Note: This article was written in early 2011 as a short introduction to the life and work of Aslam Effendi and was included in the book, Hard Facts of History, by Aslam Effendi that was published in February 2011 by the Alternate Solutions Institute.
It was back in March 2002 that I came to know about Aslam Effendi sahib. Vincent H. Miller (died 2008) of the International Society for Individual Liberty (now Liberty International), USA, made a revelation that there was a free marketeer in Pakistan, and he lived in Islamabad. He introduced me to him. I wrote him, and he was happy to know that there were a few other free marketeers in Pakistan also.
In June next, I went to Islamabad to see him. He was very old, but vibrant with the Spirit of Liberty. We had hours and hours of discussion about his work, Libertarianism, Anarchism, Anarcho-Capitalism, and the ways to promote the philosophy of liberty in Pakistan.
He told me he had written two books: How to End All Wars Forever and Hard Facts of History. He told me he was in the process of completing another: Economics for the Confused. He asked me to find a publisher for his books.
Effendi sahib’s first book is How to End All Wars Forever. When he failed to find a publisher for it, he spent out of his own pocket to get it published. Someone took up the task and produced a badly printed book. The cheat fleeced him and printed his own photo on the back of the book. Effendi sahib had to pay once again to remove it. As there was no distributor, the book remained dumped and could not find its way to the market.
He was a bit disappointed and said, ‘Well, isn’t it strange that there is so much talk about the importance of human freedom, so much talk about human rights, so much talk about world peace, and yet it is an irony of fate that a book that, with the help of historical facts, tries to provide down-to-earth solutions to these problems has to wait 10 long years to find a publisher?’ He valued his second book, Hard Facts of History, very highly. It was completed in 1992. He dubbed it as a ‘unique book,’… “probably the first book of history of its kind, a book that presents history from a completely new angle.” Out of his three books, he wanted Hard Facts of History to be published first for the world market, for, in his view, this book could help bring peace in a world torn up with conflicts and wars.
In 2003, when I founded the Alternate Solutions Institute, Pakistan’s first free market think tank, he was very elated and suggested to me many ways that could help us in promoting its cause. He just couldn’t believe that after a few months of its founding, the Institute published its first book of translation, Ken Schoolland’s “The Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey,” in Urdu. He was extremely appreciative of the work of the Institute and pinned his hopes of a Free Pakistan on it. I gave him the promise to publish all of his books and other works, and he wanted me especially to translate his books into Urdu.
After that, whenever I happened to go to Islamabad, I used to stay a day or two with him. He used to talk about his years spent in the US and how he met various thinkers of the Libertarian movement. He proudly remembered Robert Le Fevre (1911-1986) as his teacher, as an ‘intellectual giant,’ and as ‘one of the greatest, if not the greatest, authority on Individual Liberty.’
He used to write me letters and wished me to visit him. But it could be possible for a couple of times only. The last time I went to see him was for about an hour. He was bedridden and very weak; he wanted me to stay, but I could not. I promised to visit him once again, and I would be staying with him then and discussing our plans for the promotion of free market ideas in Pakistan.
And, lo, it was the morning of February 20, 2006, when I received a message from his only son, Asim Effendi. Effendi sahib had departed. He was 81. It was stunning news for me. We were now without a great free marketeer. But he left us with his great work: his books, his articles.
Effendi sahib was born on June 5, 1924, at Srinagar, Kashmir. He studied at Lawrence College, Murree, and at St. Joseph College, Baramulla, Kashmir. Then in the mid-1940s he joined Aligarh Muslim University. Later he went to the US for higher education in 1945 and got his diploma in physical medicine from the Swedish Institute, Chicago.
Effendi sahib is an Afghan by birth. He was the son of late Afghan prince Sardar Abdur Rehman Khan Effendi. In 1919, his father was thrice offered the throne of Afghanistan because of his anti-Communist views, but he declined. His family produced five prime ministers and ten kings. His great-grandfather, King Dost Muhammad Khan, is considered by historians as the second greatest hero in Afghan history after the Emperor Ahmad Shah Durrani.
He founded a society for the rehabilitation of handicapped children in 1948, and it was he who first identified polio to be the main cause of disability in Pakistani children.
He also represented the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in Pakistan and assisted Lord Russell with his peace program and the International War Crimes Tribunal, which was set up to mobilize international public opinion to try US president Johnson for his war crimes in Vietnam.
In addition to his three books, he wrote numerous articles that were published in national and international journals such as Reason, Chicago Gazette Telegraph, and other freedom periodicals.
Aslam Effendi was a multi-dimensional personality: among other things, he was a practicing manual therapist, copywriter, pamphleteer, broadcaster, debater, orator, watercolor painter, columnist, free thinker, and Libertarian philosopher. During his last days, he had devoted himself only to writing on the theme of individual liberty. No doubt, he was an uncompromising advocate of personal freedom.
Khalil Ahmad