Champion for the South

Abdus Salam, or Abdus, as we used to call him in the South Commission, may have been recognised only now by his parent country, Pakistan, but it is to the credit of Julius Nyerere, the former president of Tanzania, and later Chairman of the South Commission that Salam was invited to become a member of the South Commission (1987–90).

I was so fortunate, as Salam and I became friends. He would yearn for India and Pakistan to be friends, and often rued the fact that the two countries were so hostile to each other. This desire to see India and Pakistan as friends was so much a part of the emotions of many expatriate Muslim men and women, as for example Ismail Mohamed, the first chief justice of post-apartheid South Africa.