On 26th October at around 1830 hrs, accompanied by my only daughter, I called on Honourable Prince Akbar Zeb, the former Pakistan Ambassador to Canada now leading a retired life playing with his beloved grand child, the baby Prince Rayan.
I have reason to respect this Royal family from Swat, the family who gave every Swati a secured life that today the people of Swat nostalgically recall. Prince Akbar Zeb’s spouse is his cousin Princess Fakhri and his first cousin and daughter of Late Prince Miangul Aurangzeb, the Walihad( heir apparent) and former governor KP and Balouchistan.
We discussed family and how some people pursue education by accident then choice like my daughter who studied economics not by choice and to our surprise, the Prince a studied economics from Cambridge, when he adored history, but had to pursue international diplomacy as career .
I knew of another family friend Honourable Sahabzada Yaqoob Khan a Gentleman Diplomat and former Lt. Gen of Pakistan Army, but had to resign for conscious reason unable to see the confrontation t between the armed forces and then Pakistanies of East Pakistan more politically motivated then result of any foriegn conspiracy, a subject that we even today feel shy either to discuss or debate publicly .
While I was leaving his son Prince Abbas whispered into my ear to urge his honourable father write a book on the history of Swat, being a living institution and owner of the only house in the entire Swat that is hundred years old and a classic master piece of cultural conservation, as hardly anything cultural exist in Swat amongst the very few relics of the past related to the state era.
I could hardly explain to him that being a progeny of a gentleman Diplomat who learnt to see and listen more then speak in an environment where intolerance and bigotry rules and people are not known by their bloodline but the cars they keep or the wealth they possess. In such environment the best is to see and listen then speak and suffer. Sadly, reality dawns too late and people get wiser with age and experience to realise no institution can either produce the wise or the leaders, they are born and it is for the people to discern between the gentleman and upstarts who learn to rule by hook or crook .
