Khattaknamah Akorkhel Khattak
A tribute by a grandson – Muhammad Ishfaq Khattak, Adamzai
I turned sixty-nine a few days back, in June. After superannuating from public service as CEO/ GM, of Pakistan Railways, in 2011, I have, one way or another, continuously been associated with active public service till today, and at present am Chairman, of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited, a Public Limited Company of KPK Government. Allah has been kind and gracious and life has been good, so far!
Looking back over the years, one recalls people and personalities who have somehow influenced your life and destiny to the extent that one’s character and personality is reflective of the values and ideals they inculcated in you from time to time.
Consciously or inadvertently, the long process involving one’s parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts, siblings, cousins, relatives, friends, teachers, colleagues, mentors, leaders, hujra culture, educational institutions, your professional life etc. definitely leaves some imprint on our lives, shaping our personality and consequently affecting our way of thinking and way of approaching issues to we face from time to time. In one way or another, these contribute to moulding your personality and make you what you are today and what you stand for.
One such personality, who has left a deep mark on my mind and thinking, was Khan Bacha, my dear and beloved grandfather. I had to share him with about twenty-three other living grandchildren, each one of whom looked up to him and thought he was always there for him, the same way I did!
A family elder and a mentor to many, Khan Batcha played the role of an ever-lighted beacon, a symbol of wisdom and rationality, a guiding force, and a person I could depend on in times of hardships and crisis. His values and ideals of justice and fair play, honesty and integrity, bravery and courage, modesty, honour and dignity, leadership, friendship, and hospitality, reaching out to the needy kith and kin, financial proprietary, adherence to hujra culture, respect for elders, respect for family unity and values, utter regard and importance of women of the family, etc. etc. have inculcated in me some of the guiding principles of my life. I am sure others who had the honour of associating with him would tend to agree.
To all of us in the family, even far-off relatives and almost everyone in the village, he was Khan Bacha. For others, he was Khan Sahib Muhammad Aslam Khan.
Born in 1900, Muhammad Aslam Khan was the eldest son of Muhammad Akram Khan of Dangerzai, now Adamzai. His father, popularly known to the people as Kumidaan saib, a distortion of the word Commandant, had also earlier served as a police officer in the Imperial Police Service of India.
In the early 1920s, Muhammad Aslam Khan joined the Police Training School at Phillaur, Jalandhar, India, for undergoing the compulsory training course for fresh cadets. He excelled in all fields of the tedious training course.
Blessed with a smart, lean, and athletic physique, he outran his colleagues in every event of physical fitness tests but when the time came for the final medical examination, there arose a serious and embarrassing problem.
A blue-blooded Pashtun, who valued his modesty and dignity more than anything in the world, Muhammad Aslam Khan simply refused to strip in front of the medical board. The doctors were confronted with a serious dilemma. It was a challenging match between the traditional values of modesty, dignity and honour of a Khankhel Khattak and the authority and protocols of the medical board.
Khan Sahib stood his ground even at the cost of losing, the rather difficult find, police service. The doctors tried to convince him but all in vain. In the end, sense and sanity prevailed, and both parties agreed to go halfway. Khan Sahib agreed to take his shirt off and the medical test was carried out with the lower body from the navel down to the knees fully covered!
Call it what you may; a principled stand and adherence to one’s values and traditions or simply the stubbornness of a Pashtun, but it sure does give us an insight into the personality of the man. As they say “All is well that ends well!” He went on to join the police service, serving the department for more than forty years or so.
Khan Sahib got married to his cousin, the daughter of Ashraf Khan, his paternal uncle. They had a happy life, with loving and caring son and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law and a bevy of ever-present grandchildren, to care for and cater for their every need. They were blessed with four sons and three daughters.
The eldest son was Muhammad Ishaq Khan, my father, who excelled in the field of road and building construction for the government. A lot has been written about him on this forum earlier. The second son was Muhammad Usman Khan, PSP, who joined the police service and retired after working as the longest-serving Director of Anti Corruption Establishment, NWFP. Like his father before him, Usman Khan’s integrity, honesty, professionalism and strict adherence to discipline became legendary amongst the police force. Muhammad Iqbal Khan, my father-in-law, was the third son. He initially joined PAF as a GD pilot but later said goodbye to PAF, and started his own construction business. A smart, pleasant and cheerful person, he was the adventurous type who faced the rigours of life with a smiling demeanour. All the three eldest son passed away a few years apart, starting with Iqbal Khan who died young in 1988, followed by my father in 1989 and Usman Khan in 1994. The youngest son, Muhammad Ehsan Khan, who Mashallah is alive and is in good health, retired as a Brigadier from the army, serving in the famous Frontier Force Regiment. Post-retirement, he successfully pursued his passion for education. He remained Principal of Pakistan International School at Abbottabad for several years and successfully raised the standard of the school to be equated to Burn Hall School and Abbottabad Public School.
