Hearing of the death of Lt. General Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan has lost a very great man. US General of the Army George C. Marshall’s greatest compliment was to call someone a “soldier, scholar and statesman.” MAD, as I called him, more than met those standards. He exceeded each while adding grace, dignity and integrity to how he could be described.
MAD was among the most honourable gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He was always, as the late Senator John McCain appreciated, a straight talker. As ambassador and later National Security Advisor, he could always be trusted and was a man of his word. Born in Abbottabad in July 1941, from early days, MAD had distinguished himself. Graduating from the Pakistani Military Academy in 1961, he won the Sword of Honour as top cadet in his class. He went on to serve in the cavalry. We first met when he was Pakistan’s ambassador to the US in 2006 and immediately formed a deep and lasting friendship. MAD had served here before as Defence Attache from 1977-82, then returning to Islamabad to become Military Secretary to General Zia al Haq, who, in addition to being Army Chief, was also Chief Executive of Pakistan.
Of General Durrani’s books, India and Pakistan: The Cost of Conflict and the Benefit of Peace best reflected his views on how reconciliation could be achieved.
Commanding the First Armoured Division in August 1988, MAD presided over the test firing of the new M-1 Abrams tanks Pakistan had received at the Tamewali Range with General Al Haq, US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and US Defence Attache Brigadier General Herbert Wassam present. On the return flight, their C-130 transport crashed after takeoff. While the investigations determined the crash was due to mechanical failure, not uncommon to the C-130, assassination plots abounded. One was called the case of the Exploding Mangoes, as the bomb was allegedly placed in the crate carrying the fruits.
MAD served as Chairman of the Pakistani Ordnance Factories Board from 1992 to 98, retiring that year. He went on to serve on advisory boards in which he was determined to repair relations with India. Of his books, India and Pakistan: The Cost of Conflict and the Benefit of Peace best reflected his views of how reconciliation could be achieved. His Indian friends called him General Shanti, which means peace.
As readers will not know, I was very close to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. We had met in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when she was at Radcliffe at Harvard and I was at graduate school. In the early 2000s, we resumed that friendship as she was in the process of making a return to Pakistan. In September 2007, against the advice of many, including me, she returned. On Christmas Day, we had an extended phone conversation about her progress. Two days later, she was murdered.
One of the issues we had discussed was her intention to make MAD National Security Advisor, an appointment I could not have more strongly supported. After her death, her husband Asif ali Zardari took the reins as head of the Pakistan People’s Party and was then elected president in September 2008. He had asked me to advise him, and I became a frequent visitor to Pakistan.
Friction between President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani was an issue. In April 2008, MAD was appointed National Security Advisor. As there was no set of requirements for that position, incredibly, he was at the computer while we both authored what the responsibilities of that post would be. MAD frequently shook his head, remarking that it “was inconceivable that an American and Pakistani could be doing this!”
This was a difficult time in US-Pakistani relations. Just before Christmas 2008, President Zardari hosted a dinner at his residence. Senator John Kerry, MAD and I were present. At that dinner, we devised a plan that would have dramatically altered the US-Pakistani relations for the better.
Without MAD, the plan could not have worked. That and the assassination of this paper’s owner, Salman Taseer, were two of the greatest tragedies, along with Benazir’s death, that I sadly experienced in Pakistan.
Rest in peace, my great, great friend MAD!
The writer is a senior advisor at Washington, DC’s Atlantic Council and a published author. He can be reached on Twitter @harlankullman.