The book “The Way it Was”, written by Brig Zaheer Alam Khan, (ZA to family and friends), recounts a raw, no holds barred account of a Pakistan Army officer’s life. Among the nine brothers who have served in the Pakistan Armed Forces, he commended the Special Services Group (SSG) unit during the harrowing events of the 1971 war with India/East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Ordered to arrest Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, which he did, his interesting narrative. His account of the war was frank, candid, with no punches being pulled in describing the horrors that unfolded. It was first published by PATHFINDER GROUP and I had the unique opportunity to help in the editing of the first draft. Therefore, when Lt Gen Javed Alam Khan, his youngest brother, requested me to give over all the rights to the book so that he could publish it again, it was a “no-brainer”, I did it immediately. Brig ZA served in Pathfinder Group for several years before he joined Pakistan Steel Mills on the specific request of the than govt. I was an honour and privilege to have him in Pathfinder Group. My only regret was that a consummate scoundrel and a cheat who was to pay him his dues did not do so.
ZA Khan was the eldest of nine brothers, all served in the armed forces. A straight talker, when once asked about his thoughts on PMA he replied, “As I have stated in my book “The Way It Was” the PMA authorities, planners, trainers and educators had no idea of the requirements and methods of creating the foundations required for regular professional officers for the army. There was no realism in the training and no development of initiative and leadership, both initiative and leadership require the creation of situations where these have to be displayed, decision making, as a subject of training was not known. The military subjects, training in military organisation, administration, military law, military history, etc were badly organised and since there were no examinations in these subjects they were not taken seriously by the cadets. The academic subjects were also purposelessly organised and even simple English writing was not taught”.
Writing for the Daily Sun on 26th March, 2018 titled “The Big Bird and Narratives of a General” Abdul Mannan, a Bangladeshi analyst and commentator wrote, “Many books and research papers have been written about the happenings of 1971 in what is now Bangladesh, including completely biased ones. But the name of the book by Brig (Retd) Z A Khan ‘The way it was’ must be mentioned as Khan has tried to be objective in some of his observations. Brig Khan was in charge of arresting Bangabandhu Mujib code named ‘Big Bird’ on the night of March 25 and in his book he gives a brief account of the arrest of the ‘Big Bird’ and events leading to the arrest. ZA Khan remembers after Mujib’s arrest that while escorting Mujib downstairs in his house, Mujeeb told Brig. Khan that he had forgotten his pipe. Khan writes ‘I walked back with him and he collected his pipe…he told me that we had only to call him and he would have come on his own. I told him that we wanted to show him that he could be arrested’. Mujib was later flown to Karachi where he was to stand trial, however he returned to Bangladesh nine months later. One of Brig ZA Khan’s attributes was his dispassionate commitment to get as close to the truth as possible, and he would reject any attempt by the powers that be to put a gloss on mistakes. He was a radical freethinker with a sense of humor and was blessed with extraordinary memories. This book is a very honest reflection of his personal views as well as his opinions, and his perception of facts, many readers will feel his views to be diametrically opposite to everybody’s at normal times, but these are the sincere and straightforward expressions of what he has experienced.
My association with Brig ZA Khan goes back a long way. In 1953, his two younger brothers, Mushtaq and Ejaz, were with me in our Lady of ‘Fatima Convent’, Comilla. Mushtaq being one class senior to me and Ejaz one class junior. From 1958 to 1962, we were together in Lawrence College, Ghora Gali. ‘Elder Tumble’ and ‘Younger Tumble’, as they were respectively known, were ‘good people’, a significant adjective when used in public school parlance. Mushtaq and Ejaz both died in the service of the country. PAF pilot Mushtaq died when his aircraft crashed and Ejaz embraced shahadat when his tank was hit in 1971. Besides them, I have also had the privilege of friendship with Shoaib, Aftab and Shamoon at different times. Z.A, as he is affectionately known in the Army, and I worked together for several years in Pathfinder Group before he joined Pakistan Steel. Always a mine of information, he was a fascinating individual. I am privileged to be acquainted with some of his close former SSG friends, among them Col Nusrat, Brig Manto, Col Syed, Maj Moin, Brig Jafar, Maj Mahmud Kamal, Gen Aslam Beg, Gen Shamin Alam Khan (ZA’s brother) etc. While Brig ZA’s views were mostly diagrammatically opposite to everybody’s at normal times, they are of great value. His book is an honest reflection of his personal opinion as well as his own perception of facts. They are bound to arouse controversy but is a must reading for all, particularly the Young Officers (YOs) of the Army. This is a valuable and credible addition to the history of the Pakistan Army, no holds barred. Too much has been written in the past that is patently false and mere propaganda. We try and hide facts about “Operation Gibraltar” and the disastrous failure thereof by making the “change of command” in “Operation Grand Slam” controversial. That may or may not be, depending upon what was the motivation for distorting history, instead of learning lessons from it? However Gibraltar was a reality, to protect one man’s reputation, the lives of several thousands who died and are buried in Kashmir in unknown graves did not matter? Why don’t we acknowledge their sacrifice? And the accountability of those primarily responsible for the debacle?
On Sept 8, 2023, Lt Gen Javed Alam arranged the re-launch of “The Way it Was” in the National Library of Pakistan Auditorium in Islamabad. It was an amazing event and I must thank Javed for the great honour and privilege of having me on the stage with the Chief Guest former VCOAS Pakistan Army Gen Muhammad Yusaf Khan, the Editor of the new-version Lt Gen (Retd) Tahir Mehmud Qazi (the Editor) and his brother Vice Admiral Shamoon Alam Khan representing the family. I am taking the liberty of publishing the transcript of my speech at the event. I could have said far more than what I said but could not do so because I would be skirting/balancing on the Official Secret’s Act tightrope. Proud to be the first Publisher of “The Way it Was”, I can only hope that others, like Gen Yusaf stated, will be encouraged to write similar honest chronicles. Rising far above what is normally served out as an autobiography, credibility has always been the strongest point of ZA and his family. What you will read only adds to their luster!
