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I was introduced to Rasheed Hasan Khan by the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This was in October 1967. Mr. Bhutto, I had learnt, was staying at the newly built Dacca Intercontinental. I had his room number, I called and was asked to come up. At that time Mr. Bhutto was discussing the name of the party ready for launch, and he assured a local politician Mr. M. R. Khan that it would not be denominational. On that they shook hands, Mr. M.R. Khan left and Mr. Bhutto suggested that all of us assembled in his room go down to the coffee bar.
There arrived Mr Mairaj Muhammad Khan and Mr. Rasheed Hasan Khan, who were staying at the older, but still very prestigious Shahbagh Hotel. Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did the honors. I was doing my B.A. (Hons.) final year at the University of Dacca. My subject was Islamic History and Culture. This did not cause him any curiosity because the majority of the East Pakistani politicians who joined the Pakistan People's Party were ulama led by Maulana Nur-uz-Zaman. This I discovered later was of some concern to Rasheed Hasan Khan.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (still a devotee, I find it difficult to over-orientalize his name)had introduced me upstairs to Mr. J.A. Rahim, and Mr. Suleman who was later reported as having seen an U.F.O. among others who were too many to remember. In 1965 Mairaj Muhammad Khan had been elected President of the National Students Federation; by 1967, Rasheed Hasan Khan had taken over. It was then that a SinoSoviet split took place within the N.S.F. also. Rasheed Hasan Khan headed the pro-China faction and the pro-Russian faction headed by my father's first cousin,...