KARACHI: The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) in collaboration with the Pakistan Print and Electronic Media Foundation (PPEMF) hosted the launch of memoirs of former ambassador Sibte Yahya Naqvi titled Jo Hum Peh Guzri in a jam-packed PIIA library on Saturday.

“I have been associated with foreign service. I am also one of those diplomats who have had to lie for their country. So after 35 years of lying, I thought it a good idea to speak the truth through my book,” said Mr Naqvi at the launch.

“There are many things in the book that have to do with my experience of viewing our leaders from up close. I am not a political person. I have not condemned anyone. I have only honestly shared my observations and written about what I saw,” he said.

“I have also travelled much so I have also shared my understanding of different countries, especially where there was dictatorship,” he said. “I have met dictators and tyrants such as Nicolae Ceauescu, Col Gaddafi and so many more. So you may say I have specialised in dictators,” he laughed, adding that the lives of the people in dictatorships such as Romania under Ceauescu were miserable. “The people there needed to line up for hours for food and basic necessities. They were literally starving,” he said.

Former ambassador’s book launch held

“I have observed our leaders and whenever I used to share about their peculiar behaviours at gatherings, I would be coaxed to pen my experiences,” he said.

“There was the glutton Nawaz Sharif, who could not think while he ate. Then there was the poker-faced Ziaul Haq, who showed no expression except on two instances. One, when anyone referred to him as ‘Ameer-ul-Monineen’ to his face. He would be beaming then. And if anyone came to him with anything to complain about him or his rule, he would develop a smirk. That poor person would then become his most hated person,” he said.

“Writing the book, I also wanted to show the workings of the foreign office and of embassies and ambassadors,” he said.

Senior bureaucrat S.M. Sibtain said that he was a fan of Mr Naqvi’s voluntary services for education in Pakistan. “In 1981, we were looking for a land for a school in Karachi. After getting the land in 1987, we started building the school for which we needed funding. Being one of our trustees, he had a big hand in finding us donors, from here as well as abroad. It was thanks to him that we were able to set up the Shah Wilayat School,” he said.

Ambassador Rafiuzzaman Siddiqui appreciated that the book had been penned in Urdu. “When you are posted abroad, your country leaders expect the embassies to be at their beck and call. I remember how it would be an issue for us ambassadors to make available lotas for them in bathrooms,” he laughed.

“We had also come up with a way to avoid the leaders with strange demands like these by hiding in the lift,” he added.

Becoming serious then, he said that it was on the ambassador’s shoulders how to deal with the government, the defence side and the commercial sector of each country. “Handling all with protocol is a big responsibility. Each country posting is a different challenge,” he said.

“He is one of those ambassadors, who have worked all his life to create a good image of Pakistan abroad,” he added.

Writer and columnist Agha Masood Hussain said that as a journalist, he used to call him over to share his point of view in his current affairs programme. “Then one day, I just couldn’t reach him on his phone. That’s when I visited his home only to learn that he had left Pakistan to settle down in Canada,” he added.

About Mr Naqvi’s book he said it can’t be put down until you have finished it.

Senior Journalist Mazhar Abbas said that as a journalist he had remained an eyewitness to several things mentioned in the book by Mr Naqvi. “Our ambassadors have tried working in difficult stations under difficult circumstances such as in Libya, Syria, etc. When he was stationed in Libya, it was a very difficult time when Bhutto was about to be hanged in Pakistan and Libya was against this decision. It’s then the ambassador’s diplomacy that’s needed to maintain the balance,” he said, adding that when politicians and leaders here make policies they sometimes make lives very difficult for our ambassadors.

Earlier, Chairperson of PIIA, Dr Masuma Hasan said that Ambassador Naqvi was one of the most well-known ambassadors of Pakistan. His assignment in Hague was particularly important. “His book is not just about his 35-year career. Think of it as a political history of Pakistan. He has written about the leaders of Pakistan, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Ziaul Haq and Mian Nawaz Sharif and General Pervez Musharraf. Besides all this, the book is also an interesting travelogue,” she said.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2022