Achi news desk-
It is fitting, if he had to leave at all, that Ambassador Shahryar Khan left on Pakistan Day, after representing us at every diplomatic level for decades in every corner of the world.
Plenty will be written and recorded about it, as it should be. This is a more personal biography from someone who has known him, with affection and admiration, since childhood.
After his spectacular showing in the competitive civil and foreign services examination after graduating from Cambridge, Shahryar Khan was posted to London in 1960 as a junior officer under High Commissioner Lieutenant M Yousuf, who also formed a lifelong bond with my parents, my father being Deputy High Commissioner.
His marriage to Najma – she, the beautiful and talented daughter of the Ambassador and Begum Akhtar Hussain, studying at St Mary’s; and he, the servant prince who was educated at Oxford – was legendary, and it is likely that they met and fell in love at first sight on Lord’s cricket field. The rest is history and they became known and ever after as ‘Mian and Minnal’ through their wide circle of family and friends.
For part of my time in Oxford in the 1970s the Shahryars were my guardians, and I felt as ‘at home’ as before when I stayed with them in the late 1980s in the wonderful Residence in North London – alas on lost to us in the late 1980s. tenure of political appointees. I saw with my own eyes how truly and gracefully they represented Pakistan: during that week they entertained the Pakistani community, Princess Alexandra, and fellow diplomats accredited to the UK. They were also unfailingly kind and considerate to all their staff at home and in Chancery. In Islamabad they held events including qwalis, likewise looked forward to and talked about long after.
As is widely acknowledged, Ambassador Shahryar Khan competed with Gen M Yousuf as the most successful High Commissioners in Great Britain for decades.
Their children have been brought up just as beautifully, and interacted with everyone they encountered as naturally and sensitively as their parents. They would greet their parents’ friends with almost farshi adaabs. Shahryar Khan was a devoted father to Faiz and Omar, Ali and Faiza; and doting grandfather to all his grandchildren starting with his eldest granddaughter Aliya. Having said what good human beings they were, they were a stunning couple – elegant, impeccably dressed, and charming; both familiar in several languages.
Another commendable characteristic – so unlike many of his colleagues and contemporaries – was that he did not drink.
He had the gift of making everyone he came into contact with feel special in his own way – in line with my ‘proud connection’ to him since I was a six year old! – and encouraging them to follow whatever their ambition is; whether it’s writing, music, or classical dance.
Having read Jurisprudence (law) at Christ’s College (Cambridge) after his public school education (Oundle), he followed during service and after retirement – into his eighties – his own love of writing, writing among other things excellent stories her ancestors the famous Nawab -Begums of Bhopal.
Shahryar Khan’s mother, Princess Abida Sultaan, is often considered a formidable woman. She, like Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali and Begum Shaista Ikramullah, was an able ambassador as an Ambassador, in her case to Brazil. She never forgot her friends too – she always remembered that my father was the first officer she encountered in Pakistan when she emigrated from India with her young son.
Shahryar’s maternal grandfather, Nawab Hamidullah Khan, who was educated in Aligarh, was close to Mr Jinnah. We have a framed photo at home of a historic cricket match with him captaining the Aligarh team, having succeeded my uncle in that prized position. Cricket as noted ran in the family, Shahryar’s cousin was the famous Mansur Ali Khan, ‘Tiger’, Nawab of Pataudi.
Ambassador Shahryar’s success as a diplomat and negotiator – always subtle and never harsh – was equally evident in his roles as Foreign Secretary and as Chairman of UWB. He was a member of the prestigious MCC and had a passion for cricket of his own.
Two fascinating glimpses of how he achieved all that he did, seemingly effortlessly but with great insight and acumen, here follow.
Some years ago with my brothers Tariq and Saad – likewise known to him since their childhood – I attended a lecture that Ambassador Shahryar was giving at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad. He described in great detail how a seemingly impossible situation involving sensitive negotiations with an important fellow Muslim country was resolved by referring to a passage from the Holy Book.
Another – very different but equally interesting – was an anecdote he told while I was sitting next to him at lunch years ago at their home in Islamabad. Once while leading the Foreign Office he was discussing and negotiating an important agreement with a South American state, and his counterpart was the capable – and beautiful by the way – head of that foreign ministry. Somehow she was fixed on an opposing stance, and whatever she suggested as a compromise broke no ice.
Confused, his imagination ran for some way across the barrier of her metallic mind. Suddenly it came to him! As this was a working lunch, the subject changed to dessert. And her interlocutor came to life too suddenly as she said ‘Trifle! I love it!’ And according to some Spanish version of husne ittefaq or magic realism on the continent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez that very dessert was served then – and the hard-to-earn harmony therefore!
In all seriousness, one feels that despite all the accolades and tributes that will be deservedly awarded to him, Ambassador Shahryar Khan’s remarkable contribution to our country is always overlooked. He gave up wealth, prestige, and control – if not rule (in a post-secret-purse era) – of a vast territory, the province of Bhopal, to serve Pakistan as an upper-middle-class citizen to the fullest extent. considerable ability. When asked how he had left it all behind he answered easily, ‘it was just a palace’. He was truly a Prince among men; be blessed.
