JEDDAH, 5 July 2006 — As most expatriates in the Kingdom approach their golden years, they begin to make plans that include travel to exotic locations, condominiums in gated communities and lazy days at the golf course. After all, they have worked hard for decades. Their children are grown and out of university. Now, finally the time has come for some well-earned rest and relaxation.
Such a scenario would be akin to a punishment for Ahsan Rashid. On Monday, he jetted off to Lahore where he plans to be engaged full time in the rough and tumble world of Pakistani politics.
Retiring as president of Al-Hamrani Fuchs Petroleum Saudi Arabia Ltd., Rashid’s goal is to take all the skills he has learned while in the top management of a major Saudi company and put them to good use within Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, a party of which he is a founder member. Of course, he hopes that eventually those skills will serve him in good stead as a reformer in a high-level position within the Pakistani government, but there are many political mountains to climb before such a vision can become a reality.
Rashid has already come a long way in life. In 1967 he was working for Pakistan State Oil company when a delegation from Petromin, visiting from Saudi Arabia, recruited him to work in the Kingdom. After two years at Petromin, Rashid was dissatisfied with his career and was planning to return to Pakistan when the Al-Hamrani Group approached him. He spent the next decades helping the company become one of the largest lubricating oil suppliers in the Middle East.
“These 28 years have been most of my working life,” Rashid told Arab News in a recent interview. “I worked for about 40 years, of which 12 were in Pakistan and the rest in Saudi Arabia. I consider myself very fortunate for having had the opportunity to come, live and work in Jeddah. The biggest privilege was being close to the two holy mosques. Had it been any other city perhaps I would not have stayed for this long. My understanding of Islam is a lot better than it would have been had I stayed on in Pakistan. I consider myself extremely lucky that Allah gave me an opportunity to come and earn a living in Jeddah. It is sad that I have to leave, but I feel that while there is still some energy left in me I must do something for Pakistan. It is with this spirit and challenge that I am returning to Pakistan.”
That is not to say that his career was the only focus of Rashid’s life. With his wife they raised two sons and a daughter in Saudi Arabia. One son — Salman — is a successful businessman; the other — Mansoor — is an architect based in Dubai. His daughter recently graduated from King’s College, London.
“My wife carries similar ideals as myself. She is also disturbed at what is happening in Pakistan,” Rashid said. “She is very supportive of me. The children are on their own so that gives me a lot of time. They (the children) are not very keen on politics. Like everybody else they think politics is a very dirty affair.”
The expatriate Pakistani community has also benefited from Rashid’s attention. Thanks to his efforts, Jeddah now has three schools, one for girls and two for boys, where 500 students are learning to be global citizens. It is run by the Pakistan Welfare Society, of which Rashid was the spokesman.
“Lack of knowledge and education is keeping us behind. The combined GDP of 56 Muslim countries is about $2 trillion while Germany alone has a GDP of $2.2 trillion with a population of 80 million. We are one-and-a-half billion Muslims today,” Rashid said. “We have a long way to go. I think education and knowledge are the keys to success. So I would request the community to contribute wholeheartedly to the Pakistan Welfare Society. My friends and colleagues who are staying back have promised to carry the work forward. Zafar Talpur will be the society’s spokesman now.”
The dynamic Pakistani businessman would like to see more commitment to education in Saudi Arabia. “Unfortunately, not enough attention has been paid to education in our world,” Rashid said. “The Kingdom has definitely made a lot of progress, but it was my wish to see the Kingdom become the leader in terms of knowledge. I wish the Kingdom would pay more attention to education. With the resources Allah has provided them, they should have had 10 MITs and 10 Harvards by now. I think this has been the biggest setback. The real wealth of any nation is its people. I wouldn’t even consider oil as the real wealth. It is a means to create real wealth, which is human development. I sincerely hope that in this second boom that Saudi Arabia is experiencing it will allocate sufficient resources to build world-class universities. That really would uplift the nation. That would take it forward.”
Rashid said the Kingdom should do something to combat its brain drain. “There are many competent people from around the world in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “I feel Saudi Arabia should seriously consider retaining these people by giving them citizenship. There are a lot of PhDs, and there are a lot of experts in various fields in science, in technology, engineering and medicine. It is a great knowledge pool. The country must find a way to retain all these experts. They would add to the knowledge wealth of Saudi society.”
Rashid is also disappointed by a lack of advancement in his home country. “Values in Pakistan have deteriorated in the last quarter of a century. It is very sad,” he said. “Society has not progressed the way one would have wished. Leadership has been generally very poor; role models have been scarce. There was a survey undertaken in Pakistan some years ago; people were asked what is it that the people of Pakistan were proud of. Only two things were mentioned: One was the nuclear technology that we acquired and the other was the victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. We don’t have much to show, unfortunately. The only thing we respect in Pakistan today is money, which is so sad. Honesty and knowledge are not considered a virtue anymore — again very sad. Hopefully, there are forces in society that are trying to bring about a change. My wish is that the forces of good will eventually prevail.”
