Editor’s Note: Shahida Azfar wrote about this important figure in UNICEF’s history in our March 2021 Quarterly. To avoid running two articles on the same person, we postponed this article until now. We encourage you also to read Shahida’s article “The Man behind UNICEF’s Survival”
The Run-away
Long ago his ancestors had moved to Kashmir from the great Central Asian city of Bukhara. More recently they had moved again to the city of Peshawar in British India’s Northwest Frontier. So perhaps it was not a complete surprise when the 10 year old decided to join a camel caravan heading up the Khyber Pass. His family, however, caught up with him 12 miles outside the Peshawar and brought back to a cool reception at home.
His family's economic condition was respectable but modest. His home had neither electricity nor books, so he and his brother did their reading at school and in the street. He learned much of his early English by chatting with British ‘tommies’ and taking the newspapers they had finished back to read under the streetlamp.
Despite the limitations in his early education, he was admitted at the newly founded and soon prestigious Islamia College. He was an excellent student and particularly excelled in English and Urdu. At age 16 he moved to Government College in Lahore where he initially studied physics. He soon switched, however, to study English which he found more interesting.
His family's economic condition was respectable but modest. His home had neither electricity nor books, so he and his brother did their reading at school and in the street. He learned much of his early English by chatting with British ‘tommies’ and taking the newspapers they had finished back to read under the streetlamp.
Despite the limitations in his early education, he was admitted at the newly founded and soon prestigious Islamia College. He was an excellent student and particularly excelled in English and Urdu. At age 16 he moved to Government College in Lahore where he initially studied physics. He soon switched, however, to study English which he found more interesting.
He had grown up in a family and community of many languages - Hindko, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Pushto, Urdu, Persian, and English. He learned early on the joys of using languages to switch cultures, tell stories and make jokes.
One of those jokes eventually became his name.
Long back there had been a Sufi mystic in his family. As such, the title ‘Pir’ came to be prefixed to his name. His British-born teachers struggled with what they viewed as his already too long name, and so just gave up calling him anything but ‘Pir’. One teacher pronounced this name as “Pierre’. The boy was delighted and so began to call himself by its English equivalent, ‘Peter’ which happened also to be the first name of his favorite British teacher. When he studied Greek classics, ‘Peter’ became ‘Petros’ and then a Persian version ‘Patras’. Why he settled at last on this as the final stop in the line of many versions of his name is not clear, but it became the ‘pen name’ under which he became famous for his many funny and satirical articles.
Those familiar with Urdu literature or Pakistan’s history will know by now that the full name of ‘Patras’, was actually Pir Syed Ahmed Shah Bokhari, more often known as either ‘Patras’ or ‘Bokhari’.
At home he studied the Quran, as well as Persian and Urdu literature, but at school he was famous for his love of English poetry. The story goes that the British commissioner of the Northwest Frontier Province, Sir George Roos-Keppel, listened to Bokhari’s recitation in a poetry contest and then wrote in the prize book, “How I wish I could speak Pashto as well as young Pir Ahmad Shah can speak English.”
After finishing his masters he stayed on to teach for three years in Lahore before moving to England to excel in further studies at Cambridge. He began translating English classics into Urdu. His experience in shifting between languages and personas in Peshawar now led him to take six months of private lessons in Cockney, if for no better reason than to shock English shopkeepers when a Pakistani started chatting with them in Cockney.
Back in Lahore he returned to teaching. He became known for a quick wit. Of his time as a teacher a story often told is that one day he was busy sorting through the piles of papers and books on his perennially messy desk. A man came into the room to see him. Without looking up from the papers, he told the man to take a seat. The man was offended and said quickly, “You know, I am so and so of the ICS (i.e. a member of the Indian Civil Service - the elite of the administrative corps)”. To which Patras simply said, “Oh, in that case, take two seats.”
In 1927 he published what is still today considered a classic collection of humorous essays in Urdu - Patras kay Mazameen ( پطرس کے مضامین - Peter’s articles).
At home he studied the Quran, as well as Persian and Urdu literature, but at school he was famous for his love of English poetry. The story goes that the British commissioner of the Northwest Frontier Province, Sir George Roos-Keppel, listened to Bokhari’s recitation in a poetry contest and then wrote in the prize book, “How I wish I could speak Pashto as well as young Pir Ahmad Shah can speak English.”
