Former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Sultan Mohammed Khan’s Colorful Life Parallels His Country’s History

By M.M. Ali

Sultan Mohammed Khan is a retired Pakistani foreign service officer who now lives in Potomac, Maryland. A consummate diplomat who served his country for 29 years from the date of its creation in 1947, he has observed historic events from close quarters during his service in major capitals of the world. He was there when King Farouk was deposed in Egypt. He was there when Ahmed Soekarno was thrown out of power in Indonesia. He was there when West and East Pakistan separated violently and East Pakistan reconstituted itself as Bangladesh, and he was there during the Communist Cultural Revolution in China. He was there when Henry Kissinger made his secret visit to China via Pakistan that set the stage for restoring U.S.-China relations.

It was during this secret visit arranged by Pakistan, as The Washington Post has just revealed on Jan. 6, that Henry Kissinger told Mao Tse Tung and Chou En Lai that the United States had information that the U.S.S.R. was poised to bomb China’s nuclear installations. Kissinger offered to help China set up listening posts along Sino-Soviet borders.

He also okayed China’s importing of U.S. technology. Much of the nuclear capacity China now possesses, it is believed, had its beginnings in the offers Kissinger made during his first visit to Peking. Interestingly, Kissinger does not mention any of this in his autobiography, although he has made much about his visit in his book.

All of these events and many others are recorded and analyzed in Khan’s just-released book Memories & Reflections of a Pakistani Diplomat, published by The London Centre for Pakistan Studies. In an informal gathering marking the release, he recalled for South Asian journalists in Washington some of the most electrifying moments in his country’s first half- century of history. Just as in his book, he is selective in what he reveals, sometimes leaving his listeners to read between the lines. Nor is he dogmatic in his conclusions: “I have recounted things as I saw them,” he explains. “Maybe some one else saw it differently. This is my account.”

Sultan M. Khan was born in Jaora, a princely state in India, in 1919. He remains a sentimentalist when it comes to his origins. Speaking of his place of birth, he observes: “Jaora—that word is music to my ears and even today evokes deep emotions.” When I asked him how many grandchildren he has, he replied: “I do not count them, I just treasure them.” (In fact he has six, of whom three live in the United States and the remainder live in Switzerland.)

Khan took his bachelor’s degree from Ewing College in Allahabad, India, and then went on to join the British Indian army as an officer cadet. Upon receiving his commission as a lieutenant, on Oct. 7, 1943, he married the ruler of Jaora’s daughter, Nawabzadi Abeda Sultan, who lives with him in Maryland. Sultan Khan served on the Malay-Indonesia front during World War II.

The end of the war brought about a radical change in the psyche of the peoples of the Indian subcontinent and there was a surge of hope that finally the British Raj would come to an end. Coming home, Sultan Khan was selected for the Political Service, the most prestigious civil service cadre of the time. The decision to divide the subcontinent into India and Pakistan already had been taken. When asked to choose, Khan opted for Pakistan.

Ironically his first posting was to the just-established Pakistani diplomatic mission in Delhi, India. Since by then communal killings in both India and Pakistan had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, Delhi itself was the most difficult assignment for a Pakistani diplomat in l947. The job called for caring for and protecting hundreds of Muslim families who had sought refuge inside the mission compound from marauding gangs, and at the same time seeking to facilitate communications between the host and the home governments.

Next, after a brief stay in the then-capital of Pakistan, Karachi, Sultan Mohammed Khan was sent to Cairo in early 1948. “Being assigned to Egypt thrilled me,” he writes in his Memoirs. “As a student of history, my thoughts went to the Pharaohs, Prophets Moses and Joseph, and the Islamic conquest of Egypt by Saad Ibn-e-Vaqas. “The Cairo of King Farouk’s days in 1948 was a charming city of about 1 million people and life for the diplomatic corps and the elite revolved around the Royal Court—a thoroughly corrupt and decadent institution.”

According to Khan, Pakistan, with its proposals for an Islamic banking system, an Islamic steamship company, an Islamic news agency, and a conference of Islamic states to discuss issues facing the Muslim countries overwhelmed a laid-back monarch, who reportedly wondered if “Islam was born on Aug. 14, 1947,” the day Pakistan came into being. The reason for the Egyptian monarch’s discomfiture, Sultan Khan observes in his book, is that “Pakistani Muslims take their religion very seriously” and, by contrast, “the Egyptians do not wear their religion on their sleeves and are quite relaxed about it.”

This was also the time when Britain had decided to dismember Palestine and leave. Khan presents some very revealing anecdotes about Arab reactions to the forthcoming creation of the state of Israel.

After a posting to Italy followed by three years in Karachi, Khan was sent in l953 to China as a counselor, his first substantive assignment.

Even today, Sultan Khan recalls with considerable relish his two diplomatic stints to China, one in l953 and another in l965. He writes: “It was a privilege to be serving Pakistan in China at an exciting time of its history, but it was also frustrating and disappointing to see that Pakistani leaders [in l953] did not look upon China as a country likely to play a vital role in regional and world affairs; they were far too much under Western, especially British and American, influence.” He remembers that in spite of Pakistan’s membership in the Southeast Asia (SEATO) and Central Asia (CENTO) Treaty Organizations and Pakistan’s lack of support for China’s membership in the United Nations, China’s powerful Foreign Minister Chou En Lai continued to regard his country highly.

Khan was next posted to Ankara, Turkey, and then to London. While he was in the United Kingdom in 1958, Gen. Ayub Khan took over the reins of government and imposed martial law on Pakistan. Sultan Khan was called back to Karachi.

After serving there three years, he was appointed Pakistan’s high commissioner (equivalent of an ambassador) to Canada in 1961.

In l966, he returned to China, this time as Pakistan’s ambassador. That was the year that China had successfully experimented with its own nuclear bomb, and it also was during the period of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung’s Cultural Revolution. India-China friendship by now had ended, and as a result Pakistan provided China a window into the non-communist world. In return Pakistan felt it could count on the support of this emerging Asian power.

Although he is no great admirer of military governments, Sultan Khan concedes that it was during this period that “perhaps Pakistan witnessed its best days under Mohammed Ayub Khan in terms of economic growth and political stability.”

In June l97l, it fell to Sultan Khan, who had already achieved the position of foreign secretary, to arrange the secret visit of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to China via Pakistan. This visit, it will be recalled, paved the way to opening of Sino-U.S. relations under President Richard Nixon.

Sultan Mohammed Khan also describes the “traumatic times” that preceded and followed the fall of Dacca in December l97l and the breakup of Pakistan during which he, Pakistani President Yahya Khan, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and others, each in their own way, first tried to avert the disaster, and then endeavored to soften the resulting shock to the nation. “It was evident that it was a mistake to seek a military solution to a political problem,” Sultan Khan concludes.

He also served twice as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, once in 1972 and again l979. The second term came about after he served as ambassador to Japan from 1974 to 1976 and Gen. Zia ul- Haq then called him back from retirement in 1976 to serve again as Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington.

From his retirement home in Maryland Sultan Mohammed Khan is working on another book recording his years with President Zia ul-Haq’s government. By now he also is surrounded by his loving family, which includes two sons, two daughters and six grandchildren. His children all are established but, unlike their father, are building their careers in the private sector. Sultan Khan is an avid bridge player and, despite his busy schedule, finds time to play a few rubbers every other weekend.

It is a feast to talk to Sultan Khan, who has a way with words in any language, but who spices his English with pertinent quotes from Urdu literature when engaged in conversation with those who understand his country’s principal language.

Prof. M.M. Ali is a Consultant and a Senior Fellow with the Center for Planning & Policy Studies in the Washington DC area.