Surjeet, Bardhan being welcomed at Lahore airport

And the Pakistan media too was aware of the status of CPI(M) general secretary plus his Lahore background. This was why reporters and cameramen rushed forward to have a byte, though it created a problem for the comrades there, whose main concern was how to protect an aged and frail Surjeet from getting hurt. 

This caused some misunderstanding, and a bit of ruckus, as the media persons thought the comrades were not allowing them to do their job. This unfortunate misunderstanding prompted a small section of the media to announce a boycott of the JLF programmes. It took the intervention of some senior journalists, including SAFMA secretary general Imtiaz Alam, to get this misunderstanding cleared.

Anyway, it took us at least one hour and a half to reach 5 A Nisar Road, the house of Justice Rashid Rehman (Retd) whose son, Taimur Rehman, is a member of the CMKP Central Committee. The reception dinner, organised here, was attended by persons from some media organisations as well, including the Geo channel, the largest TV channel in the country. This channel prominently telecast the interviews it had had with Surjeet and Bardhan.

The hosts included CPP general secretary Qazi Imdad, CMKP chairman Sufi Abdul Khaliq Baloch and general secretary Ejaz Ghani, Labour Party general secretary Shueb Bhatti, Mansoor Saeed and Zafar (CPP), Taimur Rehman (CMKP), and Shabana (LP), apart from others. A large number of Left cadres from various parts of the country also attended the dinner.

FEBRUARY 25

The programme of the day included a visit to the Mughalpura railway station at 8 a m. This is the place where the police of the British raj spotted Surjeet, when he was living underground in pre-partition days. They arrested and imprisoned Surjeet, kept him in solitary confinement and tortured him. However, the visit had to be cancelled as Surjeet was overtired because of the last evening’s programmes. 

But the delegation did go to the Lahore Fort (Shahi Qila) at 10 a m PST. The fort was built by Mughal emperor Jahangir who had a fascination for the city, so much so that he spent his last days and died here. Shahdara, in the suburbs of Lahore, is the place where his and Noor Jahan’s mausoleum still stands.

The main aim of visiting the Shahi Qila was to see the Cell No. 3 where a young Surjeet suffered solitary confinement for over three months. It was therefore very natural if Surjeet sat for some time in front of the rubble that the Cell No. 3 now is, re-living his pre-partition days in Lahore and talking to a group of Pakistani comrades and also some non-party people who had gathered there to see him. 

                                                           IN SEARCH OF THE PAST: Surjeet sitting before the ruins of Cell No. 3

Unfortunately, after independence, various governments of Pakistan did not pay attention to some of the historical sites and we found only a heap of rubble in place of the cells. True, these cells were already in a dilapidated condition at the time we are talking about. Yet, given historical sense, these could certainly be preserved.

What could the reason be? According to a local comrade who accompanied me, the reason was that the government did not want to let remain anything reminding the people of Shaheed Hasan Nasir. One may note here that even though the Left is fragmented in the country, to all the Left groups Hasan Nasir stands as a symbol of protest, as their martyr. Hasan Nasir belonged to Hyderabad (Deccan) and had fought, along with Makhdoom Mohiuddin and others, in the Telangana armed struggle. After independence, he migrated to Pakistan and soon became, to the new ruling classes of the country, one of the most feared communists in Pakistan. He was arrested in 1960, put in a cell in the Fort and brutally tortured till he died. Today, there remains nothing of that cell except a wall containing a small window.

A couple of other comrades were similarly tortured to death in these cells. It was thus no wonder that the Shahi Qila became a symbol of horror in the country.

The Fort complex includes some other historic places as well. One of these is the Gurudwara Dera Sahib where the whole delegation was received with saropas. On one side of this shrine is the Guru Arjun Dev’s community kitchen (langar) and adjacent to it stands Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s samadhi.

The complex also houses Dr Iqbal’s mausoleum, and Shamim Faizee (CPI) and me made it a point to visit the place. Several others of the Indian team accompanied.

While in the Gurudwara, we met Faqeer Syed Ejazuddin whose ancestors were in charge of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s royal stores; he told us that he still has in his custody some historically valuable items and documents belonging to that period. By the way, the word Faqeer in his name gives a deceptive impression.