Khan Sahibs second brother Muhammad Yousaf Khan, also joined the Police service sometime later and retired as an Inspector. He died issueless. His other brothers were Muhammed Zafar Khan, Muhammad Anwar Khan, both issueless, and Muhammad Alam Khan who also joined the police force and retired as a Sub Inspector. Colonel Nisar Khan, Sarwar Khan and Razak Khan were brothers from different mothers. He also had two real and two step sisters. Amongst his siblings, only the youngest sister is alive today.
Some earliest memories of KS Muhammad Aslam Khan date back to the days when wearing neckties with shilwar kameez and jacket were still in vogue. Always clad in a crisp white shilwar kameez, smoking ‘Three Castles’ cigarettes, carefully tucked inside a sleek golden tin-made cigarette case, that used to be the hallmark of the times, particularly of those being a class apart.
On Eid days he would invariably sit in his majestic hujra, surrounded by relatives and villagers and would enjoy entertaining guests with tea and pastries. He also loved doling out money or ‘Akhtar Paisley’ to the children of the family and the neighborhood. Meticulous as he was, Khan Batcha made sure that the hujra was kept spotlessly clean with trimmed green lawns and well-maintained flower beds. A ‘garwanj’, with perpetual supply of cool drinking water in ‘matkas and ‘mangaes’, covered by ‘candools’, was a welcome feature. A large wooden takht, sufficient to accommodate four to five people was kept clean for prayers. Majid Kaka, his old servant, would be at his side, responding to each beck and call.
Another interesting aspect of our grandfathers multi-faceted personality, we discovered quite late in life. Mushtaq and I, teenagers at the time, were lucky to accompany Khan Bacha and my father on a two day partridge and chakor hunting trip to Chakdara, Swat, in the mid 60’s. Horses had been arranged by our host, to cross the pristine waters of the River Swat and to cover the six to seven miles distance to the hunting ground in the nearby mountains.
Mushtaq and I, having no experience of riding, except for one or two donkey rides in the village, were rather apprehensive. The very thought of crossing the cold gushing waters on horseback sent goose pimples all over our bodies, but we managed, somehow, to put up a brave face!
We were in the process of choosing some timid-looking mares when Khan Batcha approached the horses on offer. He opted for a greyish stallion and in one smooth action mounted the horse. The local guides pointed to the place from where it was relatively safe to cross. To us it seemed scary as this was the place where the water was simply gushing with speed. Khan Batcha who had all this time kept pace with the head guide, urged his horse into the water and to our awe and pleasant surprise he masterly maneuvered the stallion to the other bank through belly-deep waters. Even the guides were impressed with his handling of the horse.
Later, in the evening he told us that riding was part of his police training and that he had been part of the police team for torch-lit Tatto shows. He had even tried his hand at tent pegging a long time ago.
Being a true Khankhel, he had a constellation of friends reflective of his sincerity towards people. In fact, he developed lasting friendships over the years that further strengthened with the passage of times. Among his close friends were: Habib ullah Khan, the former Chairman Senate of Lakki Marwat, Justice Faiz Ullah Khan Kundi of Lachai, DIKhan, Dr. Abdul Hakeem Khan of Mardan/ Peshawar, Brig. Zaman of Chakri Rajgaan and father of ex COAS, Gen Asif Nawaz, D M Khanzada of Shadikhan, Safdar Khan Durrani of Sardheri, Mir Gazzan of Rajjaro, to mention a few. They were frequent visitors to the hujra in Adamzai during autumn, winter and spring months.
I vividly remember Khan Batcha telling me that our family’s strength lies in the fact that we are positioned on the main GT road. So every friend, especially those from Bannu, DI Khan, Kohat, Dir, Swat etc. who happened to pass by, made it a point to visit our hujra for a good cup of tea or lunch. This strategic location, he used to say, is a coveted gift from our ancestors.
