Rich Pakistani Friend of Mujib Is a ‘Refugee’ Here

By Joseph Lelyveld

 Jan. 4, 1972, New York Times

Yusef Haroon, the head of one of Pakistan's wealthiest families, has decided to regard himself as
a “refugee” here. His refuge is an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment with Italian marble floors,
gilded Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture and an art collection that Includes numerous miniature
paintings and illuminated Korans once prized by Mogul emperors.

What makes this refugee noteworthy is not any pathos in his circumstances but the fact that he is
one of the last West Pakistanis still able and eager to claim the friendship of Sheik Mujibur
Rahman — the Bengali leader whose detention in Rawalpindi is one of the major pieces of
unfinished business of the Indian‐Pakistani War.

Indeed, that friendship was one of the few vital links between the two wings of the nation that
has now come unglued. The leaders of West Pakistan didn't often seek the confidence of Sheik
Mujib,, but when they did, they sought it through Mr. Haroon, who has been a cabinet minister,
ambassador and, very briefly in 1969, the Governor of West Pakistan.

Paid Salary to Mujib

Although they were always In opposing political parties, Mr. Maroon kept Sheik Mujib on his
payroll for 15 years as director of an insurance company he owned in East Pakistan. When the
military Government put pressure on him to dismiss the Bengali leader, he refused. And
whenever Sheik Mujib was put in jail, Mr. Haroon continued to pay his salary to his family.

Last year Mr. Haroon was Sheik Mujib's major financial backer in Pakistan's first democratic
election, putting up $300,000 in rupees. Before doing so, he recalled the other evening, he went
to President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan and told him of his intention.

“Yahya said he saw no harm in my helping Mujib,” he said, “because he had intelligence reports
that Mujib's party could never win more than 40 or 50 per cent of the seats in East Pakistan. If he
had thought Mujib might win, there never would have been an election.”

Sheik Mujib's party won nearly all the seats from East Pakistan, giving him a majority in the new
national assembly and a strong claim on the premiership. But President Yahya postponed the
convening of the assembly and held negotiations with the Bengali leader on the composition of
the new government

“Yahya's my friend,” said Mr. Haroon, gesturing to a signed picture of the former President in a
silver frame on an end table. “But he played a very deep game. He didn't want those negotiations
to succeed.”
When the negotiations failed, the army was sent against the Bengalis Of, East Pakistan and Sheik
Mujib was arrested and charged with treason. Mr. Haroon said he was “more than certain” that
Sheik Mujib did not become interested in independence for East Pakistan “until Yahya backed
him up against the wall.”

“His ambition was to be Prime Minister of Pakistan,” he declared. If Sheik Mujib had been
allowed to achieve that ambition, Mr. Haroon said. “Pakistan would have survived for the next
50 years.” It didn't take the arrival of Indian troops in Dacca to persuade Mr. Haroon that the
dream of a united Pakistan had been killed.

“I lost hope as soon as the crackdown took place,” he said, “as soon as Mujib was arrested. I
knew that was the end of the road.”

It was then, he said, that he decided to regard his temporary exile here as permanent. In between
trips to Pakistan, Mr. Haroon has been working here as an executive with Pan American World
Airways and the Lauriat Corporation, an investment house. He specializes in dealing with
Moslem governments in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.

If he had been in Pakistan this week, his passport would have been impounded on orders of
President Zulfikar All Bhutto, who succeeded General Yahva Dec. 20. The new President
forbade members of the nation's 22 wealthiest families to leave the country, purportedly to check
flight of capital.