Faqeer Sahib and his family were also the hosts to a lunch that was organised in Lahore Gymkhana on the same day, on behalf of the religious minorities in the country. About a hundred souls or somewhat more, including a number of prominent Hindu, Sikh and Christian citizens, attended this programme. I was told that a few Qadiyanis had also come, but I could not meet any.

A unique aspect of this programme was that we came to know about and see for ourselves two booklets in Punjabi (Gurmukhi script) which Surjeet had written in pre-partition days --- one in 1937 and the other, titled Lenin, in 1942. These are preserved in Dayal Singh Research Institute & Library, Lahore, and its director, Dr Zafar Cheema, brought the original booklets as well as their photocopies to the programme. After a brief introduction, he presented the beautifully bound photocopies to Surjeet. 

I had a chance to take a glimpse of these booklets: originals as well as photocopies. The 1937 booklet (I am forgetting the title) carried the name “Harkishan Singh;” it is evident that he had not become “Surjeet” by then. The other he had published with his own money and it carried the inscription “Surjeet & Company.”

Due to indisposition, Surjeet could not attend the other two programmes on the day --- a press conference at Lahore Press Club at 5 p m, and a reception and dinner given by trade unions at 7 p m at Gulberg Industrial Area. CPI general secretary A B Bardhan was the chief guest at both these places.

FEBRUARY 26

The whole of the delegation, except three members, went by cars to Sahiwal (earlier called Montgomery) where Surjeet spent several years of his jail life in pre-1947 period.

Incidentally, like the Lahore Fort jail, this jail too had been notorious for the ill-treatment that was meted out to prisoners, more so to political prisoners. After 1947 too, a number of eminent figures were confined here --- including revolutionary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz during the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case days, and another revolutionary Urdu poet Habib Jalib later. 

While at Sahiwal, Surjeet also addressed a mass meeting organised by the JLF.

Those who stayed back in Lahore were A B Bardhan, Shamin Faizee and myself. We were picked up by National Workers Party chairman Abid Hasan Minto and we had some political discussion with him as well as lunch at his house in Model Town. Later he took us to several parts of the city and these included a visit to now non-existent Camp Jail where Bhagat Singh was lodged during the Second Lahore Conspiracy Case (1929-31) and where he was hanged to death along with Rajguru and Sukhdev. To our utter grief, however, nothing now remains of this jail except a wall; even the gate from where the Britishers slyly took out the bodies of these martyrs has been demolished. This jail, we were told, was once so big that the jailer used to go from one to another part in a bagghi (horse-drawn coach). But later the greed of influential ruling party leaders got the whole jail demolished and the whole land divided into plots and sold. Now, in place of the jail, there stands a sprawling residential colony called Shadman. 

After taking a look at various parts of the city, we were taken to the house of Comrade C R Aslam (95), a veteran of the movement in that part of the country --- before as well as after the partition. Thereafter we were taken to the SAFMA (South Asia Free Media Association) office and handed over to its secretary general Imtiaz Alam.

The round of the city ended with a visit to the late Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s house where we met his daughters, Saleema and Muneeza, and their husbands. Saleema’s husband, Shueb Hashmi, a professor of economics, has also been in Sahiwal jail. Both of them later came to the reception and dinner at 5 A Nisar Road where a host of media persons put their queries to Surjeet and Bardhan.

WHILE still at Lahore, the delegation decided to somewhat deviate from the itinerary that was worked out beforehand. The idea was to go to Nankana Sahib where Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion, was born. As most of us were not sure whether we would at all be able to come to Pakistan again, we did not want to miss this opportunity. But special permission for it had to be obtained from Islamabad as none of us had a visa for Sheikhupura district, in which Nankana Sahib is located. That did not pose a problem, though it took some time.

FEBRUARY 27

This caused a bit of disappointment to local comrades, as some of the programmes had to be cancelled. These included a visit to the Camp Jail in Lahore, refreshment arranged by the CPP office in Lahore, and a meeting with the JLF leadership.