This strength was amply demonstrated when our family elders Shireen Khan and Nauman Khan went missing a few years back. To exert pressure on the authorities for their early recovery, the GT road was blocked for hours and it did wake up the government to take action.
To keep himself busy in the village after retirement, he established an orange and fruit orchard. It had a poultry farm with one of the best and healthy breeds of hens, black, white leghorn and grey leghorn that one could set eyes on during those times. A beautiful garden with a ‘sappar’ was a sight for sore eyes. Durrania Mama and Biland Mama would tend to a variety of fruit tree of walnut, almond, persimmon, plums, apricot, oranges, etc. under the watchful eyes of Khan Bacha. He loved to trim the fruit tree himself during winters with best quality pruning shears. We were not allowed to touch them though!
A long time after Khan Bacha passed away, we were in Mardan to offer dua for the passing away of Tilla Khan, an old family friend. In a nearby persimmon orchard, some people were busy packing the fruit in crates. On asking, the contractor said that he had been in this business for quite some time now, but he said, the fruit was first introduced in the province by Muhammed Aslam Khan of Adamzai who planted a few trees in his orchard. It sure did us all proud to hear this.
Khan Batcha had declared a reward of one Anna to anyone who would kill a bulbul or a bird visiting the trees. With our catapults ready, backed by a sufficient supply of rounded stone collect from the village ‘khwar’, we would lie in wait for the birds to come so as to claim the reward. An anna, a sixteenth of a rupee, had considerable purchasing power for children like us and downing a bulbul or two was worth the effort.
During the summer months from May to September, Khan Bacha invariably migrated to his beautiful and grand Khattak House on Manshera Road in scenic Abbottabad. He had constructed the bungalow in the fifties so that the family could spend the hot summer month in cooler environments. Almost everyone in the extended family has had some good memories of the place, thanks to the hospitality of my grandfather and later my father. Accommodating and feeding forty to fifty people at a time was a common thing. Now that I look back, I simply can’t understand how my grandparents and of course, my parents managed all that! Simply amazing!
Khattak House was disposed off a few years back, but the sweet memories shall forever remain embedded in our minds. Some memorable stories of the good times by some family members have already been share earlier on this forum. We can safely credit Khan Bacha and Abajan my father, for those sweet memories and the good times we spent there.
In Khattak House, Khan Bacha would not only cherish visits from his old friends but also dedicated a lot of time to the family, especially his grandchildren. Being the eldest grandchild, and being doted on by my grandmother, I was always under the impression that I was his pet and favourite! We all loved to be around him.
However, such was the awe, reverence and respect he commanded, that my father and all uncles had to seek his permission while leaving the house or at least to inform him. No lady would dare come bareheaded or speak loudly in front of him. In the summer afternoon playing was banned in the inside lawn as it was Khan Bacha’s siesta time! Such was the admiration and respect for the adored elder.
We, the grandchildren, were a different story altogether! At times, we would take liberties and get away with them. Our father and uncles would envy us in their hearts when Khan Batcha would playing a game of chess, draughts, carom or scrabble in later days. I vividly remember my brother Ikhlaq, then about 7 or 8 years old, now a retired Colonel, telling him that he had won the game of carom because of cheating. Khan Batcha simply laughed and challenged him to another game, but not before I called him aside and gave him a good piece of my mind. How dare he say such a thing! In the late evening when my grandmother and mother came to know of what the young chap had said, they simply said “Tauba Tauba, what is this world coming to. The day of judgment is near. “
During his service, KS Muhammad Aslam Khan was an exemplary police officer earning many laurels along the way, as he went up the ladder. He was among the class of officers whose sense of duty becomes an emblem of hope, of righteousness as indeed of integrity, dignity and morality.
One of the greats of the family of our times , KS Muhammad Aslam Khan, has left behind a legacy that would be difficult to fill. Not because he reached some high rank that no one else could achieve but because of his dedication to public service and the desire to provide justice and fairplay to the common people. Wherever he served, he left behind a legacy of peace and tranquility in the area under his jurisdiction, ridding the society of unwanted and anti-social elements without fear of any reprisal.
