Pak man returns

THE reincarnation of Aziz Ahmed Khan from easygoing liberal to god-fearing Pashtun, one whose destiny was synonymous with Pakistan8217;s ...

THE reincarnation of Aziz Ahmed Khan from easygoing liberal to god-fearing Pashtun, one whose destiny was synonymous with Pakistan8217;s 8216;8216;strategic engagement8217;8217; with the Taliban, was nearly a generation in the making. Delhiwallahs remember Aziz as a jovial, friendly minister-counsellor in the Pakistan High Commission from 1985-87, very much on top of the capital8217;s party list. Those were the Rajiv Gandhi years, when international realpolitik8212;despite Bofors8212; was the art of the possible. Just over a decade later, in 1998, Aziz was posted as his country8217;s ambassador to the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Before the end of his tenure, two years later, he had grown a beard.

Last week Aziz Khan, now 59, returned to New Delhi as Pakistan8217;s newest high commissioner to India, much more portly, somewhat balding, but with his beard in place. By all accounts, he was handpicked for this job by none other than General Pervez Musharraf, widely known in Islamabad as the 8216;8216;maalik8217;8217; of Pakistan.

In his previous incarnation as spokesman of the Pakistan foreign office, Aziz was simply perfect, pulling off the impossible8212;a complete turnaround on relations with Afghanistan after 9/11, denying the presence of some 55,000 American troops in Pakistan searching for Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, putting a spin on Musharraf8217;s refusal to give up his uniform after the elections and even justifying the unspoken alliance between the religious right, the Army and the government.

Unlike his counterpart Rashid Qureshi, former press secretary to President Musharraf, who grated on New Delhi8217;s nerves with his obnoxious statements about Kashmir and cross-border terrorism, Aziz actually made the same fantasy sound credible.

Now Aziz returns to a new India, scarred not only by 14 years of 8216;8216;proxy war8217;8217;, but also grappling with a changing world after 9/11. As the Partition generation grows older8212;and one by one, begins to die8212;Aziz will find that the romanticism and nostalgia, even the obsession with Pakistan, seems to have considerably diminished with younger Indians. For one, many are likely to be far more interested in the fact that his wife Ayesha is a committed environmentalist who has succeeded in enthusing local NGOs to remove some 50 tons of garbage from the Pakistani mountainside.

Not that any of it matters. Fact is, history has taken both India and Pakistan by the hand. The promise of compromise after 55 years of killings and brutality, propaganda and videotape looms large. As Aziz Ahmed Khan settles into Pakistan House8212;once the residence of Liaquat Ali Khan8212;and grapples once again with the roll of the dice, his thoughts must go back to the dents and fissures of history. Partition. The 1965 war. The 1971 war. Summits at Islamabad, Lahore, Agra. And now, the idea of peace.

History is weighty business. While he waits for it, Khan can entertain himself with New Delhi8217;s ever busy party circuit. After all, as any of the Khans would tell you, the capital8217;s cocktail classes are generally more kindly disposed towards Pakistani high commissioners than South Block is.