Sheikhupura district is adjacent to Lahore, and it is said that Sheikhupura town was populated by Emperor Jahangir whose childhood nickname was Sheikhu.

We avoided the route via Sheikhupura town. Instead, bypassing Shahdara, we reached Nankana Sahib, 78 km from Lahore, via Shaqarpur and Faizabad Mandi.

The journey was an experience in itself. Here in India, the reality of the Vajpayee government’s “India Shining” slogan was evident to anybody as soon as (s)he took trouble to move a little distance out of Delhi, or any metropolitan city for that matter. Going away from Lahore with all its five star hotels, wide roads, neon signboards and what not, I had had a similar kind of experience. As soon as we crossed the Ravi bridge, the road to Nankana Sahib was just like any countryside road in eastern UP or Bihar. It was broken in places, there were small potholes in it, and there were pools of water alongside. Villages by the roadside gave a gloomy look, pucca houses were few and far between, many of the houses were in a dilapidated state, and the rural folk were in poor and some in tattered clothes. 

I was miffed up by a peculiar fact. Contrary to the impression communal forces here in India have always tried to create, the government of Pakistan has been engaged in the maintenance of Nankana Sahib gurudwara and several other gurudwaras. Then, I asked myself, why didn’t they improve the road, widen it, make the journey smooth? I told one of the local comrades accompanying us: if only the road is improved and there is a further relaxation in visa restrictions, Pakistan may well earn millions of dollars every year. The very nature of the place would bring it on the international tourism map, attracting a large number of Sikhs (and also some non-Sikhs) from India as well as western countries.

Yet, to me it did not come as a surprise. Places of international importance like Kushinagar in India and Lumbini in Nepal have suffered callous neglect for decades, just like Nankana Sahib has. Speaking once in Lahore, Surjeet stressed the basic unity of Indian and Pakistani people by saying that we have the same food items and same songs --- khana ek aur gana ek. One could well add to it: the bureaucratic buddhi running these countries is also the same.

One now hopes the condition will noticeably improve once there is an Indo-Pak agreement to link Nankana Sahib and other Sikh shrines in Pakistan with Amritsar.

Nankana Sahib, where we were greeted with saropas, was among the places where a bitter struggle was fought against the corrupt, pro-British mahants in the 1920s. Here, about 200 Sikhs led by Jathedar Lakshman Singh were gunned down on February 21, 1921, in front of Mahant Narain Das. The self-serving Akali leaders of today perhaps little realise what sacrifices their predecessors had had to make to liberate their gurudwaras and to make their gurudwara liberation struggle a vital part of the bigger liberation struggle --- the national liberation struggle.  

Then --- back to Lahore. We had left Lahore at about 8:45 in the morning and we reached the Tajmahal Reception Hall at five minutes to one. Well in time for the lunch hosted by National Workers Party chairman Abid Hasan Minto. Taimur Rehman’s bet was that we won’t be able to come back even till 1:30 to attend the lunch, and he lost.

The main attraction of this programme was a reunion of two friends after a gap of 58 long years. Though C R Aslam (95) is in the NWP, he is a veteran of the Left movement in Pakistan and is given due regard as such by all Left groups in the country. Hence it was very natural that when he was brought to the stage to meet Surjeet, the audience rose to give respect to the two veterans, amid loud applause.

NWP is not a constituent of the JLF that hosted our visit.

Incidentally, the kisan wing of the NWP is organising an “international kisan conference” at Toba Tek Singh on March 23 --- the same place and the same date on which late Maulana Abdul Hameed Bhasani had organised a kisan conference in 1970. However, there was no gist in the news published in The Dawn (March 1) that communist leaders from India had “accepted invitation” to attend the event.

Organised by JLF in the afternoon, the seminar on “Future of Socialism in South Asia” was attended by a large number of activists, several of whom had come from other parts of the country. The attendance was indeed so big that many had to stand outside and many sat on floor inside the auditorium of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, situated in New Garden Town in Lahore. One leader each from the JLF constituents, the CPI and the CPI(M) spoke on the occasion. The presentations were interspersed with poetry recitals throughout.

