Privileged Witness: A Patriot’s Journey Through Partition and the Independence of Pakistan

The remarkable story of partition and the independence of Pakistan as experienced by the most senior officer of the Pakistan Air Force, Air Commodore Mohammad Khan Janjua. He provides insight into the events leading up to partition, the role of the British in destabilising the sub-continent, the annexing of Kashmir and a first hand account of the meetings that lead to the now infamous 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy case. Privileged Witness is an important personal account of the historical events surrounding the birth of Pakistan, and a valuable analysis of the legacy of colonial corruption and continued external interference in the aftermath of independence. I remember many hours of conversation with the late Air Commodore MK Janjua, Pakistan’s first air chief who, falling foul of his political masters, was falsely arraigned and sentenced in the 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy case, which allegedly was communist driven. A fellow prisoner, the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, in 1979 assured me during a visit to London that Janjua was neither conspirator nor communist, but a victim of events over which he had no control. He was eventually cashiered and released, and ended his long years of exile in London, where I came to know him well. - Premen Addy