As far as rallying those forces of good, when Pakistan has been struck by natural disasters, such as drought and earthquakes, Rashid has been on the front lines of fund-raising efforts. “We raised almost SR1 million when drought struck Pakistan’s Balochistan province. We dug wells in the villages and installed water pumps in nearly 2,000 villages in Balochistan,” he said. “The community has been very supportive. During the recent earthquake, Jeddah was in the forefront of providing maximum relief material. Twenty thousands tents were collected and sent to the needy in Muzaffarabad and Balakot. There are divisions in all societies, but I must compliment the present Consul General of Pakistan, Masood Akhtar. He reduced these divisions to a large extent and managed to rally the community and unite them much more than I have seen in the last 28 years.”
Rashid promoted sports and especially cricket in a big way while in Jeddah. But divisions within the community left him rather despondent. “Pakistanis are the ones who pioneered cricket in Saudi Arabia. No two opinions about that. I would give a lot of credit to (Jeddah Cricket League President) Shahid Amin. But then divisions took place. I tried my best to put these people together. Unfortunately, I couldn’t succeed. That was one reason why I stepped back from getting involved in cricket anymore. I would request the community to come together. One part of the community recently managed to bring in the Pakistani team to play against the Asian XI team. I think it was a great success. If both groups come together they should be able to put Saudi Arabia on the world cricketing map. And why not?”
Rashid wants to bring the forces of good to bear back home. “The people are generally very supportive. Unfortunately, the political system is so flawed that it only caters to the rich. I would say it is the elite in Pakistan — a combination of feudals, big businesses, generals and the bureaucrats; they are in all about 5,000 families — they are not letting things change. The country and our society only cater to this establishment ... these 5,000 families. They are a big stumbling block to change. Politics is the game of the rich. If you have money you can virtually buy membership into the National Assembly. We at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf are new to politics. We didn’t know the ropes when we came in. None of us are politicians. We hopefully will eventually be more of reformists than politicians. But we feel that the only way you can reform a society is by assuming power. Without assuming power you cannot bring about a meaningful change.”
That realization, Rashid said, has spawned a change in thinking for members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf back home. “Initially, Imran (Khan) thought by doing a lot of social work and charity work he would be able to bring a meaningful change in society,” Rashid said. “But that isn’t so. There are a lot of good people doing very good charity work. Imran is only one of them. Abdul Sattar Edhi is there and there are so many others. We see no big change coming in society despite all this good charity and social work. It is the element of power that can make the difference. That is why we are dabbling in politics. Not that we like it. That is the only way to bring a peaceful and a nonviolent change in society because if we don’t succeed in changing society peacefully, then the way we are moving I personally think it might end up in a very violent change. That is not good for any society. So our struggle will be peaceful. If the elections are held next year and if they are a bit more fair than they were in the past, I think we will make a strong showing. Inshallah.”
What will Rashid be missing the most? “All the good people of Saudi Arabia and my colleagues at Al-Hamrani and, of course, Arab News. I was associated with the ‘green’ newspaper since the days of the late Muhammad Ali. He was from Pakistan. As the general manager of the newspaper in the mid-1970s, he saw it grow in the early stages. And then how can I forget Khaled (Almaeena). He gave Arab News a sense of direction with his peerless leadership. He is an international journalist and the Muslim world is proud of him.”
And as Rashid put Jeddah behind him, he takes with him memories of a city that grew up during his stay.
“When I came in the late 1960s, the development process had just begun. Jeddah was very small,” Rashid said. “I remember the city existed only up to Palestine Street from the Balad district. There was nothing beyond Palestine Street at all. I have seen North Jeddah being built from scratch. It is a much nicer place now. Life was difficult. In the early years especially for non-Arabic speaking expatriates it was difficult to get a loaf of bread because we hardly had shops selling it.”
Rashid also notes that some of the pleasures of Old Jeddah have been sacrificed because of progress. “Life was simpler. We didn’t have all these satellite channels. We didn’t have the videos,” he said. “People were more sociable because that was the only form of entertainment. Friendships were stronger. People were meeting each other more often. The level of sincerity was much more. Over the years, Jeddah has become like any other modern city in the world where life is hectic — you are always short of time, there are always too many things to do. I would have preferred the simpler Jeddah and the simpler life that existed 25 years ago.”
For Rashid, however, simplicity is a thing of the past. The challenges he has faced in business will seem simple compared with the work to which he has now committed. “If good people don’t come forward, how will the change come about? Good and honest people with good intentions must come forward,” Rashid said. “Aristotle said when a nation is in crisis, all good people must come forward. It is time for the middle-class, educated Pakistanis to stand up and fight for their rights. It is going to be tough. It pains me to see Pakistan suffer, and I want to do something for the country. As Iqbal says ‘Zara nam ho to ye mitti bahot zarkhez hai saaqi.’”
