers I have given up since Lahore, but young man, as the Adjutant will you kindly ensure that whenever your CO comes on parade he wears his belt?”

There are dozens and dozens of other anecdotes, some personal but many, many more of others. One famous anecdote is about an infantry unit which was being inspected by the Corps Commander had a crow flying around disturbing the general peace. Ultimately the crow decided to have a call of nature in the vicinity of the Unit’s Quarter Guard. Visibly annoyed, the Corps Commander went away. Next year when he came to inspect the unit again, there was a dead crow hanging upside down near the unit entrance, a placard said “this was the crow that let down the unit last year”. The Corps Commander laughed and said “A unit that has such a sense of humour is FIT FOR WAR”, end of inspection!

Everytime one met Gen Attiq, it was a bonus, such was his fatherly advice, always laced with subtle humour. The last time I met him was in late 1995 at lunch at Ardeshir Cowasjee’s house, my wife and I were included in the small group comprising Col (Retd) S G Mehdi and Amina Jilani. The subject of concern was the selection of the next COAS, he had seen my piece of Sept 18, 1996 in THE NATION “HEAD HUNTING” and commended me for it. “Pakistan’s destiny will depend as never before on who is selected as the next COAS. You were absolutely right in exposing the pretensions of this Qazi character. The COAS must be an individual who is a professional through and through, above all he must be an officer and a gentleman!”

Gen Attiq never did become COAS himself but for me and many like me, he remained, like Generals Habibullah Khan and Iqbal Khan, both of whom who died before him, an outstanding soldier who was a credit to the Army. They belonged to a different bread of men, they were the real salt of this Earth. For me it is a privilege to say a personal farewell to Gen Attiqur Rehman, an officer and a gentleman. Rest in peace, soldier brave!

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