“NOTHING I have said is factual except the bits that sound like fiction,” said Clive James in his Unreliable Memoirs. I cannot say for sure whether it mars the image of a writer when the bits of fact in his or her autobiography sound like fiction, but I am positive that when bits of fiction sound like facts, it shows the writer's enviable command over the craft of story-telling.

Qudratullah Shahab's Shahabnama is most probably Urdu's best-selling autobiography. But many bits of fact described in it have been questioned as they sound more like fiction. Keeping in view Shahab's reputation as a man of integrity and a Sufi, one can say that, in the words of Mark Twain, he mainly told the truth but there were things that he stretched. Shahabnama is one of the books which, just like historical novels, make one believe that a term like 'faction' - a blend of 'fact' and 'fiction' - does exist, though frowned upon by many a critic.

But Shahabnama's readability made Shahab one of Urdu's most successful memoirists. Mushfiq Khwaja was one of those who criticised Shahabnama for its exaggerations, inaccuracies and 'stretched truths'. But he, too, was convinced of its absorbability. Khwaja Sahib wrote in his literary column published in an Urdu weekly that though its thickness was threatening, once you started reading the book, it would be impossible to do anything else till you read it through. And the end made one desire that the absorbing story was still lengthier. Though in the same piece he declared in his usual tongue-in-cheek style that in his autobiography Qudratullah Shahab's art of story-telling and sketch-writing was at its best.

It is beyond any shade of doubt that Shahab was a master story-teller. His novelette Ya Khuda is testimony to it. Appreciated by such reputed critics as Hasan Askari and Mumtaz Shireen, the novelette that tells the sad story of a refugee girl has a satiric theme but makes one feel like crying. As though three collections of Shahab's short stories - Nafsanay, Maan jee and Surkh feeta - were not enough to confirm a seat for him in the hall of fame of Urdu literature, his autobiography, published shortly after his death, became so popular that it ran into many editions - a rare feat for any Urdu book.

Born on February 26, 1917 in Gilgit, Qudratullah Shahab was a civil servant, short-story writer, Sufi and the moving spirit behind many government schemes launched for the benefit of writers and intellectuals. An ICS, Shahab held many important and high-profile posts after opting for Pakistan in 1947. Apart from serving the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in 1948 and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in 1968, he was deputy commissioner of Jhang, private secretary to governors-general Ghulam Mohammad and Iskandar Mirza and, later, to President Mohammad Ayub Khan. He also served as Pakistan's ambassador to the Netherlands, federal secretary of education and federal secretary of information.

Shahab Sahib strived for the welfare of writers and intellectuals. Besides serving the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu as its honorary president, he is credited - or rather discredited - with the making of the Pakistan Writers' Guild (PWG) in the Ayub era. Accused of trying to buy the loyalties of the writers for the dictator as his PS, Shahab was the founding member of the PWG, along with Qurrat-ul-Ain Hyder, Ghulam Abbas, Jameeluddin Aali and some others. No doubt it succeeded in gaining many a benefit for writers, the PWG is often seen as an organisation formed to obtain writers' support for the martial law regime.

Often considered a brainchild of Shahab's, the obedient and toothless PWG became lethargic soon after Ayub Khan's removal from power and today, it is a dormant literary body, existing only on paper. Shahab might have intended well in forming the PWG but it earned him much criticism. Ironically, he provoked the wrath of the Americans as well because the writers and poets with a leftist leaning, too, took refuge in the PWG, ultimately playing a role in Shahab's removal and his posting as ambassador.

When Baba-i-Urdu came under a cloud due to his companions' conspiracy at the Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu, Shahab Sahib came to his rescue and through an official order, issued by President Ayub Khan at the request of Shahab Sahib, Baba-i-Urdu was restored to his former powerful position at the Anjuman. But it came at a price Baba-i-Urdu was made to sign an article - written by someone else - in favour of Ayub Khan's Basic Democracy (BD) system. The article was published in a booklet titled Pak Jamhooriyet.

It was not only Baba-i-Urdu for whom respect and beneficence came with strings attached, but there were others - notable among them Ibn-i-Insha, Mumtaz Mufti and Shahid Ahmed Dehlavi - who wrote articles favouring Ayub's BD system and the so-called constitution fashioned by the dictator. Many magazines published special issues on the BD system and many literary journals such as Saqi, Naqsh and Afkaar published features eulogising Ayub Khan.

These magazines and writers, according to Mushfiq Khwaja, were paid stipends from the president's special fund. And this could not have happened without Shahab's approval or at least his knowledge, alleges Mushfiq Khwaja as he casts doubt on the facts mentioned by Shahab in the relevant chapters of his autobiography.

Shahab Sahib resigned from government service when Yahya Khan came to power. After the resignation, Shahab lived in England for a few years and, earning the ire of the regime, was deprived of his rightful and lawful pension, which was restored after three years, making him go through great hardship while still living in England.

Another aspect of Shahab Sahib's personality, which is quite strange, is his reputation as a saint or mystic. His close friends, especially Mumtaz Mufti, played a key role in spreading whiffs about his sainthood, unbelievable spiritual powers and status among the Sufis. At least in his autobiography one finds many things that can be described as 'unexplained', to say the least.

Qudratullah Shahab died on July 26, 1986 in Islamabad.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com