It was a different look in late evening when Pakistan Chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) hosted a dinner for the delegation at Avari Hotel on Mall Road. It was preceded by an interaction session with a dozen odd intellectuals ---economists, political scientists, media persons and the like. Surjeet did not attend the session as he needed some rest after the whole day’s activity, and A B Bardhan had to reply the queries coming from these intellectuals.

At least two hundred souls attended the dinner, with the welcome function presided over by SAFMA secretary general Imtiaz Alam and the proceedings were conducted by renowned columnist Munnu Bhai. “Indian Left & Indo-Pak Reconciliation” was the theme on which Surjeet and Bardhan were asked to express their views and reply to the queries coming from the audience. A large number of JLF workers were present on the occasion and their slogans and revolutionary songs created an ambience rarely, if ever, seen in a five star hotel. Many media organisations including Geo TV covered this SAFMA-organised event.

FEBRUARY 28

While Surjeet flew to Islamabad in view of his age, the rest of the delegation negotiated the 372 km distance in cars and the media team accompanying us came by bus. It was a broad and smooth motorway that, at places, passes through hills in a serpentine fashion. The weather was pleasant, and cars ran at 100 km an hour. A vanload of CMKP workers also came from Lahore to Islamabad.

The first programme in the capital city of Islamabad was a lunch hosted by CPP on its outskirts. The house belongs to Engineer Jameel Malik who was the CPP candidate for National Assembly against the present prime minister, Shaukat Aziz. Malik mustered only 1,400 odd votes in this poll when the PPP candidate accused the military of having engineered rigging in order to ensure the victory of its chosen candidate for prime minister’s post. Yet, Malik’s candidature served the purpose the party had in view. It created a sort of sensation in the country and sent the message across that the Left was not dead in Pakistan. We in India may not be able to fathom the full significance of this message. But it was a big thing in Pakistan where the landlord-military-clergy combine had assured themselves and their masters abroad that they had done away with the Left!

Malik’s candidature was a boost also to the liberals who were badly marginalised, if not decimated, by the same combine. The story is the same as in India. Here, if the RSS-variety and other fundamentalists are dead opposed to communists, they do not tolerate the liberals and progressives either. To that extent, communists and liberals have a common enemy and a common cause --- here as well as there. 

Rawalpindi, or in short Pindi as the local people call it, was the capital of Pakistan till 1964 when the construction of Islamabad was completed. Population-wise, Pindi is the third biggest city in the country. Though the two cities are adjacent and one is not able to judge where one ends and the other starts, they are two worlds quite apart. Contrary to the well-planned and modernised Islamabad with a population of only 7 lakhs, Pindi is an old, highly unplanned and overcrowded city.

Reaching our destination --- Rawalpindi Press Club --- involved a bit of trouble as our driver was from Lahore and did not know much about Pindi roads. This meant we had to pass through several roads and lanes in the city, unnecessarily, but this way we also saw a few places we could not have seen otherwise. These included the road where the JKLF, Azad Kashmir Mahaz, and various other militant groups have their offices. We were told that it is the government of Pakistan that allotted them office spaces on a single road in Pindi. Also that they were deliberately allotted offices in Pindi and not in nearby Islamabad where they would have constantly been under the gaze of international public opinion; and that this would have been embarrassing to the Pakistan government also.

The public meeting organised by JLF in Rawalpindi Press Club was a crowded one, with several comrades coming from the North West Frontier Province and other places. The Indian delegation’s visit to Pakistan was a moral booster to comrades in these places; many of them had got inactive or joined the NGOs came forward to contact the JLF parties. One of such veterans, for example, was Mukhtar Wacha who remained with us in Islamabad and also came over to Karachi. 

A slightly unpleasant situation developed here as CMKP activists came to have a verbal clash with a group that had left the party two years ago. This breakaway group is in favour of supporting the Musharraf regime, on the understanding that a weakening of this regime would mean a fundamentalist take-over.

As soon as we reached the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, our status changed. For the next 40 odd hours now, we were the guests of the Pakistan government.