Once I was visiting a dear friend, Shafiqullah, in his hometown, Bannu. After an introduction with his elders, his uncle Col (r) Amanullah, the only cinema owner of Bannu, went inside the hujra room and came back with a framed group photo of the 1940’s . He pointed toward a person sitting on one of the chair in the center of the group and asked whether I knew him. I immediately recognized him and said that he was my grandfather and that he had passed away 8 years ago in 1976. Colonel sahib expressed his sorrow and then said your grandfather was the most respected police officer Bannu has ever seen. During his stay here he was some kind of a hero for young people like me. Due to his personal bravery and courage and relentless efforts, backed by an effective strategy he rid Bannu of thugs, thieves, robbers and dacoits and also put a stop to tribal insurgents from Waziristan. He pointed to a young man standing in the back row in the photo, a 303 rifle slung across his back and said that is me before I joined the army.
Other elders also joined in to praise the good work Aslam Khan sahib, DSP, has put in almost forty years ago. One of them narrated another interesting story. He said Khan Sahib was on a routine visit of some area when he saw an overloaded horse-drawn tonga with more than ten persons on board. Khan Sahib stopped the tonga, disembarked the passengers, and told the coachwaan to untie the horse. Once this was done he ordered the coachwaan to drag the tonga all by himself for over a furlong. The elder said that the story of Aslam Khan sahibs exploits spread far and wide and nobody ever dared to overload a tonga in Bannu again.
During his illustrious career, KS Muhammad Aslam Khan remained as the DSP Charsadda, and also served in Anti- Corruption establishment in the erstwhile NWFP. At the time of partition, he was the first native officer to be posted as Principal of the Police Training School at Hangu, a post reserved for Britishers. After his stint at Hangu, he was posted as SSP Hazara which then comprised Abbottabad, Manshera, Haripur, etc and extended from Kaghan and Kohistan in the northeast to Attock Bridge in the southwest.
Came election time of Qayoom Khan, and he was asked to take over as DIG, Peshawar. Unable to please the political bosses through engineered elections, he was lucky to be offered the post of Chief Superintendent, Watch and Ward, North Western Railways, HQ Office, Lahore. The post was traditionally manned by Traffic officers of PR, but he became the first PSP officer to become the Chief, with special anti-corruption powers and a mandate to root out corruption in the railways.
There, however, is a more interesting and intriguing reason for his posting as Chief Superintendant W&W, Lahore, which seems more plausible! Aslam Khan Sahib, then SSP Hazara, was assigned the onerous task of enquiring into the assassination of Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan at Rawalpindi. A thorough professional in investigations and incorruptible as he was, he is said to have unveiled certain unpleasant facts of the case during the investigation, which the powers that be at the time, did not want to be made public. So the offer of the post of CS, W&W, then a DIG rank post, (now full IG level) with special anti-corruption powers.
There are several other anecdotal tales about my grandfather but here is one more personal to me. It reflects on the soft and humble aspect of his towering personality.
Asif Ali Khan, one out of the four, first post-independence Railway officers of 1952 batch, a Karachite, still young at heart and a carefree kind of a person, had retired as Chief Commercial Manager, Pakistan Railway, sometimes back. During my posting as Divisional Commercial Officer, Karachi, from 1988 to 1991, I had the privilege of hosting him several times in my office on the 1st of every month, when he came to collect his pension. A tall and lanky old man, he had many interesting stories to tell. On being informed that Muhammed Aslam Khan sahib was my grandfather, he was more that pleased and narrated his personal experience dating back to the 50’s. This is his story.
“ While newly posted as DCO, Quetta, after a promotion, I had to leave for Karachi due to some emergency at home. Bolan Mail was the the first available train. I had hardly occupied my compartment and was waiting for the train to depart, when the Station Master came and announced that Chief W&W desired to see me in his saloon.
“My heart instantly missed a beat. With Aslam Khan’s reputation of a stern, strict and no-nonsense police officer, who has been exerting his authority since his posting in NWR, and given a clear mandate to root out corruption, this, I thought, would not be a very pleasant meeting for a carefree officer like me. My only consolation was that I had been totally clean, so far, but was definitely rather swashbuckling and more than a little nonchalant!
The attendant ushered me to the lounge of the saloon where Khan Sahib greeted me with a warm smile and beckoned me to sit. Fearing awkward questioning, I urgently wanted to excuse my self and said “Sir, the train is about to depart, but I came because you wanted to see me’. Khan Sahib smiled and said ‘ Asif Sahib, I wanted you to travel with me up to Sibi and we can have lunch and gup shup on the way. I know you don’t have your own saloon.’
