BY

I enjoy writing letters now to various newspapers and magazines. This all really started when I was the Vice Chairman of the SITE Association of Industry and the indomitable Nazim F. Haji was the Chairman way back in 1988-89. Nazim was more comfortable if I wrote the Press Releases. In fact, I also became the speech writer cause we could not afford to hire professionals and besides this, only we industrialists could understand and feel the problems we faced.

Those were very different days. The era of democracy was in its infancy and the industrial community was still skeptical about the policies of the BB government. We were also at loggerheads with the cabal that ran the FPCCI and KCCI, and we were very vociferous in our demand about the setting up of a Chamber of Industry, an issue which has yet to be resolved inspite of the President. the Prime Minister and others who have assured us that the issue will be solved pronto. That "pronto" is as illusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

It was then felt that there are certain points had to be projected in the press but it should come out as independent viewpoints reflecting implicitly what the Association wanted to say. Thus the Letters to the Editor column was raided by us, and I began writing under the pen-name "Javed Memon". Of course, the Commerce Reporters of the various newspapers knew that the letters originated from SITE and that I was behind this. Over the period of our tenure, we took a lot of advantage thru this medium and I began enjoying this new "hobby".

In 1990-91, I was elected, or more specifically, "selected" as the Chairman of the SITE Association, now more steadfastly known as the Voice of Industry. It became a full time job for me and I had to literally say good-bye to my other job, that is running my own textile and apparel business. I did continue writing under this pen-name and also wrote nearly all the Press Releases and all my official speeches. We still could not afford a professional speech writer.

Writing letters to the Editors has become more of a satisfaction for me now more than ever. I love to write and I try to spare atleast half an hour daily to write on something that needs to be written on. Of course, I have put "Javed Memon" to rest, but I still write under different pseudonyms. I also write many articles that are published in various newspapers and magazines. It was in a defunct eveninger that I wrote a weekly column under my name, but I have given up writing in my real name.

I still write speeches for the Chairmen of the Site Association. Last year I wrote the Welcome Addresses to the President and the Prime Minister when they visited this Association. I was complimented by many people, especially my friends in the news media, who can somehow sense that I am the person behind all this. I still occasionally write the Press Releases for SITE. In fact I had been at times, writing Press Release for the KCCI when I was on its Managing Committee. I do it for Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, Pakistan Silk Mills Association, and others too.

A few days ago, Humayun Gauhar and Iqbal Ismail collared me into the P&B’s offices on the third floor of Rock Court and said that I should write for this marvelous magazine. And yes, no more aliases, put your own name. You should develop your own name and your own style. The counseling session had begun. Over a cup of black coffee, no sugar (a vice I had picked up in good ole US of A), these two gentlemen gave me a solid 75 minutes pep talk, interspersed with gems from their decades of journalistic excellence. They were very exuberant in their advises and talked to me as elders and at times as peers. They were specifically strong in their view that very few businessmen and industrialists write and those that do must do it with conviction and openly. The views of these people can make a hell of a difference in projecting what the business community really feels and desires. Industrialists, and I am one of them, must come out forcefully and speak what’s on their mind and what their agenda, aspiration, and anxieties really are. Silence may be golden but it will just be something one may not be able to cash it in the Saraffa Bazar.

Oh Oh. Wait a darn minute, I said. I’m really more comfortable if I take refuge behind a pen-name, since I can write more letters under different names, and it is lot better for the readers to read a new letter everyday, presumably, for them, written by different persons, but in actuality written by the same person, unless one is Barrister Baacha, who, no doubt, is in a class of his own.

I give a copy of each letter to a friend of mine who enjoys reading them in bed. His 12 year-old daughter told him the other day that she wished Uncle Majyd would write his own name, rather then coming up with pseudonyms. This advise I have been getting from my younger sisters too. My Begum gets peeved when I write articles and put her maiden name, instead of mine.

Anyway, you see that the distinguished Editors of this magazine are very persuasive and they have, within the spell of one year, made P&B something of a sensation. Their exclusive stories and their analytic sermons are worthy of reading and paying heed to. I like this magazine because it is on my wavelength.

And so, I have decided to write a column I am calling TIME OUT for this esteemed journal, not under any other name but in the name given to me by my parents and in the name registered on my birth certificate. Except, of course, the spelling. For the name is MAJYD AZIZ ......that’s with a Y, not I. Get it !