In the evening, the Pakistan Chapter of SAFMA organised yet another reception to the delegation in this hotel that stands face to face with the Marghalla Hills of scenic beauty. As we were now state guests, the original JLF programme that the CPP would host a dinner for us, had to be cancelled.

OUR short stay at Islamabad was no less pleasant even though everyone was tired after the road journey from Lahore to Islamabad. The weather was pleasant. In fact, the constant impression since we had landed at Lahore was that the weather we were encountering was quite good --- natural weather as well as political. 

MARCH 1

The night before, we were told that Pakistan prime minister, Shri Shaukat Aziz, had invited the delegation to meet him at 10.30 a m. In the morning, however, the news came that there was a change in the programme. Now, we were to meet the president, General Pervez Musharraf, at the same time.

There were some other changes, too. Soon came the news that the president would meet only the delegation leaders, Surjeet and Bardhan. Another change was that he would meet the leaders not in Aiwan-e-Sadr (President’s House) in Islamabad but at the General Headquarters in Pindi. Finally, the meeting took place not at 10.30 but only after 12, when we all had reached the Foreign Office.

Honestly speaking, so many changes baffled me. What could the reason be, I tried to fathom. Was it necessitated by security concerns? There were, after all, three attacks on the president last year!

The delegation leaders’ meeting with the president created a big sensation throughout Pakistan, and the media covered it prominently. Rather, it was the lead item in most of the Pakistani papers.

As the only Urdu speaking persons in the delegation, Shamim Faizee’s and my job was to scan the Urdu papers, and we scrupulously did this informally assigned job. What miffed us was that, contrary to English press, Urdu papers had by and large ignored the delegation. Sometimes a small news in one corner, sometimes nothing. But they too were constrained to take note of the leaders’ meeting the president.

Going by comments in Urdu papers, I could not avoid the feeling that Urdu press was as if trying hard to persuade itself not to take note of the delegation.

As our readers already have details of this meeting, we skip it here.

From Rawalpindi, Surjeet and Bardhan directly came to the Foreign Office where we were all waiting for them. A posse of media persons, including some Indian journalists, was also there. The lunch hosted by foreign minister, Shri Khurshid Mahmood Qasoori, proceeded in a very cordial atmosphere. Leaders of the Muslim League (Qaid-e-Azam) and Mahajir Qaumi Movement, constituents of the ruling combine, also attended. 

Here we met Dr Farooq Sattar, leader of the 18-member MQM group in National Assembly. (His forefathers were from Gujarat in India.) He was excessively keen that after reaching Karachi the delegation should take out time to meet a group of MQM leaders. One may note that the MQM has its base mainly in Sindh, with Karachi having the biggest concentration of mahajirs (migrants).

The evening was devoted to a visit to Gurdwara Panja Sahib at Hasan Abdal in Attock district and to Taxila that falls in Rawalpindi district. None of these visits was in our itinerary and we did not have visa for Attock district either. CPP general secretary Qazi Imdad, its leader Jameel Malik and his family members accompanied in separate cars. It was quite dark when we reached Taxila from Hasan Abdal (where the government maintains the gurdwara and some local Muslims look after it). Moreover, having no prior information about our arrival, concerned officials had closed the Taxila Museum. This was a pity as, contrary to communal propaganda, the Pakistan government has preserved a very large number of relics of the Buddhist period.

The loss was somewhat made up by our visit to Sirkap. It was a flourishing town in ancient days and is about 5 km from the present Taxila town. Here, well preserved in situ, one may see the ruins of a more than two millennia old and planned town, about 5 km in length and one km in width. However, in view of the darkness all around we were advised against going to the hillock, not very far from Sirkap, where an Ashokan inscription still stands.

The hectic tour ended with our arrival at the dinner that was hosted by Shri Raghavan, India’s deputy high commissioner in Islamabad, at his house. I had already met Raghavan and his wife, Ranjana Sengupta, in Lahore, and we had discovered with pleasant surprise that we were students at JNU in the same period.

MARCH 2

While still at Lahore, we had tried our best that the three meetings in Islamabad (with president, prime minister and foreign minister) must be compressed in one single day, March 1. Several missives were sent to Islamabad for the purpose. The idea was that in that case we could proceed to Karachi on March 1 evening, or March 2 morning at the most, and stay there for two days. But this was not to be. The bureaucracy had its own way.

