By Saeed A. Malik
After the great and good fight, at the age of 92, Brig F.B. Ali has made his final graceful bow, and walked out into the sunset and beyond. And in so doing, he has left the world a poorer place. If one were to pick out the finest sons of the land, such a list would be incomplete without the Brigadier being included in it among the very top. In him intellectual brilliance, moral rectitude, courage of conviction, and professional excellence came together in rare and felicitous harmony.
I first heard of him when an officer, some years my senior, with ill-concealed relief, thanked God for making the GHQ competitive essay “open” again. Those were the days when there used to be an annual GHQ essay competition in which all officers could participate. For years on end FB won this competition, till at last GHQ decided to “open” the contest by withdrawing FB’s right to participate!.
The second time I heard about him was during the Yahya Khan martial law. FB’s unit was sent to Faisalabad where it was Chaudhary Sher Ali’s misfortune to get caught on charges of corruption to face a man who could not be bought. F.B slapped him with a fine of Rs 60 lakhs, a sum that was unheard of those days!
Immediately after the 1971 war, F.B’s artillery brigade was in bivouac in the Gujranwalla area. Despite the defeat Yahya Khan had decided to stay on in office. To explain themselves his coterie herded all officers posted in Rawalpindi to the GHQ auditorium to “explain” the situation to them. Gen Hameed the C in C tried his hand at placating the sentiments of the officers collected there, only to be roundly hooted.
F.B decided that losing one war was quite enough for one clutch of generals, and they had to be dislodged from the helm. He collected Brig Iqbal Mehdi Shah, Col Aleem Afridi S.J, Col Agha Javed Iqbal, Lt Col Khursheed, and some other officers whose names I cannot recollect now, and put it to them that they owed it to Pakistan to get rid of the discredited junta and hand over power to the elected representatives.
There was no demurral among any of the officers in the meeting. The only sizable troops not then deployed on the borders were those that were at Gujranwalla at the time. Had they marched on Rawalpindi, there was nothing with which GHQ could oppose them. But there was one problem; any order to the troops given by F.B.Ali could have been countermanded by any one of the three Maj Gens who were in Gujranwalla at this time i.e Maj Gen Bashir “Ranghar”; Maj Gen R.D. Shamim; and Maj Gen “Bachoo” Karim.
F.B had no way out but to put the three Generals under arrest and take over command. He then sent Cols Agha Javed Iqbal and Alim Afridi to Rawalpindi with an ultimatum to the effect that if Yahya Khan were not to immediately leave the presidency, he would be forced to do so by troops marching in from Gujranwalla.
The two Colonels deputed to take the ultimatum to Yahya Khan went to Rawalpindi and handed the ultimatum to Gen Gul Hassan who was CGS and under whom Col Agha Javed Iqbal had served as adjutant, and thus this was considered the more politic route to follow. Gen Gul Hassan took the ultimatum to the Air Chief, Air Marshal Rahim Khan, and together they served it on Gen Yahya Khan who, before long, announced his vacation of the Presidency.
Gen Gul Hassan and the Air Marshal then got in touch with Mr. Bhutto who was then in Rome, on his way back to Pakistan, and advised him to delay his arrival, till they had things under control. When Bhutto returned, among the first things he did was to hold an inquiry against Brig F.B.Ali and all the officers who had helped propel him into power, and had them thrown out of service.
F.B emigrated to Canada with his family. He had done his Staff Course in Canada, which he topped. There he came across one of his Candian course mates who was a member of the Canadian Parliament at the time. Taken aback by the fact that a man of F.B’s calibre should be trying to make ends meet, selling carpets, he asked him if he was willing to take a temporary job with the government.
Thus FB took the job which had primarily to do with disaster management. He did this well enough so that the job was made permanent and he did this till he reached retirement. When I count the gifts I have received in life, not the least among these is the privilege of having known a man like Brig F.B. Ali, especially through some trying years, during which his grace was a source of sustenance.