Several years ago, I was asked to address one of the world’s fabled military institutions, the Command and Staff College, Quetta, which has produced 3 British Army chiefs, Field Marshals Montgomery, Slim, and Auchinleck. Its then Commandant was a very young-looking Lieutenant General who relaxed in the afternoons by playing cricket. Earlier, while chief instructor there in 1977, he had lobbied vigorously to remove the Staff College emblem, which was an owl. The owl - a symbol of wisdom in the West - was to the young officer, according to the local cultural context, a symbol of ‘folly and desolation.’ He questioned what others had accepted without question - and prevailed.
Challenging the status quo - albeit on a larger scale - once again, the man, Lt. Gen. Tanweer Naqvi, now head of the National Reconstruction Bureau, is at the heart of the Musharraf Administration’s attempt to reconstruct Pakistan’s political system. Naqvi, 62, originally hailed from Amroha, Muradabad. He is the son of the late Major Tasvir Naqvi who died in 1985, an educationist who was one of the pioneers of the Pakistan Military Academy and headed its department of English. All of the late Major’s six children have done well. Tauqir Naqvi retired as Vice-Admiral. Tatheer Naqvi is a leading Chicago-based mortgage banker. And sisters Naseem (Ph.D. from Leeds), Fatima (systems analyst) and Zehra (deputy country manager, International Insurance ACE) are all professionally accomplished. He and his wife Narjis have 4 boys. A daughter, Betool, was tragically lost 20 years ago when she was just 3-1/2. His mother Zameera, 82, is still active and remains engaged on religious matters.
The cerebral Naqvi, a lynchpin of President Musharraf’s otherwise lacklustre team, is the one who has emerged with something palpable: a tangible framework for the October 2002 polls.
Naqvi’s philosophy is that human potential should be enhanced and used to its full capability for the larger good. His attempts to reconstruct the system, where the value of education, minority rights, and increased female representation, is put over and above material accoutrements and firmly entrenched interests, has earned him considerable opposition - some of it driven by jealousy and vested quarters jolted by upcoming changes to the status quo - but he remains steadfast.
What he does hope to accomplish is to change the socio-political culture of the country. In other words, ‘the law violator becomes a law abider; the loan defaulter becomes a loan payer; and the tax evader becomes a taxpayer.’ His main concern is that his actions not be detrimental to public interest. Tanweer is a radical open to logic that is substantiated.
Critics have slammed Naqvi for being an idealist, an adventurist, and impractical. The jury is still out. Meanwhile, Naqvi is attempting to reconstruct space for a more inclusive society that cherishes the values of integrity, intellect, courage, and fair play.
Tanweer Naqvi seems destined (and determined) to leave his stamp on Pakistan’s polity. His legacy promises to be not one of ignominy but of someone who battled the odds to do right.