‘Lal Haveli to United Nations’ launched
Zubair Qureshi
Interior Minister and President of Awami Muslim League (AML) Sheikh Rashid Ahmed was showered with praises by the cabinet colleagues and eminent journalists, Wednesday for his long political struggle spanning over five decades.
They particularly mentioned the fact that he had made himself relevant in politics during all the climes and times which singled him out in the present lot of politicians.
They expressed these views while addressing the launching ceremony of the book ‘Lal Haveli to United Nations’ the fourth book written by Sheikh Rashid.
The launching ceremony was organized at the Marriott hotel. The book is published in collaboration with the Duny Media Group. One could see among the galaxy of guests, federal ministers Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Syed Fakhar Imam, Brig Ijaz Shah, Ch Ghulam Sarwar, Ambassador of China Nong Rong, British High Commissioner Dr Christian Turner, Ambassador of Indonesia Adam Tugio, ambassadors, diplomats from Nepal, Yemen, Palestine, Jordan and other countries and of course a large number of the political workers of the AML and voters from Sheikh Rashid’s Rawalpindi constituency attending the ceremony in large number.
Sheikh Rashid, the speakers said, began his political career back in 1960s when he was a student leader and shot to fame by addressing public gatherings and building public momentum against the dictator.
This landed him in jail even at that younger age but he never got discouraged and resumed his political struggle after coming out, said they.
Since then he never looked behind and kept pursing the newer and the higher goals and luck too smiled at him during all this while.
Today, we see him the only politician who has returned to the federal cabinet for the 15th time in his long and eventful political career, the speakers said.
Asad Umar called Sheikh Rashid a fascinating politician, a self-made leader who never quit his constituency politics.
Sheikh Rashid knows the pulse of the public, particularly the voters of his constituency which is his real power, he said. Fawad Chaudhry also spoke high of Sheikh Rashid and called him one man show.
This goes to the credit of Sheikh Rashid that ratings of different TV channels went up whenever he appeared on their screens.
Likewise, people, particularly the common man, took keen interest in his statements, appearances and interviews, etc, said Fawad Chaudhry.
Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Sahmi in his detailed overview of the book and the analysis of Sheikh Rashid’s politics said he knew him since the start of politics.
“We both started our careers, journalism and politics, almost together,” said Shami and called him perhaps the senior most politician of Pakistan with such a distinguished political career all self-made and marked by political struggle.
Sheikh Rashid, he said, was never accused of corruption and this is one of the reasons for his being relevant and being very much present in the arena.
He has switched to many parties but retained his personal charisma. Rashid could have joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) but he preferred to keep his political party which by and large happened to be ‘one man show,’ said Shami.
He said by writing and publishing a book Sheikh Rashid had set a good tradition by which other ministers too would feel motivated and instead of firing statements would devote themselves to writing books or doing some creative activity.
Mian Muhammad Amir, Muhammad Malick, Saleem Safi and Ajmal Jami also paid rich compliments to Rashid Ahmed.
In his vote of thanks, Sheikh Rashid said Imran Khan’s government had made a number of excellent achievements like planning and construction of dams, issuance of health cards and containing Covid-19.
However, these achievements were not projected as they should have been, he said. He dismissed the rumours that ‘secret’ hand had withdrawn support from Imran Khan’s government. “The secret hand rather has decided to support every elected government,” he said.
