An Affair to Remember
By Dr Asif Javed
Williamsport, PA
Kayhan
Nahid Iskandar Mirza turned up in Qudratullah Shahab’s office one day and told him to get rid of Ruth Boral, an attractive private secretary, a leftover from Ghulam Mohammad’s time. “Her presence here can only create more scandals,” she told Shahab. The first lady did not want another pretty face in the Governor General House. Ms Boral was asked to leave.
Shahab has written of Governor General House parties where the high and the mighty used to have fun: Alcohol was freely consumed; some would get drunk; some would flirt with women and, Iskandar Mirza (IM), the Governor General, would enjoy the sight of people making a fool of themselves. During one such gathering, when IM was seen getting too cozy with a female guest, Nahid burst on the scene and put a stop to it. The embarrassed female guest tried to explain that IM was only looking at her sari. “This is precisely the way he had approached me,” Nahid retorted.
On a state visit to Iran with IM, Nahid appeared obsessed with Queen Surraya and would make every attempt to outshine the Queen. Once she complained that the press had failed to notice that while she was seen smiling in the pictures, the Queen was not. Later, she asked Shahab to consider upgrading her husband’s ADC: Having seen Shah’s ADC- a General - she wanted the same in Pakistan.
IM once asked Altaf Gauhar to allot a plot to the Iranian Embassy that lay next to it. Gauhar was aware that Nahid and the Iranian ambassador were friends. He tactfully turned down the request on the grounds that the vacant plot was meant to be a children’s playground. IM accepted his plea, but Gauhar was alarmed at the influence that Nahid had on her husband.
Javed Iqbal was invited to lunch by IM in the Governor General House. Also present were Nahid and the US ambassador. Allama Iqbal’s son was surprised to see that the entire conversation was either in English or Persian; missing was the national language - Urdu.
Years later, while in London, Shahab saw the former first lady at a grocery store, approached her and asked to visit. Ayub allowed the visit grudgingly, having made a sarcastic remark: “So she has come down to earth; she wanted to be the Queen of Pakistan.” Shahab found the Mirzas residing in a modest flat in Kensington. The former President appeared hard of hearing, and in poor health. As far Nahid, years after the debacle of 1958, she still sounded bitter about the unexpected midnight visit, and the hostile attitude of the army officers who had delivered the ultimatum from Ayub. Shahab might have considered it impolite to remind her of IM’s dismissal of Noon, Bogra, Suherwardy and Chaudhry Mohammad Ali.
In 1960, Javed Iqbal was in New York, part of a Pakistan delegation to the UN that included ZA Bhutto. As it turned out, the Mirzas unexpectedly turned up in the UN lobby. Javed recognized the former first couple, greeted them and offered coffee. Just then, Bhutto passed by, and having seen IM, tactfully avoided his onetime benefactor. While Javed felt embarrassed, Mirzas were, slowly and painfully, getting used to the new life.
Born Nahid Amir Teymoor, Nahid had royal lineage, being a descendent of Tamerlane. She was born in a wealthy and influential family of Khorassan: Her father was the interior minister in the Mussadaq cabinet and her brother was a diplomat. Her obituary in Kaihan mentions that she was in an unhappy marriage with an army officer. IM was a descendent of the infamous Mir Jafar of Battle of Plassey fame.
During a reception at the Russian Embassy in Karachi, the fifty-two year old, and father of six, IM walked up to Nahid and simply declared, “You shall be my wife”. Humayun Mirza (HM), IM’s son, on the other hand, is convinced that it was Nahid who pursued his father relentlessly, and that IM fell for her, making an error of judgement. In his autobiography, From Plassey to Pakistan, HM recalls being with his father in a hotel suite in London in 1953:
“I was assigned the task of answering the phone to preserve father’s privacy. Everyday a woman calling herself Nahid Afghamy would call, and each time, under instructions from my father, I told her that the Secretary of Defense was not available. IM explained that she was the wife of the Iranian Military Attache in Karachi and that she was pursuing him. I later learnt that such trips were being financed by certain Pakistani businessmen to compromise the Sec of Defense to serve their own interests.”