Having no option but to accept Khan Sahib’s offer, I sat down in a sofa, but still felt somewhat uncomfortable because of the no-nonsense perception of the man.
I was aware of his reputation and that in a fairly short period, Khan Sahib had some great successes by making adequate use of the special anti-corruption powers bestowed on him. With the support of the then Minister Communications and Railways, Sardar Bahadur Khan, brother of Ayub Khan, he had already unearthed serious corruption cases against some senior railway officers and more cases were expected to follow. He had successfully put the fear of God into the corrupt elements in the huge department.
To my surprise the three hour journey turned out to be a real pleasant pass time. After a simple, but tasty lunch, which his attended had cooked in the saloon, he treated me to some juicy red Khandahari apples. Khan Sahib took out a wooden handle penknife from his suitcase and said that it was from Dir, specially made for him, a long time back. He would cut the apple in four, meticulously peel the skin off, and ask me to eat! I requested that he eat first but he insisted that I start while he made himself busy in cutting the second, third, fourth, apples before he started eating himself.
We discussed many things but not a word about corruption in the railways at Quetta, nor was I asked awkward questions which I had been dreading all along. The man was humble and down to earth with no false airs. Not once did he brag about his powers or his accomplishments.
Sibi arrived and we said goodbye. His saloon was detached as he was to inspect Sibi- Harnai section. I continued my journey to Karachi, but Khan Sahib personality left a lasting impression on me; a personification of humility, hospitality and modesty.”
Asif Ali Khan, the narrator of the story, died as an old man a few ago in Karachi.
Khan Bacha enjoyed his stay in Railways and so did the family, residing in a sprawling bungalow in Mayo Gardens. Khan Batcha definitely had a hand in my falling in the Railway group. Having cleared my CSS exam, I was filling the service option form in the annexe of Khattak House, Abbottabad, when Khan Bacha intervened and said that the most satisfying and comfortable part of his service was spent in the railways. He asked me to give it a priority, and gave me examples of Ghulam Farooq Khan, F. M. Khan of Sheewa, Ghulam Yousaf Khan and how they had excelled in their professions.
Sometime before his retirement from service he returned back to his home province, NWFP, to finally retired from the rank of a DIG. On retirement from the police in 1960’s, he joined the department of Rehabilitation and Settlement of properties of the refugees from India. His major achievement, with national recognition and importance, had been as Commissioner Land , Rehabilitation and Settlement , where with honestly and impartially he alloted land and settled the deserving Muslim immigrant to West Pakistan from India – a herculean task which was achieved most professionally with utmost honesty – something that is difficult to achieved by any government official of the day without smacking of corruption or corrupt practices.
KS Muhammad Aslam Khan was a winner of the coveted Police Gold Medal. As a highly brave and courageous officer he had the distinction of having apprehended the legendary outlaw and bandit, Chamney, single- handedly. The Government for this act of bravery conferred on him the title of ‘Khan Sahib’. There was a famous Pashto song ‘ De khooba paasa Chamnney Khana ……”
Khan Sahib Muhammad Aslam Khan distinguished himself as an exceptionally honourable and dignified personality of his times in the entire Khattaknama. A person to be truly proud of. In his post retirement years he was also nominated to the ‘Jirga of Elders’ of Nowshera, where he contributed immensely in providing justice and fair-play to the people especially in complicated criminal and civil cases.
Khan Sahib also contributed time and money for the advancement of religious education at the madrasah Dasrul Aloom Haqqania run my Maulana Abdul Haq at Akora Khattak. He was designated Patron in Chief of the institution and one hall of the madrasah was dedicated to his name. His interest slowly dwindled when later the Maulana, a true Islamic scholar, entered active politics. I clearly recall driving Khan Bacha to the humble mud made abode of the Maulana in Akora. The Haqqania is now a different story altogether.
Khan Sahib Muhammad Aslam Khan passed away on 31st December, 1976, exactly fifteen days after the death of his youngest brother, Razak Khan, whom he dearly loved, and whose untimely death had extremely upset him. May Allah rest their souls in peace.
(Contributed by Muhammad Ishfaq Khattak, Adamzai)
