As we celebrated the 44th independence anniversary of the UAE, I recalled my days in Abu Dhabi in early 1970s when I was part of the contingent of active service officers from Pakistan Army seconded to Abu Dhabi Defence Force for facilitating their independence. The above caption was the title of an article written by me in 1971. It was published in the Newsletter of the Abu Dhabi Group of Professional Engineers, of which I briefly acted as the President. The elected president of this professional body had resigned and had handed the charge over to me till the election of a new president. This gave me an opportunity to reflect the plight of a category of labour in the construction of Abu Dhabi at that early stage of development when it still depended on pick and shovel manual labour through the prestigious monthly Newsletter.
I used to travel daily from the city to my office in the Air Wing of Abu Dhabi Defence Force located in the old airport complex. On my return trip in the afternoon of boiling hot desert temperatures I used to observe workers from Pakistan busy doing pick and shovel labour laying the foundation of what would eventually rise from the desert as a beautiful city in due course. I often stopped by to pay tribute to their toil and always found them in spirits that were always sky high undaunted by the toughest working conditions. About a kilometre away from the construction site beyond the built up area in loose sand was their tented camp with one signature sign that stood aloft everything else and that was the green and white crescent Pakistani flag.
Their camp was so isolated from any other form of life that it appeared they lived in total freedom and privacy. A few times I walked through hot and deep sand to their camp and met some of the residents. They were invariably Pathan tribesmen from Northern part of Pakistan and did not have official work status, passports or visas. They were the only hardy people that worked on brick and mortar in 50 degree hot desert conditions. There were other workers from many countries doing softer labour as sale persons, technicians, house servants etc, and were seldom exposed to outdoor vagaries of weather. Talking to the camp residents I realised that they were providing a service to the Emirate that money alone could not buy, it was a combination of their pluck and hardy nature and fierce independence that enabled them to withstand the tough working conditions. But the system exploited them unjustly for not having the regular work status and their daily wages were about one third of the regular wage levels. They survived by their camaraderie and lived as a close-knit family co-operative. They would support the unemployed and share their earnings for meeting the urgent needs of one and other. Done with day's hard work, they would walk back to their freedom camps and frolic with Pashto songs repairing in spirit the physical attrition suffered in the day's work. Bigger the camp, deeper was it located into the empty sand and taller would be the pole of their signature flag.
Moved by their plight and spirit, I wrote that article in that prestigious Newsletter and it luckily came to the kind attention of the benevolent Ruler, Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who gave his blessing for the grant of regular work visas to them.
Before the independence of the Emirate and emergence of the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan had established a Trade Commission in Abu Dhabi, which became a precursor to the Embassy of Pakistan, after their independence. I was given the acting responsibility during the absence of the Commissioner for Hajj, and the Commission Office issued hundreds of hand-written passports to the Pathan labour on an emergency footing by taking volunteers to help fill the copies, which were expeditiously granted the Abu Dhabi work permits on the kind direction of the Ruler. This led to a gradual improvement in their working conditions especially the wages. In the specific niche of construction work they had no competition and they appeared inevitable for their role.
Looking behind over 44 years, it is now difficult to relate to their work at the foundation of Abu Dhabi development. I also recall the malis (garden workers) invariably from Pakistan who played a pioneering role in turning the desert into the eye-catching greenery of today. The white sand of the island would eventually grow into lush green luxuriant parks and meadows in due course. Flock after flock of common birds were hauled from Pakistan and released by these malis in the green parks for creating a living habitat and building a natural food chain. The birds bridged the two lands as a common habitat.
I also recall the pioneering role played by the early batches of active officers seconded from Pakistan Army, Navy and Air Force towards building the Emirate's defence capacity for achieving and sustaining the Istiqlal (independence). Being a member of this group I was the first ever Liaison Officer between their Land Force and the Air Wing for operational co-ordination. I got the unique opportunity of organising the training of officers within Abu Dhabi for conducting air to ground communications and controlling combat aircraft in support of the ground forces. Before that effort the training was always conducted abroad.
In addition to my formal duty, I was also officially appointed as the Emirate's (horse) Polo Liaison Officer and Regimental Riding Officer. The riding and polo facilities were mostly utilised by the British officers and their families as they provided the bulk of officers' strength. It was after great persuasion that some young local Abu Dhabian officers took to pre-polo riding but few got to the game stage before I moved back to Pakistan.
I remember vividly the first military parade marking Istiqlal celebrating the independence along the Cornish Road in Abu Dhabi with Shaikh Zayad taking the first salute of the Abu Dhabi Defence Force on December 02, 1971. Recalling just one instance from numerous substantive and important ones, Abu Dhabi needed to induct a squadron of modern jet fighters urgently and based on the advice of the Pakistan Airforce decided to buy Mirage-III fighter planes. They contacted the French authorities but were disappointed to know that they could not get the planes in the needed timeframe. The Mirage Plant was busy manufacturing Pakistani planes. Considering the urgent need of Abu Dhabi Defence Force, Pakistan allowed the French authorities to divert the already manufactured 22 Pakistani planes to Abu Dhabi to enable them to meet their urgent need. Abu Dhabi then financed the next deal for manufacturing the same number of planes for Pakistan a few years down. This kind of deep brotherly cooperation in myriad areas of their fledgling establishment was a common pattern of the time. Pakistan Airforce then established the Mirage maintenance support facility, seconded trained Mirage pilots, trained local pilots and made their Air Wing a potent battle worthy force in a short time of couple of years.
Pakistan government and Pakistani expatriates did their best to nurture the newly born country from a seedling to a strong sapling. It is, therefore, a great feeling of assurance to Pakistan that the UAE is emerging as a strong and prosperous member of international comity. I hope the future historian will do justice to the role played by the workers, professionals, diplomats and military officers from Pakistan in the annals of the country's formative history.
I was there in Abu Dhabi from January 1971 to May 1973. Before I got there, we found it difficult to locate Abu Dhabi on a regional map of but as I left it in 1973 it had emerged as a new and promising country. Its continuing progress and growing from strength to strength is very rewarding and satisfying for all those Pakistanis that contributed to its Istiqlal and gross root development in the early 1970s. In some humble way some of its roots were tended by us at a time when going to the Sooq (market) in the town meant bringing home shoes full of sand with bags full of shopping! Long live the brotherly United Arab Emirates!"
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