The other day while going through my archives, I had found this little piece which I want to share with the readers though many among the younger generation of journalists would not be knowing the great personality whom I am paying tributes here.
‘A.T.’, the doyen of the journalists community breathed his last in September 1984 due to a heart attack. But he will be long remembered for his bold, upright and straight forward thinking and balanced views expressed in non-chalent way.
Abdul Tawwab Chaudhri was his real name but he was affectionately known as ‘A.T.’ after his abbreviated name of A.T.Chaudhri which was not only well-known in Pakistan but also the world over.
His views expressed in a candid manner without any fear or favour were widely read and respected even by those who were not used to anything else than mere pamerish writings. They had to take his writings seriously because these were written out of sincerity, honesty of purpose and with every other sense which one expected in a veteran journalist who had no repeat no personal axe to grind.
He lived and died for his outright thinking and writings because till his last he was living in a rented place in Model Town Lahore supporting his wife and ten children—equally distributed in both sexes.
He was a loveable personality was not the correct expression about his towering personality and it was rather difficult to differentiate whether he was a great journalist or a great human being. To me, he was the greatest both as a journalist and as a man and those who ever come into personal contact with the late ‘A.T.’ would bear testimony to this.
He was a very good conversationalists ad would continue talking even for hours. This was only conditioned with the presence of nearby of “hukkah” and he really cherished good tobacco.
Mr Abdul Tawwab Chaudhri all through his life lived on his writings, whether he was the Chief Editor of the NPT-controlled The Pakistan Times, the Founder Chief Editor of the lonely newspaper from Federal Capital “The Muslim” or he was doing free-lancing for the “Dawn”. When he was removed for the third time from the Pakistan Times, where he had for some time the Chief Executive of PPL (Progressive Papers Limited) also, he proudly told his friends “ I have been dismissed for the third time from the Pakistan Times”. He enjoyed free-lancing as this afforded him time for studies as books lay spread on his bed and nearby table with a typewriter.
He had for some years started playing golf to keep himself fit and since he had another bought stick from his many foreign tours he would always invited his friends like Mr Nisar Osmani to come and play golf with him. Lately, he had started long walks.
The late Chaudhri Sahib would entertain his friends, which were in large numbers, with couple of “lassi “ glasses as he had all along been ‘sporting’ a buffalo and would convince his friends about the advantage of maintaining a buffalo for fresh milk and homely made “lassi”.
He would always offer his Fajr preferably regularly, no matter whether he got up late in the morning. But he would never go around telling tha to others.
Late Mr A.T.Chaudhri was also a trade unionist and both as a journalist and as a trade unionist, he refused to bargain his principles which he would express with equal ease in front of the highest authority of the land as he would express these in the presence of his friends.
He once refused to accept the contention of the great G.I.K. (Ghulam Ishaque Khan) that the inflation rate had come down appreciably and instead proved with facts and figures that this had alarmingly gone up rather than coming down.
Mr A.T.Chaudhri’s heart attack had surprised many as he had always maintained good health.
One could go on writing volumes about his greatness as a journalist and as a man and as a friend.
He ranked among those celebrated journalists of the country who were regrettably even lesser in number than the ten figures.
And with these few words I join many, many others I paying tributes to ‘A.T.’ and I realise these were not enough to cover the many aspects of the late Abdul Tawwab Chaudhri.
Let’s pray to Almighty that our dear Chaudhri Sahib’s soul may rest in peace eternally and give us the courage and conviction and expression to say and say boldly what we considered to be right and nothing else but RIGHT.
(Note: This scribe had the honour of visiting his Model Town residence number of times and enjoying glasses of fresh “lassi” and he also used to participate in Radio Pakistan’s Current Affairs Programmes , recorded in Lahore, on my request.)
The writer is Lahore-based Freelance Journalist, Columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News) , Radio Pakistan, Islamabad and can be reached at zahidriffat@gmail.com
