In The Hinndu Literary Review, Sangeeta Barooah Pisharotya meets Arshad Sami Khan, Aide-de-Camp to three Pakistani Presidents — Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He is also the author of the recently-published book, Three Presidents and an Aide:
Full of stories of shikar, Arshad Sami Khan, sitting in the lobby of a New Delhi hotel, recounts a particularly hilarious incident about one such venture of Joseph Tito along with his Pakistani host, Ayub Khan. It was an early morning duck shoot in the lake of Mirpur Sakro. It so happened that along with the dead duck, Tito too had to be helped out of the waters! Not just that, “Three of the police toughies who struggled to get him on board, fell too as their boat tilted and flipped over.” Khan, full of giggles, talks about “a burly Tito walking with water sloshing out of his boots and jacket pockets!”
He says one such venture of Ayub Khan led to the discovery of Pakistan’s legendary singer Reshma. “Ayub Khan used to be hosted by the vaderas (the landlords) during shikars. Day time would pass in the shoots and the evenings had music sessions by local artistes. The President would be present in those soirees only for a while. The evening that Reshma sang, he sat through it. He also asked me to note her details. On reaching Islamabad, he called his broadcasting minister to give Reshma a chance on Radio Pakistan,” relates Khan. “Also, he told him to give a copy of her recording. Later, he would do his work listening to her songs. Every time the tape would end he would call me to rewind.”
[Sami Khan is singer Adnan Sami's father]
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