Faheem was one of the first people I befriended in early 1971 on my return from my graduate studies in the States, a friendship that survived till he breathed his last. The reasons go much beyond our common interest in physics and physics education and even our common associations with the Physics Department of Quaid-e-Azam University and the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, places where we frequently met. Perhaps the main reason was that we both were greatly influenced by the Black and the anti-Vietnam movements in the States and the broader anti-establishment student movement of the sixties.
When I returned from the States Pakistan was going through its worst existential crises due to the split electoral mandate of the elections that were held soon after East Pakistan was devastated by a cyclone in the of Fall 1970. I had raised and sent some relief funds for the Cyclone victims just before my departure from the Sates and was feeling very uneasy about the army action against the Bengali ‘separatists’ that looked imminent. Even a very senior physicist colleague I greatly respected, and still respect, argued with me that if East Pakistanis want independence then they had to fight it out. If I recall correctly Faheem was the only academics I knew who was against such action.
Since many other colleagues, who are more familiar with his teaching and research will be talking about that aspect of his life I will mainly confine myself with his concerns for the welfare of the common man.
I was not particularly convinced of any positive outcome of the roti-kapra-makan slogan; however the events leading to the elections of 1970 had raised many hopes and galvanized many to struggle for ushering in a people-centric system of government in the country. It was through Faheem that I met some of these people in Rawalpindi-Islamabad and beyond, who were serious in translating this program into a reality. It didn’t take long for Faheem in persuading me working with him. Faheem hosted most of the meetings and provided ideas and offered his own time and money. His own simple living and his spirit of caring for and sharing with others whatever he had served as an example for others to emulate. His American wife, Jan, fully supported all his efforts, who besides being an excellent host actively participated in the discussions and related activities.
Asghar has already referred to Faheem’s keen interest in teaching beyond the class room. He, together with colleagues from QAU and PINSTECH, arranged weekly seminars on contemporary physics topics to motivate students and teachers of colleges round Islamabad in studying physics and often himself volunteered to give talks. It was through one of his talks in this series that I first learned about Thomas Kuhn’s famous work on ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’. More recently he very kindly agreed to come all the way to GIKI, Topi to give lectures on basic physics and interact with students of National Physics Talent Contest, who were selected to represent Pakistan in International Physics Olympiad. He was always very supportive of this program whenever I used discuss it with him during my visits to Trieste, Italy.
As already mentioned by many friends, Faheem was always a man of principles and willing to fight for them even with his friends. About two years ago I was on a search committee with him, Asghar Qadir and some other professionals. After a lot of deliberations and heated arguments, mostly led by Faheem, the Committee agreed on a candidate. The Board, for some reason, wanted me also to be a candidate. On hearing this Faheem wrote me a very blunt letter asking me not to agree. He argued that as member of the search committee for that post it was unethical for me to be considered for it.
He told me about his cancer soon after he was diagnosed during one of my visits to Trieste. He was very calm and least worried about it. In fact soon after that he drove me to visit a common friend of Pakistani origin living an hour drive from Trieste, who was also diagnosed for cancer. Both of them were so jolly and unconcerned about their ailment that one could hardly imagine they were suffering from this dreadful disease. His early treatment looked very successful and we almost forgot about his illness. Last year when he didn’t return from his visit to Trieste, where he had gone for routine check-up, like his other friends I also began to feel concerned. He, as usual, kept forwarding e-mails sharing his concern about the massacre in Gaza and the human rights violations in Pakistan and elsewhere without any mention of his own condition. The last e-mail exchange I had with him, as mentioned in Rinku’s article, was hardly a few weeks before he breathed his last. I tried to talk to him after Pervez’s SMS about his critical condition but alas it was too late. He was already heavily sedated and I could only talk to his son, Nadeem, just a few hours before he passed away. In him we have lost not only a personal friend but also a friend of the wretched of the Earth, an exemplary teacher, a great physicist and a great organizer, who always put other’s interest before his own.