IM had two sons. The younger, Enver Mirza, was a pilot in PAF, who tragically died in a plane crash. IM received the news in a London hotel. That is where HM saw Nahid:
My father, pointing to a woman sobbing by the window, said: ‘Look, Mrs Afghamy is crying for your brother.’ In his grief, IM was touched by her performance. No one at the time realized that Nahid was using this tragic occasion to ensnare the future President of Pakistan ... Nahid did not conceal her intentions and openly flirted with IM, much to the embarrassment of others.
IM married Nahid, who was 20 years younger, in London, in secret. He may have expected her to stay abroad. But he was in for an unpleasant surprise, writes HM:
IM was alone in the house (in Karachi) when he received a fateful phone call…His face turned white as he listened to the caller, put the phone down, and without saying a word, rushed out of the house…The caller had informed a shocked IM that Nahid had turned up in Pakistan without warning and was ready to start a scandal.
A while later, IM visited his family and broached the subject of his marriage to Nahid. His daughters were upset and refused to allow Nahid in the house. The newlyweds were forced to stay in the Punjab Guest House. Just a few days later, IM failed to turn up for his only surviving son’s marriage -- in the same city. HM is convinced that Nahid stopped his father from attending.
A US Embassy’s confidential report dated Apr 2nd, 1958, describes Nahid as:
An extremely ambitious woman…lifted by Mirza from the Iranian military attache’ in Karachi … bitterly resentful of Begum Viqar-un-Nissa Noon, whom she suspects of having designs on the first-ladyship herself.
HM ran in to President Ayub in Washington DC one day. Ayub had known HM as a child, and spoke to him affectionately. Ayub asked about his father’s wellbeing and then enquired, “Is that woman still with him? “Having been told that she was, Ayub made a derogatory remark about Nahid.
On a subsequent visit to Pakistan, HM visited Ayub. This is what HM writes of that meeting:
Ayub spent the better part of the discussion trying to justify his coup against my father…He put the blame squarely on Nahid’s shoulders … “I used to visit your house and was always graciously received by your mother. But when this woman showed up, she treated me like a lackey…was rude and offensive in her behavior and tried to impress on everyone the hold she had on your father…The appointment with the President, his Military Secretary told me (Ayub), had to be cleared by her”.
HM’s own assessment of Nahid is similar:
Nahid was not willing to keep a low profile. She aggressively promoted her own image and interfered in the country’s political affairs. As an Iranian and foreigner, her interference was highly resented in Pakistani official circles. She also took every opportunity, not only privately, but worse publicly, to demonstrate her hold on my father.
Life in exile was not easy: IM had a part-time job. Some friends helped but London was expensive. IM was once hospitalized. Ardsher Zahedi came to visit once and overheard the Mirzas worried about the medical bills and IM saying to Nahid, “Just let me die”. On another occasion, IM was seen carrying a bag of dirty linen on the footpath when a friend recognized him and asked where he was going, “To the laundromat; can’t afford a taxi”, he said. Col Abid Hussain, a landlord from Jhang, was hospitalized in London. IM came to visit. This writer’s late brother-in-law was present and noted that IM appeared short of breath; a heart patient, he had walked considerable distance to the hospital.
IM had some remarkable firsts to his credit: First Indian to graduate from Sandhurst; the first President of Pakistan. He was, by all accounts, an intelligent, hardworking man who may have done great things for Pakistan. But marrying this ambitious, and scheming woman led him on a path of self-destruction, and harmed democracy in Pakistan. One wonders why? The answer may lie in the couplet by the Saint from Jhang:
Dildar yas amundron doongay
Kaun dilandiyan Jaaney Hoo
As far Nahid, having gone through a whirlwind romance, and a few years of power, she endured a decade of painful exile, followed by fifty years of widowhood. In later years, she became interested in poetry of Hafiz, and wrote some herself. The fading Hollywood star, Ava Gardner, came to live in the same London neighborhood and they became friends. They had met during Ms Gardner’s visit to Pakistan to film Bhawani Junction. The movie turned out to be mediocre but Lahorites were thrilled to see George Cukor, Ms Gardner, and Stewart Granger at work. Old timers still talk about those days.
Nahid had sunk into oblivion years ago. The news of her death recently was hardly noticed. “I am just a speck of sand in the desert of time,” wrote a wise man once. Just a reminder to those who seek false glories. Rahega naam Allah ka.
(The writer is a physician in Williamsport, PA and may be reached at asifjaved@comcast.net )
