MY TEN DAYS MEMORABLE VISIT TO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Mubashir Ahmed Khan (2E)

My nephew Sarmad Khan is a Chartered Accountant running two offices, one in London and one in Dubai. He asked me to come to Dubai for helping him at his Pakistani Bookstall in Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) to be held from 29th April to 5th May, 2024 (seven days, 9-am to 10-pm). I spent busy time in UAE from 27th April to 6th May,2024. My stay in Dubai was at Sarmad Khan’s flat in Dera Dubai.
In the afternoon of 27th April 2024, Sarmad Khan, Sarmad Khan dropped me at the house of Captain Kazim Abbas who presently works as pilot with UAE Port Authority. It was my first meeting with him. Captain Kazim Abbas belongs to Karachi. It was around 1999 that he flew to Tanzania to join MV Sea Johana as Second Officer. The ship’s staff consisted of ten Pakistanis, six Tanzanians, two Indians, two Burmese and one Indonesian (total 21 people). MV Sea Johana was had been arrested due to non-payment of port dues and remained at anchor for three years in Tanzania. After legal proceedings, the ship was auctioned and purchased by a British/Indian Shabir Hussain Rangwala.

The ship was in extremely poor condition. With great difficulty it sailed but its speed was unbelievably one knot reaching Mombasa in two and a half days (instead of five/six hours). In Mombasa Port, soda ash bags were loaded with shore crane as the vessel’s cranes were not working. The ship sailed but after about six hours, the main engine broke down and won’t start again. The destination was Indian port Gujrat 2875 miles away. The ship was drifting for two and a half days at the mercy of sea currents. Despite efforts of engine staff, the main engine would not start. The captain checked the ship’s position and found that it was now in Somali waters. The captain was constantly in touch with the owners, and it was decided to tow the ship to Gujrat. The captain was informed that powerful tugs were not available in the neighbouring countries (i.e. Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania) and effort was being made to get the same from South Africa or some other country. The process would take a few days. Also, some advance payment would have to be made to the tug owners. Same day in the evening the captain was informed that a tug had been arranged and would reach the ship in three days’ time. On hearing this news, all the ship’s staff felt a little bit of relief not knowing that the saga of pirates was waiting for them.

Next day afternoon, a group of armed Somali pirates came on board and took all the ship’s staff in their boats to their prison. They were kept hostage for 136 days. The story is long, extremely painful, and horrible clearly narrated by Kazim Abbas in his book. The 292-page book, written in Urdu is well bound with glassy paper and photographs. The title of the book is “Somalia Ka Qaidi, 136 days in the captivity of sea pirates”. However, going through the book several times, I noted more than half century mistakes in spellings of English words. (For example: Horbour Pilot, corrected as Harbour Pilot. Seman’s Book corrected as Seaman’s Book, Falt corrected as Fault, fule noses corrected as fuel nozzles and Hollucination corrected as Hallucination etc.) Similarly, a good number of Urdu words were also pointed out and corrected. Captain Kazim Abbas thanked me sincerely for my minute and thorough proof reading of the book. He said that in the next edition, all the mistakes pointed out by me would insha-Allah be corrected. The captain told me that the book has been translated into English and is available online.

Captain Kazim Abbas narrated to me the story of his passing Class 3/4 professional examination in UK. The Examiner was no other than Captain Khairul Anam (9N). The Fleetwood College informed him that the Examiner would not conduct the examination for one candidate only. There should be a minimum of four candidates. Captain Kazim Abbas said further, “I managed to prepare three more candidates for the exam. I even helped one candidate in his studies. Captain Khairul Anam conducted the examination passing me only and failing the other three candidates.” My three and a half hours meeting with Kazim Abbas was quite interesting. I presented to him a book titled “The Pirates” written by Ross Kemp. Captain Sahib wanted to invite me to dinner at a local restaurant within the next week but due to my busy schedule, it was not possible. I thanked him and he very kindly dropped me at the nearest Metro Station from where I reached Sarmad Khan’s flat easily.

Interestingly I found that Captain Kazim Abbas was quite junior to me professionally. I served on board Irani ship Iran Shujaat as Chief Engineer from October 1993 to July 1994. About two years later, Kazim Abbas was cadet on this ship just beginning his sea career. However, Kazim Abbas is indeed an extremely honest, hardworking and dedicated professional. On one occasion, he boarded a vessel for pilotage. The captain offered him a huge amount on condition of some pilotage rules relaxation, but he refused and insisted on following the rules.

On 28th April 2024, Sarmad khan took me to attend Sharjah International Booksellers Conference at Expo Centre. It was the second day of the conference. I saw stalls of different countries including one of Pakistan’s famous Publishers, Ferozsons Ltd. I also attended various workshops and listened to speeches, collecting brochures of renowned booksellers. At one end of the hall, there was a big buffet consisting of about three dozen food items in addition to juices, tea and coffee. The buffet was accessible to the conference participants through the day. I enjoyed the conference meeting delegates of different countries.

