Clouds of War

By Brig ® Mehboob Qadir

In the heady wake of 65 War we joined Army and, merrily  walked into that eternal inferno called Pakistan Military Academy Kakul for a thorough' restructuring'. And what a grand but unforgiving smelter it is. Its hardships, extremely tough training, leadership and character building, sense of worth and comradeship all go to make future officers of Pakistan Army. Some of whom outshine others in battle, crises and life in peace time. PMA attempts to turn raw iron ore into gunmetal as it distills impurities during training, producing world class military leaders if the right opportunity for their employment could be created. It was in PMA that we built-up life-long friendships and carved out directions of our military future. Predominant traits shown during PMA shaped our careers later on. A few showed remarkable progress and a few others fell out along the way: the rest generally cruised along as predicted.

Late in 1968 we graduated from PMA and joined our units. My unit was in Lahore. It was a period of political ferment in the country, but of jolly good time in the cantonments. We were riding the crest of the wave of popular esteem earned through a combination of bravery in 65 War, institutional cover-up, effective propaganda and timidity of Indian High Command. Perhaps most wars are like that but for us its long-term effects were catastrophic as we had begun to believe in our own bluff and bluster.  

Major General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi was our Divisional Commander. He was popularly called as 'Tiger Niazi' probably for his valour during World War 2 on Burma front or may be more for his pet word 'tiger' with which he addressed every other soldier. He had a peculiar style of command; a mixture of bare earthy humor, loud bravado and unabashed self-indulgence. One was always left with an uneasy feeling of 'put up show' after meeting  him. However he was an accomplished conversationalist and had a flare of his own. Lahore Cantonment still retained the grandeur and romance of the old Colonial era. Clear and resounding bugle calls could still be heard across the Cantonment at morning reveille and  evening retreat times everyday. Pakistan flag used to fly proudly over Jinnah House which was the Corps Commander's residence like now. There used to be great stress on punctuality and dress code and the training was long and very tough. We used to spend more than half of the year out of the unit lines in the field training exercises. Rest of the time we pedaled around on rented bicycles.  In those times of economic austerity the existence of unit Canteen Contractor. Rehman Furnishers behind (now extinct) Globe Cinema. Janjua Military Tailors and for one odd officer with a motor cycle, PBS Petrol Pump near Yadgar Chowk were of critical importance. A Honda motor cycle of 150 cc class would cost less than two thousand rupees and a Vespa scooter a little more. Our meager pay was barely enough to subsist, rest of the long month and the inevitable Mess bill we used to sail through with the generous monetary help of our canteen contractors; the pervasive warrior-merchant Khattaks of the Frontier. Under these trying financial circumstances if an officer could save some money he was considered a saint alright but not a role model. To talk of money, bank balance and the sort was considered bad taste.

Janjua Tailors would stitch  expensive service dresses for officers on easy installments. At times would also be willing to stitch an odd suit on installments. They were our standard keepers of the formal service wardrobe and authority on officers military fashion wear. They were so thoughtful as to never remind an officer for payment of a delayed installment in public and rarely sent bills through the official channels. Always showed tremendous courtesy to officers regardless of the weight of rank and size of the monetary default. Redman Furnishers and PBS Petrol Pump were another two institutions of the same caliber. As soon as a new officer reported to a unit in Lahore he would receive a list of furniture indicating its rent from Rehman Furnishers. This list included curtains, carpets, furniture anything and everything needed to setup a decent room or a house. Small bookshelf in the list was in great demand as it could double as a very suitable shoe rack also. We would select required items, put down our name, number, unit and Mess address and deposit the list in their showroom office. Before the end of the next day selected furniture would have been placed in the room and a monthly rent bill would duly reach until the next transfer.

For the next three years we withstood unit Second-in-Command's (21C) garrulous monthly room inspections with the same hired furniture. He knew that the glory in the room was rented. The aim was not to be devious but to ensure that the young officers were living decently and that Rehman Furnishers would not have a cause to complain about misuse of their property. Bookshelf converted into shoe rack was an acceptable diversion under our local ‘doctrine of necessity’.I am sure our names must have become part of garrison's commercial history in the musty old hire registers of Rehman Furnishers and Janjua Tailors.

Owner of the PBS Petrol Pump had devised an ingenious system of providing petrol on credit to officers. He would issue a book of blank coupons upon filling of a form. You could fill up your tank on credit after producing a duly endorsed credit coupon. At the end of the month a bill with used coupons would reach the unit for payment. You were obliged to pay in time to become eligible for the issue of  petrol on credit next month. Sorrowfully the age that these ancient courteous men represented has long since expired.  And may be we too have degenerated along the way. 

These were small, special but respectable measures to live honorably within the limited pay of an officer built around a code of gentlemanly conduct and mutual trust. Plots and land factors had not yet entered these simple budget calculations. None expected the officers to live lavishly. We had a social acceptance despite our pauperism. Curiosity and contradiction lay in the fact of our high living standard and low unmatching income. This un-addressed gap later produced an unhealthy divide and a class consciousness among officers with damaging effects upon their morale, discipline and professionalism.

Those were different times, people were gracious and mostly contented. It was rare that an officer was living flagrantly beyond his means.A military unit was home, family, bank and honour court in one. So much so if the urgency of the moment demanded an old loyal Mess waiter would block your way to a possible misconduct. There was nothing dearer than the good name of the unit and it was everybody's duty to keep it that way.

Unit 21C, Subedar Major, Canteen Contractor and Mess Abdaar (Barman) were an inevitable discipline squad responsible for a close watch over unit officers' personal, professional and financial conduct. Unit Mess waiters would invariably act as their pointsmen to identify a brewing situation. Although their watch-dog presence always loomed close yet it never stepped over the officer's self-respect and his right to privacy.  Their primary function was to prevent 'unauthorized border crossing.' In this elaborate network Commanding Officer always played a central but dignified role as the patriarch of the entire unit. Thoughtful, firm and irreproachable' a model of conduct and always first in the eye of the storm.

For morning PT and evening sports period’s and at the beginning and end of the office hours, there used to be numerous batches of officers riding bicycles on Lahore Cantonment roads. Happily and carefully pedaling each officer would ride-off to his unit as it approached, to reunite on the road later in the day. Our over-starched uniform trousers made a peculiar rattling sound while riding those bicycles as if stitched out of card board sheets. All officers' bicycles in Lahore Cantonment were, in principle, the property of the respective Unit Canteen Contractors. Thus a kind of economic parity prevailed.

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