Travelogue – 16 – Transition to being a Trader
It was the month of Ramadhan in 1972 or 1973. I lived in 72-C Model Town, Lahore. The street-drums awoke us to eat Sehree before commencing fast that day. I was dreaming that I was in USA. The place was where two Rivers met. The name of the place had three syllables. But on being up all I could remember was the two syllables of the place that began with the letter M.
After keeping fast and the Fajar (morning) prayer in the mosque I went for a walk with Chaudhry Bashir Ahmed who was of my father’s age, profession and spiritual life-style. During the walk I recalled my dream and narrated it to him. The gist of his interpretation was as follows. “Have you been to USA?” he asked. “No” I answered. He told me that many States where two rivers met started their names with M. Then he asked, “Do you know any such place?” “No” I replied. “Do you want to move to USA?” he asked again. “Why should I?” was my answer since he knew that I was a successful Attorney. “Forget the dream” he remarked. And the matter ended.
A few days later I had another dream. I was travelling in a train with my younger brother Majid Ali who by then was a known Physician in USA. We moved from the West to East over a bridge. The view out of the window on my left was a huge expanse of water like a lake with a big island in it. On arrival in an empty house that I was going to live in I was making a list of things.
In summer 1973 my brother Majid visited us. Soon his and my wives and my sister were going to export oriental rugs. I incorporated Dachi Inc for them as three Directors. The husband of one Director lived in USA. The husband of my sister was Riaz Ahmad at a job that prevented his running Dachi Inc. So the husband of the third Director was me and as an independent person had to run the show. We shipped rugs from Pakistan. I flew to NY and sold three rugs. Later Riaz flew to NY to sell rugs. But lack of consistent sales brought the business to a standstill.
My father at one time expressed his feelings that I neglected my law practice in order to do most of the work to the trading work. But he believed in the prayers and especially those quoted in the Holy Qor-aan. Those prayers invariably show the best results even when they appear to be not exactly as requested. After all God Almighty is not man’s servant to fulfill every prayer but being the Wisest He always does the best and a prayer is just another factor to accentuate the best result.
In June 1974 Lahore High Court closed for the summer vacation and I took my wife and our three children for a vacation in England where my in-laws lived. In September 1974 we were still there when Pakistan amended its Constitution and declares Ahmadis a Non-Muslim minority. Saudi Arab and Uganda announced similarly that week. Moslem governments and public went on a rampage to persecute fellow-Moslems by maliciously calling them a non-Moslem minority sect. It was like that the Christians following Pope did to the Greek Orthodox Christians centuries ago.
We anticipated religious riots in Pakistan like the anti-Ahmadiyya riots of 1953 which had caused my in-laws to leave Pakistan and migrate to England. My mother-in-law decided to keep her daughter (my wife) and family in UK till the dust had settled. I returned to Pakistan alone on Sep 8, 1974. On a visit to my sister I was locked in the bathroom by her husband who refused to open the door until I had shaved my beard and stopped my appearance as an Ahmadi because he had four daughters and the fervor to crush Ahmadis was spreading all around like wild fire.
The case of Ahmadi boys’ admission to KE Medical College was the first major litigation. The 3 of the top 10 out of 1000’s of boys who proved merit in the qualifying exam were Ahmadi. The High Court on a writ petition declared that the merit of boys entitled them to their admission. The High Court in the Contempt proceedings against the University which had refused to comply with Court’s prior order reiterated its order that the boys be admitted in the school of their choice. The High Court in the third round ordered that the boys be admitted in the KE Medical College. The time loss was to the students who had lost a full academic year. Litigation expense was high. The discrimination by the University against Ahmadi boys and not girls was like Pharaoh Nimrod ordering to slay Israeli sons and spare their daughters as stated in the Holy Qor-aan (014:007).
The deprivation of Ahmadi students in the Medical field was duplicated in other schools of higher studies like the Biology and Sciences in Punjab University. Most religious zealots used mosques and madras’s to blow higher the hate in order to justify their accumulation of wealth. The politicians used legislatures and speeches in order to solidify their cunning gave-and-takes. The Government and public persecution of Ahmadi Moslems spread by leaps and bounds.
All our sons were born in England. All four of our children deserved acquiring maximum knowledge. The thought that gradually grew and got rooted deep in my mind was that the rampant persecution was sure to cut down the scope of higher education for our children. What would be my reply when One Day God would ask me, “I gave you kids born in land of unlimited education. Then why did you confine them to an environment that denied full development of the potential?”
One of my prayers has been that that the Almighty Allah gave me a life that covered a lot of distance and moved fast like a non-stop train that got green at every signal without ever getting stopped or slowed by a red. And this prayer I saw fulfilled in many ways like a series of miracles.
So in 1975 I applied for Business Visa in USA and it was issued.
Meanwhile 1975 World Peace Through Law Conference in Washington, DC invited me. On the eve of flying out of Pakistan I received a l letter from the Government’s Home Secretary that I could not leave the country. I showed the letter to Sheikh Shaukat Ali who was the President of Bar Association. He knew my father’s career in the Judiciary. I had also appeared before him as a Judge of the High Court. He also knew me since his launching the Lawyers Benevolent Fund to which I was one of the ten (10) Founders and Contributors. He asked if Government financed my attending the Conference. I said, “No.” And with a smirk he said, “You go. We will hold the fort.”
