Mufti Mahmood and Fazl ur Rahman : Comparison of Heritage and my respect for antiquities
Fazl ur Rahman is peculiar , unique , a representative of eras gone by , he must not be harmed , being antique and be protected under heritage act. Do you agree ? . Amongst religious groups from Sunni Stream he was one of the first to help Benazir Bhutto. This differs from the course his father Mufti Mahmood Adopted . Mufti Mahmood is not merely Fazl's Father , he has played an important role in the overthrow of Bhutto being head of PNA movement atleast officially. A close associate of Bhutto writes in his book that the day Mufti Mahmood was elected or may be say helped to be elected there was an atmosphere of jubiliation in Bhutto camp just prior to 1977 elections. Bhutto camp was of the view that "Punjab will never elect such an unpresentable man as prime minister". Offcourse Mufti Mahmood was old , spectacled , not very fair , roundish , not very tall and offcourse not a modern looking man but he was destined to initiate chain of events which led to Bhuttos Hanging .My view is that had Madrassas not maintained agitation in severe heat of summers ouster of Bhutto would not have happened . Mufti Mahmood had come to public notice first in 1970 elections when this was one seat Bhutto got defeated in 1970 elections. What ever the performance of Mufti Sahib was as CM for time of then NWFP (KPK) he was probably accessible. An uncle of mine who wanted to get ban lifted on interprovincial transport of wheat was one day struck with the idea of phoning Mufti Mahmood who was CM.He rang Mufti Mahmood , at the other end some one said that CM is sitting with speaker and in a minute Mufti Mahmood was on line giving a patient hearing. Naturally being supporter of PNA movement as a small student Activist we held high regard for such religious figures at that time not understanding fully who they are and what they do. One day and these were within last few years of his life a man with a Yellow coloured Mercedes (unusual colour) visited a place and I saw Mufti Mahmood for the first time . My views on him were not much different from Bhuttos. I said Salam but he was not a very attentive type of man and passed by the stairs. He or his family member was undergoing some treatment of Ear. In 1988-89 after elections one day a young man who was a recently recruited servant of Fazl ur Rahman ( and mind it by this time Mufti Mahmood has died , even though only a few years earlier birth of Mufti's new child was in the papers.) This servant said proudly that my master takes money from Libya and neither was he asked that , not did I know him before but offcourse his master was living in same subsector of Islamabad for a while . Fazl is a useful politician for Pakistan like Samiulhaq as USA withdraws from Afghanistan . But somehow he is not well liked in some agencies as they think he is disruptive and complicated . I have never met him though myself and offcourse we have no interest in him and his likes . People report about his preference for women rule if it was Benazir but Kulsoom Saifullah in her autobiography does not paint a gentleman's picture of him. To my utter surprise I met a very highly qualified person in the UK some decades back and he was a great supporter of JUI and Fazl . Prior to that my impression was that this is a party of ancient , the old style the antiquity . Anyhow I wish him good luck in what ever he does but while his father can boast some achievements in the field of religion what has Fazl done . Some years back a medical doctor wanted to be appointed for a top federal post , his doctor rival was already selected and PM was just to affix that next morning . Fazl Rang at 11 pm , PM needed his support for some amendments and in the morning when the selected doctor woke up the appointment was already made for Fazl's nominee. So yes he can boast he can shock people !