Mustafa had also developed close connections with Hamid Dawood Habib, Managing Director of Habib Sugar Mills, Nawabshah.
Mustafa was the Deputy Commissioner of Nawabshah when he was abruptly dismissed from the Civil Services by the Martial Law Administrator, President of Pakistan General Yahya Khan on December 2, 1969. He was conveyed this terrible news, that he was relieved as Deputy Collector when he and Vera were having lunch with Hamid Dawood Habib at the Habib Sugar Mills, in Nawabshah. Mustafa's dismissal from the services was because of his publicised, known affairs with one of the assorted girl friends' of General Yahya Khan namely Shehnaz Gul.
Mustafa Zaidi was born on October 15, 1930, in Allahabad, pre-partition India.
City is on the confluence of India's towering rivers Ganges and Jumna. Allahabad is known for the avant-garde, cultured, erudite, spoken and written Urdu language. Allahabad is where Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, studied, lived his formative years. Father Jawaharlal and daughter Indira spoke chaste Urdu. Following his abrupt dismissal from the services on December 2, 1969, Mustafa Zaidi moved from Nawabshah to Karachi, with his Austrian wife Vera and son Mujtaba and daughter Ismet. They stayed at the Sindh Club. Differences evoked between Vera and Mustafa, over his ongoing romance with Shehnaz Gul. Facts are Shehnaz Gul was enamoured by his poetry and participation in Mushairas. A month before his untimely death on October 12, 1970, he was in the forefront of the Mushaira, regaled in his dress suit and matching bowtie, with Shehnaz Gul, seated in a chair on the stage. He had spell-bound his listeners in Nishtar Park what was then known as Patel Park. That got Shehnaz Gul closer to him who had a yearning for Urdu poetry. However, Shehnaz's keen interest in Mustafa further estranged his wife Vera. Her husband was without a job and remunerations, perquisites of a senior civil servant. To make ends meet, expenses of the couple, son Mujtaba and daughter Ismet in the Sindh Club, Vera secured employment as a Translator from Urdu to German/English in the Austrian Consulate of Karachi. Vera had picked up reading and writing Urdu from her husband Mustafa. In the Austrian premises, timings were long.
Translation work was demanding for Vera, Pakistan was adrift in a War. During the fortnight of September 1970, Vera abruptly separated from the poet, resigned from her job in the Austrian Embassy and flew out from Karachi to Vienna. She was very angry, had taken exception and was profoundly hurt, with Mustafa's libertine ways, flagrant and open indulgence with a woman. Vera had taken their children Mujtaba and Ismet, intent that they should continue their education in Vienna. Vera confided to her fellow German Ruth Shaffi and Mustafa and Vera's close friends Eddie (Ahmed) Dada enough was enough and that she could take no more of this flaunting by Mustafa. Alone and with Shehnaz hovering over him, Mustafa left the Sindh Club and shifted to the guest house of Ahmed Peerbhoy in the K.D.A. Ahmed Peerbhoy was a reputed playboy, divorced from his wife Ayisha, from whom he had a son Mahmud and daughter Samira. Rumoured had it that Ahmed Peerbhoy was carrying on with an Anglo Indian wife of a Sindh politician.
In the late sixties and early seventies, Ahmed Peerbhoy's firm Peerbhoy Cotton, ranked among the largest exporters of Cotton, in the Karachi Cotton Exchange. Ahmed Peerbhoy was described by columnists of the local press as the best dressed man of Karachi's diplomatic and social circle. His younger brothers, Rafiq and Amir had the very, lucrative dealership in Pakistan of Datsun Motor Cars. Showroom was on Mcleod Road now styled as Chundrighar Road.
Ahmed Peerbhoy and the Deputy Collector of Customs' Oil, Abdul Harris who had shared the Platform of delivering Mushariras' with Mustafa Zaidi's in Patel Park, had managed to remove Mustafa's name from the E.C.L (Exit Control List), knowing of his yearning to follow his wife Vera to Vienna. 303 Senior Officers were marginalized by Yahya Khan in the notorious Martial Law Order No 58, promulgated on December 2, 1969. Establishment referred to it, as the three naught three, Ordinance.
Among the Officers rusticated, was my good friend Akbar Adil, Secretary of the Planning Division. They were restrained from travelling out of Pakistan. Mustafa was the exception. He was allowed to proceed to Vienna.
