Col SG Mehdi was born on 24 December 1921 in Karnal, East Punjab to Mir Khaslat Hussain and Ejaz Fatima. He was the eldest of 8 siblings. 4 brothers and 4 sisters. His given name was Mohammad Hussain and as was the culture in those days was also given another name, Syed Ghaffar Mehdi, by which he was and is known. His family were part of the Sadaat e Baarha of Barsat and Bidoli in India, or the 12 Syeds. These Zaidi Syeds, through Abul Farha Wasthi, are directly descended from Hazrat Zaid Shaheed, hence the name Zaidi, the younger son of Imam Zainul Abedin, and grandson of Imam Hussain.
Everyone said he was a voracious reader devouring history books. As his sisters narrate he was also a sickly boy and one day got beaten bad at school by a Sikh class fellow. He vowed to come back next year and take revenge.
As the story goes his father, our grandfather, engaged a professional wrestler for the grand sum of Rs 5 per month to tutor young Mehdi in the art and science of wrestling and to beef up his muscles. And but of course the poor little Sikh boy didn’t know what hit him when they next met! Such was his determination, his hallmark which has been his badge all his life.
As a young student in March 1940, he travelled with the Quaid e Azam from Ferozepur to Lahore hanging outside the Quaids compartment along with my later father-in-law to be Syed Nusrat Hussain Zaidi, his childhood friend, where the Quaid was to make his historic 23 March Address.
Later he joined the army in 1941 and fought in the 2nd World War in Burma. On 14 August 1944 Agha wrote to the Quaid e Azam on his Regimental letter head, donating his 26 acres of prime agricultural land to the Muslim League given to him in lieu of his Military Cross for Valor in Burma in the 2nd World War.
In Pakistan Military Academy He was specially selected by the first Commandant Brig. Ingall to become its first adjutant. As adjutant, he famously did his rounds, not on foot but on his horse!
He then became founder Company Commander of Qasim company in PMA. Many of Pakistan’s Army’s future generals were cadets who “passed out” the Military’s strange way of saying “graduated” from the Academy under the stern gaze of “Killer” Mehdi. Lt. Gen Fazle Haque, later Governor of then NWFP, Lt Gen Salahuddin Abbassi later Governor Sind, Lt Gen Rahimuddin, later Governor Balochistan were among the few I can recall now.
He was the only officer till 1950 to have been given a Distinction in his Staff College Course in Camberley, England.
While one can recount countless tales of his incredibly colorful professional life, one incident when he was a Major and G2 Plans in the SEATO (South East Asian Treaty Organisation) secretariat in the mid 1950s is worth narrating.
He was a most active and sought after speaker inside and outside Pakistan on his areas of expertise and extensively delivered talks and lectures in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, UK, USA, Canada.
He was a great advocate of a people’s Army concept much like Israel of a small core of highly professional fighting unit and universal conscription in time of need and war.
He was completely against the Military’s involvement in politics and civil governance and wrote extensively on the subject especially during Zia’s rule.
He believed that by keeping a small standing army we could divert precious funds towards economic development, thereby making us even stronger. And with universal military conscription similar to Israel or USA we would also address our security concerns, especially concerning India. He wrote a very powerful treatise on the subject titled “A Nation at Arms”.