From 29th April to 5th May 2024 (seven days), we were busy manning the Pakistani book stall set up by Sarmad Khan from 9-am to 10-pm. There was a total of 1350 book stalls and the area (Louvre, Abu Dhabi) was so vast that in the beginning, I would lose my way in the Book Fair. Twelve countries set up their stalls for the first-time including Pakistan. Most of the stalls belonged to UAE. However, I visited stalls of China, Turkey, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UK and Central Asian countries. India had set up more than twenty stalls displaying and selling books in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu. More than a dozen literary persons ( half males and half females including two couples ) had come from Pakistan to participate in the event.
On the first day of the Book Fair, the Ambassador of Pakistan (HE Faisal Niaz Tirmizi) visited our Pakistan stall. He showed keen interest in the books and spent about twenty minutes at the stall. I presented to him the Autobiography (Tehdise Nemat/Recollection of Divine Favours) of the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan. The Urdu writer and publisher, Fatma Sherwani also presented to the Ambassador her own Urdu book “Rati Gali Ke Nam”. He purchased some books himself and paid the price from his own pocket. We got the impression that the honourable Ambassador was himself a literary person deeply interested in books.

The initiative of Sarmad Khan’s setting up of Pakistani stall at the International Book Fair was very much appreciated by the Pakistan Embassy in UAE. The Embassy staff very kindly invited us to a dinner at the nearest Lebanese restaurant in Abu Dhabi. The Honourable Acting Ambassador Afaq Ahmad (HE Faisal Niaz Tirmizi had gone to USA on official visit two days earlier) carefully selected the menu and the food was really very delicious. From the Embassy, Mrs. Kiran Kazmi (Head of Chancery) was also present. Due to her fair colour, I assumed that she was Pathan. However, she said that she belonged to Hazara, North of Pakistan. (Late president of Pakistan, Field Marshal Ayub Khan also hailed from Hazara). The interesting information she gave us was that her husband Doctor Murtaza Shah had obtained his medical degree (MBBS) from Mymensingh Medical College under SAARC Scholarship Programme. I remember having visited Mymensingh in 1965 when I was cadet at Marine Academy, Juldia Chittagong. The sweet cham cham of this city was extremely delicious.

The Pakistan Embassy staff did us another favour. They invited to visit the Embassy premises. Mrs. Kiran Kazmi took us around the Embassy building and showed us different sections including the Ambassador’s office. There were a lot of Pakistanis who had come for renewal of passports/identity cards and authorisation of legal documents. Mrs. Kiran Kazmi told us that the Embassy had enough staff to deal with the Pakistani applicants daily in an efficient manner. She said, “we make sure that families with children, old and disabled applicants don’t have to wait for a longer time.” Mrs. Kiran Kazmi entertained us with tea in her office. She gave us a lot of useful information about the Embassy. Last but not the least, she kindly arranged two cars to bring us back to the Book Fair venue.

Mohsena Khanom from Bangladesh is a chartered accountant working in Bangladesh as well as in UAE. Due to her profession, she is closely associated with Sarmad Khan. She invited us to attend a seminar on “Investment Prospects in Bangladesh” held at Best Western Pearl Creek Hotel, Dubai in the evening of 5th May (Sunday) 2024. The event. was organised by the Consulate General of Bangladesh (Dubai and Northern Emirates). The participants were mostly Bangladeshis doing business in UAE. Mohsena Khanom spoke on business tax rules in UAE. HE Mohammed Abu Zafar, the Ambassador of Bangladesh to UAE delivered speech. Finally, Saber Hussain Chowdhury, the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change spoke elaborately. It was emphasised that investment in Bangladesh was very safe. The main purpose of the seminar was to encourage Bangladeshis living abroad and others to invest in Bangladesh. The final item of the seminar was dinner, and a good number of dishes were very tasty. I presented to the Embassy staff, the Autobiography of the First Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan. The title of the book was “Tehdise Nemat or Recollection of Divine Favours”.

I was personally a bit disappointed that in the International Book Fair in Abu Dhabi, there was no stall of Bangladesh. In other words, there was no representation of the country at such an important event. I told Mohsena Khanom, “I want to ask the Bangladesh Embassy senior staff member why Bangladeshi book stall was not there at the International Book Fair of Abu Dahbi,” She said, “don’t ask this question. The Embassy staff members might be busy with some other projects, e.g. this seminar.”

---

Mubashir Ahmed Khan (2E)
London, 17.06.2024
Email: mubashira2050@gmail.com