After finishing his masters he stayed on to teach for three years in Lahore before moving to England to excel in further studies at Cambridge. He began translating English classics into Urdu. His experience in shifting between languages and personas in Peshawar now led him to take six months of private lessons in Cockney, if for no better reason than to shock English shopkeepers when a Pakistani started chatting with them in Cockney.
Back in Lahore he returned to teaching. He became known for a quick wit. Of his time as a teacher a story often told is that one day he was busy sorting through the piles of papers and books on his perennially messy desk. A man came into the room to see him. Without looking up from the papers, he told the man to take a seat. The man was offended and said quickly, “You know, I am so and so of the ICS (i.e. a member of the Indian Civil Service - the elite of the administrative corps)”. To which Patras simply said, “Oh, in that case, take two seats.”
In 1927 he published what is still today considered a classic collection of humorous essays in Urdu - Patras kay Mazameen ( پطرس کے مضامین - Peter’s articles).
He continued teaching until 1935 when he and his brother moved to Delhi to become broadcasters at the newly created All India Radio. In 1939 he became the Director General.
Partition in 1947 came as a wrenching shock to everyone in British India, but even more to those who had to choose between the two new countries. Patras initially resisted the idea of leaving Delhi, but in the end was convinced that there was no choice. Back in Lahore, he initially returned to work as the Principal of Government College. In 1950 the Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was to tour the United States and asked ‘Patras’ to join him. Their association developed and soon after Patras became Pakistan’s first permanent representative to the United Nations.
So it was that on 6 October 1950 Patras Bokhari found himself at Lake Success on Long Island, NY.
That day, as Pakistan’s permanent representative, Bokhari acted as co-chair of the fifth session of the General Assembly’s Third Committee. The morning session had included a lengthy debate on issues of press freedom and protection of minorities. A debate over a possible extension of UNICEF was next on the agenda. Brazil and Venezuela opened the debate with strong arguments for continuation of UNICEF’s work.
After lunch, the US delegate, Eleanor Roosevelt, spoke. She read a statement thanking UNICEF for its work, but taking the position that the emergency was over and that the functions of UNICEF should now be absorbed by permanent agencies, in particular WHO and FAO.
Here I will let Helenka Pantaleoni take over the story:
“The Vice-Chairman of the Third Committee was a Pakistani named Ahmed Bokhari. He was a passionate supporter of UNICEF. Worldwide. He wanted the Fund to continue and to come to the aid of children, especially children in Asia, and it was then, even though he was Acting Chairman of the Third Committee, that he said he was stepping down from his role as chairman, because he wanted to speak as the Pakistani delegate. He waited until Mrs. Roosevelt spoke to this resolution.
Without taking any notes, Bokhari took that speech and point by point - there were eight or nine points she made - he tore it to pieces, starting out saying, “I hate to differ with my most respected and admired, colleague, Mrs. Roosevelt, but I feel as though I were at the funeral service of UNICEF. “
Partition in 1947 came as a wrenching shock to everyone in British India, but even more to those who had to choose between the two new countries. Patras initially resisted the idea of leaving Delhi, but in the end was convinced that there was no choice. Back in Lahore, he initially returned to work as the Principal of Government College. In 1950 the Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was to tour the United States and asked ‘Patras’ to join him. Their association developed and soon after Patras became Pakistan’s first permanent representative to the United Nations.
So it was that on 6 October 1950 Patras Bokhari found himself at Lake Success on Long Island, NY.
That day, as Pakistan’s permanent representative, Bokhari acted as co-chair of the fifth session of the General Assembly’s Third Committee. The morning session had included a lengthy debate on issues of press freedom and protection of minorities. A debate over a possible extension of UNICEF was next on the agenda. Brazil and Venezuela opened the debate with strong arguments for continuation of UNICEF’s work.
After lunch, the US delegate, Eleanor Roosevelt, spoke. She read a statement thanking UNICEF for its work, but taking the position that the emergency was over and that the functions of UNICEF should now be absorbed by permanent agencies, in particular WHO and FAO.
Here I will let Helenka Pantaleoni take over the story:
“The Vice-Chairman of the Third Committee was a Pakistani named Ahmed Bokhari. He was a passionate supporter of UNICEF. Worldwide. He wanted the Fund to continue and to come to the aid of children, especially children in Asia, and it was then, even though he was Acting Chairman of the Third Committee, that he said he was stepping down from his role as chairman, because he wanted to speak as the Pakistani delegate. He waited until Mrs. Roosevelt spoke to this resolution.
