Qudrat Ullah Shahab

Early life

Shahab was born in Gilgit in 1920. His father Abdullah Shahab belonged to the Arain tribe of Chimkor Sahib village, district Ambala and was a student at Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College and a protegé under the supervision of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Abdullah Shahab later immigrated from Aligarh and settled down in Gilgit. Shahab started writing in his early days both in Urdu and English languages. At the age of 16, he won an international essay competition organised by the Readers Digest, London. He graduated from Prince of Wales College, Jammu, and later from Government College Lahore.

According to his autobiography, he spent his childhood in Eastern Punjab near Chamkor Sahib, Ropar (Rupnagar) District.

Indian Civil Service

He was selected for Indian Civil Service in 1940 and later volunteered to serve in Bengal during the famine of 1943, where he served as magistrate at Nandigram. He came under heavy fire from the authorities when he distributed part of the strategic rice reserves to the starving local community.

Pakistan and his career

After coming to Pakistan he was first posted in the Ministry of Commerce as a Deputy Secretary and then as Chief Secretary of the new state of Azad Kashmir at Muzaffarabad. Thereafter, he became Deputy Commissioner of Jhang, Punjab. He also served as Director of Industries of Punjab and dealt mostly with settlement issues concerning migration. He was appointed by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad his Principal Secretary and remained on this post during Iskander Mirza's and Ayub Khan's regimes. He served as Ambassador of Pakistan to Holland in 1962 and later as Secretary of Information and Education. He resigned after a clash with the new regime of Yahya Khan and opted for a self-imposed exile at UK. Shahab was elected a member of the executive board of UNESCO in 1968.

Literary works

Shahab published in English and Urdu languages for contemporary newspapers and magazines of Pakistan Writers' Guild, founded at Karachi in January 1959.

He is best known for his autobiography Shahab Nama. In the first chapter, Shahab mentioned how the idea of writing a memoir occurred to him when he paid a visit to Ibn-e-Insha in London. While they were discussing the philosophy of life, it inspired him to pen his own experiences. The complete work was published after his death in 1986.

Spiritualism

There has been much debate on the spiritual side of his personality. Mumtaz Mufti, Shahab's close friend and a well-known writer, wrote about it. Also in Shahab Nama, Shahab shared some of his spiritual experiences, especially the bewitched bungalow of 18 civil lines (Cuttuck) that contributed to his understanding of Parapsychology.

The real disclosure came in the final chapter of Shahab Nama that alluded to an out-of-world personality whom he used to call Ninety as his spiritual guide. After Shahab Nama published, which was actually after Shahab's death, Mufti wrote his autobiography, Alakh Nagri, and openly discussed the hidden traits of Shahab's life. Mufti wrote in the foreword of the book:

"Since Shahab has opened his own secrets in the last chapter of Shahab Nama, I find no reason not to share experiences which I witnessed about the mysticism of Shahab" – _{(English translation of the original text in Urdu)}..

Legacy

From the early days of Pakistan, Shahab worked with the national leadership country until the regime of Yahya Khan. Shahab revealed in Shahab Nama, as Mumtaz Mufti did in Alakh Nagri, that the idea of retaining the name "Islamic Republic of Pakistan" was proposed by him to Ayub Khan, after Ayub had started to write in official communications the name of the country simply as 'Pakistan', instead of 'Islamic Republic of Pakistan', during his initial days in office. After some initial hesitation, Ayub agreed with Shahab's reasoning so much that he 'adopted' the idea as his own!

The last chapter of Shahab Nama about his exposure to spiritualism has been controversial. Though throughout his lifetime, Shahab had enjoyed a respectful image among his colleagues and friends. Many of them paid him tributes in their essays and short stories. Notably, Mumtaz Mufti made him the subject of his autobiography Alakh Nagri and later dedicated another book Labbaik. Bano Qudsia, a veteran Urdu writer, wrote a book Mard-e-Abresham on Shahab's personality. A collection of essays about Qudrutullah Shahab has been compiled in a book, Zikr-e-Shahab.

Death

Shahab died on 24 July 1986 in Islamabad and is buried in H-8 Graveyard, Islamabad Pakistan.

Honorary stamp

On 23 March 2013, Pakistan Post issued a stamp with denomination of Rs. 15 under the "Men of Letters" series in the honour of Qudratullah Shahab. The stamp can be found on Pakistan Post's official website: http://www.pakpost.gov.pk/stamps1/QudratUllahShahab.html

List of publications

Shahab Nama

MAA JI (The Mother)

Nafsanay

Surkh Feeta (Red Tape)

Ya Khuda (O God)