So, when the leaders went to meet the prime minister in the forenoon, we found ourselves without work, so to say. Though it was the first substantial break in a hectic programme since February 24, it was nothing pleasant to us. We spent the morning with groups of comrades from various places, whose number had increased as it was our last day in Islamabad. Several came down to the airport to see us off.

We also spent a few hours to go to Daman-e-Koh, a place of exceptional beauty. Developed atop the Marghala Hills, from here you can see the whole of Islamabad that is situated only on one side of this hill. I counted the high-rise buildings of Islamabad --- only eight. Felt good to a person who was fed up with the view of Delhi skyscrapers.

And then, in the afternoon, over to Karachi by plane.

The Jinnah Airport of Karachi was witness to another crowded reception to the CPI(M)-CPI delegation. Here the JLF had arranged our boarding and lodging. There was no specific programme in the evening, except loitering.

MARCH 3

The leaders spent some time meeting a group of PPP, JUI and NAP leaders in the Sindh Assembly building. The Jamiatul-Ulema-e-Islami (JUI) was formed after the country’s partition, out of the Jamiatul-Ulema-e-Hind that played a notable role in the independence movement. It represented the section which some historians have called “nationalist Muslims,” a misnomer. The National Awami Party (NAP) is led by a grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

Finally, Dr Farooq Sattar had what he wanted. A group of MQM leaders were there in the group that met the CPI(M) and CPI leaders.

One of the important personalities who came to meet Surjeet and Bardhan was Captain Zafarullah Poshni, the only survivor among the accused of the infamous Rawalpindi conspiracy case of early 1950s. One will recall that the then Liaqat government had framed this case to crush the communist movement in the country.

Bardhan also met Ms Ghanwa Bhutto, widow of Murtaza Bhutto and leader of the anti-Benazir faction in the PPP. She was not invited to the programme in the Sindh Assembly building. An overtired Surjeet could not go to meet her.

The evening saw a crowded mass meeting in the lawn of Karachi Press Club. It was organised by the JLF and Karachi Union of Journalists.

The last meeting of the day --- and during our stay in Pakistan --- was the one in the auditorium of Pakistan Medical Association, Garden Road. It was organised by Progressive Writers Association (PWA) in collaboration with two local level organisations. These are Karwan-e-Amn (Heralds of Peace) and Qalam Barae-Amn (pen for peace). The former is a group of Catholic clergymen who run several schools, hospitals, etc, in the country. Among these, the St Patrick’s High School (established 1861) has the distinction of producing several luminaries of Pakistan.

It was quite apt that veteran Sindhi writer Shobho Gyanchandani (95), one of the PWA’s founders in this part of the undivided country, presided over this function. PWA general secretary Muslim Shamim conducted the meeting where Bardhan was the chief guest. Not feeling well, Surjeet could not attend.

After the welcome address by Reverend Father Joseph Pal of Karwan-e-Amn, Urdu poet G M Felix ‘Qaasir’ Amritsari referred to the recent arrest of six Catholic fishermen in Gwadar, pleading that Surjeet and Bardhan must do something to get them released. It was evident that the news of release of a number of youth from Indian Punjab and Indian fishermen, after Surjeet and Bardhan had taken up the issue with the Pakistan president, had caught public imagination all over the country. Since our return from Pakistan, a number of Punjabi youth and fishermen have been released after completing the technical formalities; Punjab chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh also brought back with him a group of 26 youth after their release from jail. But who can deny that it was the CPI(M)-CPI delegation that had taken up the matter with President Musharraf!

We left Karachi for Delhi on March 4 morning, regretting that these seven days had passed too soon.

The CPI(M)-CPI team visited Pakistan when we are in the midst of Sajjad Zaheer birth centenary celebrations. One recalls that late Comrade Sajjad Zaheer, the moving spirit behind the PWA, was also the first general secretary of Communist Party of Pakistan and the main accused in the Rawalpindi conspiracy case.

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