A lavish farewell on coming October 15 1970, thirty ninth birthday party, for Mustafa Zaidi for ten invitee couples of the key club with drinks flowing freely was given at Nasreen Ball Room, of the Inter Continental Hotel by Ahmed Peerbhoy and Maria, on the night of Saturday, October 11, 1970. Of course in the absence of his Austrian wife, Vera, Mustafa's escort was the beautiful Afghan woman, fair, light skinned, Shehnaz with blue eyes, slim figure, auburn hair and very good looks. She was in her early twenties, fifteen years younger than the thirty-nine-year-old scholar Mustafa. Shehnaz had captivated the poet, with her domineering manner and abrasive irreverence. Mustafa had become slavishly dependent on Shehnaz, to the point he was frightened, nervous of her in public. Meanwhile, there had been a patch up between Vera and Mustafa, offices of their mutual friends Edie Dada and Bob Odho, paternal grandfather of the actress and T.V. anchor Atiqa Odho. Mustafa Zaidi was scheduled to fly to Frankfurt en route to Vienna where his wife Vera, wanting an amicable relation for children Mujtaba and Ismet was to receive him at the Vienna airport. Vera had found Mustafa, a Professorship in Allama Iqbal's Heidelberg University. Mustafa was a linguist, fluent in German and French. He was a Junior Professor in the Government College of Lahore, when he took his C.S.P. Exams, where he compiled his masterpiece on Keats. Mustafa Zaidi passed his Civil Services Papers, with, distinctions, flying colors, for his excellent penmanship in English and Urdu. Razor-sharp bureaucrat, his last posting was as Deputy Collector, Nawabshah, where he struck a warm friendship, with the Industrialist, Banker, Philanthropist, inordinately, well read intellectual, Hamid Dawood Habib, Managing Director of Habib Sugar Mills. Hamid Dawood Habib's hobby was to play golf and horse-riding. He read as many books as possible, in his magnificent library, at his K.D.A. Residence.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 11th 1970, & SUNDAY, OCTOBER, 12th 1970
I am stating Ahmed Peerbhoy's version detailed, of the untimely death of Mustafa Zaidi that was related to me in our Hotel Columbus Lounge, when Pakistan lost its eastern wing, on December 16, 1971. Ahmed Peerbhoy described, morning of October 12, 1970, tables were empty and the Nasreen Ball Room Night Club deserted. Ahmed Peerbhoy and his guests had moved from Nasreen premises to the Demitasse now known as the Marco Polo Restaurant. Shehnaz Gul, Mustafa Zaidi, Maria and Ahmed Peerbhoy were served breakfast in the Demitasse. Shehnaz suddenly screamed at Mustafa. "You only care for yourself. Six months you stay and sleep with me, and now you want to go back to Vera. Don't you have any feelings for me!
You only feel for yourself. Big problems when I have to get back to Salim and our two daughters. I have to adjust to their maltreatment and ridicule." In the presence of his host Ahmed Peerbhoy and his hostess Maria, half drunken Mustafa, drawled: "I don't want you to be happy in your home!" Shehnaz retorted: "Go to Hell. Never again will I desire to have this affair with you. Did you ever think we would part with a happy note after the time we spent together? You are now leaving me with problems!"
"You are fighting with me," asserted an angry Mustafa rising from his chair. He thanked Ahmed Peerbhoy for the party. Mustafa was scheduled to fly to Frankfurt and then to Vienna by Lufthansa in a ticket arranged by Vera from Vienna, in course of the third week of October 1970. Shehnaz made the sarcastic observation to Ahmed: "I don't want him. We meet again so that he can enjoy with me and then go back to the churail Vera." At the Hotel Inter Continental foyer, Maria and Ahmed Peerbhoy wished Shehnaz and Mustafa Adieu. Appearances suggested that they had made up. Thereafter, in the early morning hour, Shehnaz and Mustafa drove from the parking lot in the car of her husband, Salim Gul to Ahmed's guest house in K.D.A.
Later in the evening, of October 12, 1971, Ahmed got a call from Maria that Mustafa Zaidi had expired, due to the mix of alcohol consumed in the Inter Continental and potent aphrodite of the local Hakims he had been known to take. Maria was at one time a medical student and a former P.I.A. airhostess. Ahmed said, she correctly diagnosed, Mustafa must have had a massive heart attack, due to the co-mingling of aphrodite drugs and alcohol. He was dead, expired in deep somber, before Shehnaz could get medical help. Ahmed telephoned Mustafa's brother Irtiza in Islamabad and his close friends Hamid Dawood Habib and Mahmud Shirazi in Karachi. Foul play was then not suspected over his death, and it was assumed, he died of an overdose of drugs. However, two days after the funeral on Monday, October 13, 1970, Vera arrived in Karachi from Vienna. To appease the widow Vera, Mustafa's brother, Irtiza filed an F.I.R. against Shehnaz Gul and had his brother's remains unearthed from his grave for a post-mortem. Nothing incriminating was found on the vesicular tests. However, Police went ahead and arrested, Shehnaz on criminal charges of murder. She was remanded, on a non bailable warrant, and sent to Karachi's Central Jail.
There was a murder trial. Ahmed Peerbhoy engaged his friend, top criminal lawyer, Sher Mohammed Sheikh, Sheroo to his friends, for the defence of Shehnaz Gul. Shehroo worked very hard and burnt the mid-night oil, in pleading the case against the prosecution. In exonerating Shehnaz Gul under Article 265-K, benefit of doubt, Sheroo relied on the legal adage "the glass was half full of water or half empty." Evidence could not be substantiated. There were no witnesses to the crime. Shehnaz Gul's trial had been happily concluded for her, husband Salim and two daughters, the elder one nicknamed Brooke Shields in her Grammar School, for her expertise in swimming and winning all the trophies in her schools Free Style Competition.
