'Ayub Khan considered army only hope for Pakistan
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Retired Associated Press (AP) correspondent Watson Sims recounted his first meeting with former Pakistani president Field Marshall Muhammad Ayub Khan, in which Ayub had told him that the army offered the only hope for the peace and stability of Pakistan.
In a column titled Exclusive from Pakistan: My Most Memorable Assignment, published in Columbia Journalism Alumni Journals summer 2007 issue, Sims quoted Ayub as saying that Pakistan had many good public servants, but they suffered from a lack of direction and purpose. We will get some of these good chaps and put them in charge, Ayub had told Sims. Once the situation is under control, there will be new elections, Sims quoted Ayub as telling him.
In the article, Sims recalled that he was shaving at home in New Delhi when a bulletin on All India Radio said the government had been dismissed and martial law declared in Pakistan. Leaving the shave unfinished, I ran for the morning flight to Karachi. He said Pakistan was a volatile part of my territory as AP bureau chief in New Delhi.
Karachi was forbiddingly quiet, he said. A clerk at the Metropole Hotel knew the government had been dismissed, Sims said, adding that but did not know why or by whom. Finding the Foreign Office closed, Sims said he went to the presidential palace and asked for an interview with President Iskander Mirza. I was told my request would be considered, he wrote.
He said other foreign correspondents told him that the Karachi airport was closed, and that no one else would be allowed in. The next day, he said, he received a call telling him that the president would see him that evening.
He said he went to the presidential palace with a New York Times correspondent, and they were escorted to a large office where President Mirza, a swarthy man in his late 50s, was waiting. We could hear someone pacing up and down behind curtained doors at one side of the office. Mirza, visibly ill at ease, said the government was dismissed because it had been unable to control the countrys widespread lawlessness. There would be new elections, he said, but important issues had to be resolved before a date could be chosen, Sims wrote.
Suddenly, the doors to the balcony were thrown open and a strapping, moustached man in the khaki uniform of the Pakistan Army entered the room. Quickly, General Muhammad Ayub Khan took command of the meeting, he recounted.
Sims recounted Ayub as saying that the fact was that Pakistan had drifted into disorder under its civilian government, and that the army offered its only hope for stability and peace. Sims said he had then asked whether he could leave and send his story, to which President Mirza protested, saying it was off the record.
Sims recounted that Ayub had stepped in and told him that he may send his story after first letting his assistant General Yahya Khan have a look at it, which was done within half an hour. Yahya, Sims said, only challenged one word: Why do you say this is a luxurious palace? It is not nearly as luxurious as your White House.
Relieved of the offending word, Sims said, the story became a worldwide AP exclusive on a momentous change in Pakistan. Sims said that when Ayub, who was to rule Pakistan until 1969, held his first news conference, a Pakistani journalist asked why the country had been forced to learn of its change of government from a foreign news agency. Well, the general had replied, None of you chaps asked me
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Retired Associated Press (AP) correspondent Watson Sims recounted his first meeting with former Pakistani president Field Marshall Muhammad Ayub Khan, in which Ayub had told him that the army offered the only hope for the peace and stability of Pakistan.
In a column titled Exclusive from Pakistan: My Most Memorable Assignment, published in Columbia Journalism Alumni Journals summer 2007 issue, Sims quoted Ayub as saying that Pakistan had many good public servants, but they suffered from a lack of direction and purpose. We will get some of these good chaps and put them in charge, Ayub had told Sims. Once the situation is under control, there will be new elections, Sims quoted Ayub as telling him.
In the article, Sims recalled that he was shaving at home in New Delhi when a bulletin on All India Radio said the government had been dismissed and martial law declared in Pakistan. Leaving the shave unfinished, I ran for the morning flight to Karachi. He said Pakistan was a volatile part of my territory as AP bureau chief in New Delhi.
Karachi was forbiddingly quiet, he said. A clerk at the Metropole Hotel knew the government had been dismissed, Sims said, adding that but did not know why or by whom. Finding the Foreign Office closed, Sims said he went to the presidential palace and asked for an interview with President Iskander Mirza. I was told my request would be considered, he wrote.
He said other foreign correspondents told him that the Karachi airport was closed, and that no one else would be allowed in. The next day, he said, he received a call telling him that the president would see him that evening.
He said he went to the presidential palace with a New York Times correspondent, and they were escorted to a large office where President Mirza, a swarthy man in his late 50s, was waiting. We could hear someone pacing up and down behind curtained doors at one side of the office. Mirza, visibly ill at ease, said the government was dismissed because it had been unable to control the countrys widespread lawlessness. There would be new elections, he said, but important issues had to be resolved before a date could be chosen, Sims wrote.
Suddenly, the doors to the balcony were thrown open and a strapping, moustached man in the khaki uniform of the Pakistan Army entered the room. Quickly, General Muhammad Ayub Khan took command of the meeting, he recounted.
Sims recounted Ayub as saying that the fact was that Pakistan had drifted into disorder under its civilian government, and that the army offered its only hope for stability and peace. Sims said he had then asked whether he could leave and send his story, to which President Mirza protested, saying it was off the record.
Sims recounted that Ayub had stepped in and told him that he may send his story after first letting his assistant General Yahya Khan have a look at it, which was done within half an hour. Yahya, Sims said, only challenged one word: Why do you say this is a luxurious palace? It is not nearly as luxurious as your White House.
Relieved of the offending word, Sims said, the story became a worldwide AP exclusive on a momentous change in Pakistan. Sims said that when Ayub, who was to rule Pakistan until 1969, held his first news conference, a Pakistani journalist asked why the country had been forced to learn of its change of government from a foreign news agency. Well, the general had replied, None of you chaps asked me
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