Without taking any notes, Bokhari took that speech and point by point - there were eight or nine points she made - he tore it to pieces, starting out saying, “I hate to differ with my most respected and admired, colleague, Mrs. Roosevelt, but I feel as though I were at the funeral service of UNICEF. “
There was a great silence in the hall, Mrs. Roosevelt blanched, the blood ran out of her face. I think Ahmed’s action was as great a factor in establishing the continuation of UNICEF as that of any single person, because immediately when he finished this eloquent talk, brilliantly delivered - putting the US on the mat - all the other Asian countries and all the other developing countries started talking, each of them in essence saying, “Well, you talk about the children’s emergency being over. The European emergency may be over, but our children are in a continual state of emergency”. This is what happened that famous day at Lake Success.”
In 1954 Patras Bokhari was appointed as the USG for Information and headed the UN’s Department of Information (now DPI) until 1958. During this time he became enormously popular with UN staff. Whenever word went around that Bokhari would be speaking in front of some UN meeting, staff members would flock in to listen to his erudite and often entertaining comments. During UN meetings he was known to always have a book of poetry 'under the counter' which he read, while somehow following the speakers. When speakers failed to make sense, or - more often were boring - he was famous for leaving the room without fanfare.
He lunched nearly every day with correspondents and reporters. He once said, “The UN cannot be sold in the way that a commodity is sold. Internationalism is a tiny baby with sixty nationalistic nurses. The surprising thing is not that the darn thing is weak, but that it is living at all.”
Bokhari’s colleague and USG for Political Affairs, Ralph Bunche, said of Bokhari:
“Ahmed Bokhari was, in fact, a leader and a philosopher, a savant, indeed, even though not old in years, a sort of elder statesman. His true field of influence was the entire complex of the United Nations family.... He was acutely conscious of the aspirations of people throughout the world for peace, for better standards of life, for freedom and dignity, but no one was more soundly aware than he of the difficulties and obstacles to be overcome in bringing about a broad advance of humankind along these avenues.”
His longtime friend, the poet, Robert Frost, had written the following couplet in 1956 at Bokhari’s request for the poet to write something for the walls of the Meditation Room in the UN Secretariat.
"From Iron
Tools and Weapons
Nature within her inmost self divides
To trouble men with having to take sides."
In 1954 Patras Bokhari was appointed as the USG for Information and headed the UN’s Department of Information (now DPI) until 1958. During this time he became enormously popular with UN staff. Whenever word went around that Bokhari would be speaking in front of some UN meeting, staff members would flock in to listen to his erudite and often entertaining comments. During UN meetings he was known to always have a book of poetry 'under the counter' which he read, while somehow following the speakers. When speakers failed to make sense, or - more often were boring - he was famous for leaving the room without fanfare.
He lunched nearly every day with correspondents and reporters. He once said, “The UN cannot be sold in the way that a commodity is sold. Internationalism is a tiny baby with sixty nationalistic nurses. The surprising thing is not that the darn thing is weak, but that it is living at all.”
Bokhari’s colleague and USG for Political Affairs, Ralph Bunche, said of Bokhari:
“Ahmed Bokhari was, in fact, a leader and a philosopher, a savant, indeed, even though not old in years, a sort of elder statesman. His true field of influence was the entire complex of the United Nations family.... He was acutely conscious of the aspirations of people throughout the world for peace, for better standards of life, for freedom and dignity, but no one was more soundly aware than he of the difficulties and obstacles to be overcome in bringing about a broad advance of humankind along these avenues.”
His longtime friend, the poet, Robert Frost, had written the following couplet in 1956 at Bokhari’s request for the poet to write something for the walls of the Meditation Room in the UN Secretariat.
"From Iron
Tools and Weapons
Nature within her inmost self divides
To trouble men with having to take sides."
Frost’s words were later inscribed on Bokhari’s tombstone in Valhalla Cemetery in New York.
Bokhari died on December 5, 1958. The runaway from Peshawar had finally run away. Or, perhaps he had finally gone home.
Bokhari died on December 5, 1958. The runaway from Peshawar had finally run away. Or, perhaps he had finally gone home.
Robert Frost and Ahmed Bokhari
Very interesting article by Ms. Shahida Azfar - it is a Master Piece on Late. H. E. Bokhari Saab. Salute 🙏 to Bokhari Saab-RIP. His contribution in forming UNICEF will remain forever as recapitulated by Ms. Azfar.
ReplyDeleteI so enjoy these history flashes. Thank you, and thank you also to Shahida. These are wonderful articles, and eloquent introductions to those who have gone before.
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