Shehnaz Gul was declared a free woman. Mustafa Zaidi murder ended in a blind FIR. People's Party Government attained power in January 1971. Dreading imprisonment on trumped up charges, Ahmed Peerbhoy, quietly slipped out of Karachi, migrated to London, bought a posh apartment in Knightsbridge, London. Ahmed Peerbhoy passed away due to cardiac afflictions, complications. Maria was by his bed side in St. Thomas Hospital when Ahmed Peerbhoy expired during October 1976. Expatriate Ahmed Peerbhoy was buried in the Wolking Islamic Cemetery. Ahmed's grave is next to that of the historical figure, Sir Suleman Jetha, President of Muslim League of England. He received Jinnah at the London Airport in the first week of December 1946 when the Founder attended the Round Table Conference with Nehru, Atlee, and Mountbatten. Earlier, Ahmed Peerbhoy got the bad news from Karachi that his once flourishing Cotton business and related Cotton Ginning Factories, established by his father Hassan Ali Peerbhoy, were nationalised by the Bhutto regime. Taken over under the Agrarian Reform Order of July 17, 1976.
KHURASAN BAGH
I am at Mustafa Zaidi's grave in Khurasan Bagh at least once a week. I reach the eternal abodes of my father, mother, elder sister Mumtaz, brother-in-law's, Arif and Yusuf bhai, etc I then saunter past the poet's burial site. My thoughts for the great poet are solidified, will prevail, whether they are good or bad. I recalled Mustafa Hussain Zaidi's trial. Prosecution charged, allegedly, he was murdered by his insanely jealous mistress Shehnaz Gul on Sunday, October 12, 1970. The motive given, he was bent on abandoning Shehnaz in Karachi for his wife Vera, son Mujtaba, daughter, Ismet in Vienna. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" Shakespeare's proverb quoted in English papers. Shehnaz had pre-empted that resolve of Mustafa, by allegedly poisoning him. A much talked, printed subject of the early seventies.
Known as the Keats of Urdu Literature, his brother Irtiza assessed, just like Keats, Mustafa's life was an epitome of tragedy. His promising career in the bureaucracy had been cut short by Yahya Khan on December 2, 1969. Subsequently, nine months thereafter, in September 1970, his wife Vera had left him with their son and daughter for Vienna. Be that it may be, Irtiza told me, Mustafa did not wallow in personal tragedies, for he was conscious of adversities and pitfalls which is the destiny of mankind. For sure, maintained Irtiza, his brother Mustafa would have made a success of his academic career in Heidelberg.
Last time, I met Irtiza was in Khurasan Bagh on the evening of Sunday, April 10, 1988. He was now a grade-22 Officer and Member, Sales Tax, of the Central Board of Revenues. I was leaving for London on the morning of Tuesday, April 12, 1988 with my father, sister Munira, brother-in-law Arif, nephew Abbas Ali, our family Doctor Khalid Mitha for the amputation of my eighty-two-year-old Papa's Gangrene infected right leg at the Cromwell Hospital. Sunday, April 10, 1988, besides my Mama and Mustafa Zaidi's graves in Khurasan Bagh, Irtiza and I prayed for the early recovery from amputation, well being of my Papa. Of course, we talked of Mustafa's immediate family. Unfortunately, the son Mujtaba had died in a road accident in Munich in 1983. He had already written to me about this terrible happening, regretting he could not be close to the son of his brother Mustafa. Irtiza proudly narrated Ismet had grown into a beautiful young lady. She had married an Austrian. They had two daughters the youngest Malice was exceptionally pretty. Ismet had come with her husband, their two children, to Islamabad after the death of her brother Mujtaba, to condole with Irtiza, his mother, wife and family. Irtiza added that Ismet had also gone to Karachi, with the solitary purpose to visit the grave of her illustrious father, Mustafa in Khurasan Bagh. She took her spouse and two daughters, along to the cemetery. Mustafa's widow Vera had married again.
She had come from Vienna to Karachi, the day after the murder of Mustafa but had never returned to Pakistan, because it revived memories of his death. The poet's indiscretions with Shehnaz caused all-round troubles, given unhappiness to Vera, children and Mustafa's immediate family.
Sunday, April 10, 1988, at Khurasan Bagh, even Irtiza was convinced Shehnaz Gul was not in any way responsible for the death of her lover Mustafa. Irtiza told me, we can never know and argue till the end of time, how my brother Mustafa died.
Mustafa Zaidi passed away on Sunday, October 12, 1970. Forty two years there after, Friday, October, 12, 2012, I was on my routine visit to the graves of my parents, sister, brother-in-laws' Seth Mahomed Ali Habib, etc. I noticed a dozen men, women, clustered around the grave of Mustafa Zaidi. Forty two years after his tragic demise, the timeless poetry of Syed Mustafa Hussain Zaidi, has established a following among the younger generation who seem awed by the depth of his brilliant Urdu lyrics and enamoured by his shairi. The legacy of Syed Mustafa Hussain Zaidi is revived in his brilliant couplet:
"If you desire to see me, You will have to cross a rock strewn pathway, There, won't be a luxurious garden, Adorning my abode, along the wayside"