One attraction of the diplomatic service is living in foreign lands; another, related attraction has to do with going places at the government's expense. I had served in the Foreign Office as section officer for over three years after having passed the CSSP examination. Now it was my turn to be posted abroad in some Pakistani embassy. Quite a few positions in our diplomatic missions abroad had to be filled, some having fallen vacant because of the defection of officers from East Pakistan which was now, in April 1972, a separate country called Bangladesh. For once, all section officers in line for posting abroad were interviewed personally and individually by the Additional Secretary Mr Salman Ali. In those days the Foreign Office used to have only two Additional Secretaries, one for Administration and the other for Political Division. Everyone aspired to get a posting to the US or Western Europe - the countries of the 'goras' - or some other advanced country. Some strengthened their aspirations by pulling strings. Others prayed fervently to God the Merciful. Success in both these categories was only partial. To which group did I fall? I'll leave that to your imagination.

Soon the orders for my posting to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) were signed and sent to the embassy in Colombo while more copies were ready to be cyclostyled for dispatch to all others concerned. (Photocopiers were not yet known in Pakistan.) I was disappointed at the prospect of spending the next three years of my life in a country not advanced by any means. But family and friends consoled me by pointing out that I would get excellent tea to drink. And it would be affordable for me to come home for the holidays, bringing Ceylonese tea gifts for my loved ones. Such consolations did not help much in raising my spirits.

And then, quite suddenly, lady luck smiled on me.

I was called by Director (Personnel) Khan Aziz A Khan who told me that there was a change in my posting and that I would now be going to Ankara instead of Colombo. I was delighted. Trying to figure out who had done me this favour so that I should thank him, I discovered that the change in my posting orders was made at the behest of the Foreign Secretary-designate (for the time being Additional Secretary-Political), one Mr Iftikhar Ali who had just come in from Turkey where he had been our Ambassador. Only a couple of days before that my immediate boss, Mr Abul Fazl (Director Arab Affaires) had called me on the telephone and told me to report to Mr Iftikhar Ali. The Foreign Secretary-designate wanted to see me in connection with the draft summary for the President which I had prepared on the subject of 'Palestinian Liberation Organizations'. (PLO Chief Yasser Arafat had asked for permission to open a PLO office in Pakistan.) And, after going up the ladder, my summary had landed at Mr. Iftikhar Ali's table.

Mr Abul Fazl, a knowledgeable and suave officer, said to me: "I do not know whether you will get appreciation or scolding for your work-just go prepared."

I presented myself before the big boss, although exactly at the same time I had to appear before Mr Salman Ali for an interview. Mr Iftikhar Ali asked me a few questions to test my knowledge of the subject and to verify the authorship of the summary. Since I was well-prepared, I was able to answer the questions to the satisfaction of the Foreign Secretary who expressed his appreciation. I was elated and pleased with myself. For me, still a junior officer, to have received such explicit appreciation from the top, was a matter of pride. And it made me even happier when I learned that the Foreign Secretary had not just praised but also rewarded me by changing my posting to a better station. I was happiest that it was merit and not the pulling of strings that had worked for me.

The Director (Personnel) gave me one week to reach Ankara. I pleaded for more time because I was still a bachelor and had to find a bride before going abroad. With much reluctance he gave me another week. How I pursued my mission to get married is a separate story that requires another occasion.

I reached Ankara by the due date and took charge of my post as Third Secretary, or 'Uchunju Katib' as it is called in Turkish. I was given the charge of consular and administrative sections. I was on job hardly a few weeks and was still finding my feet when an unusual duty fell to my lot. Ambassador Mr Anwar Murad summoned me to his office. Head of Chancery and First Secretary Mr SK Delhavi was also there. I was being assigned a mission. I was to quell a mutiny on board a Pakistani ship. It was the sailors of 'MV Shalimar' who had mutinied. The ship had been on its way back from the US and had reached Turkey and docked in the Mediterranean port of Mersin. The sailors, numbering about 75, had locked up the officers in their cabins, stopped their food supply, removed the gangway and were threatening to kill them. They let the captain Mr Mohammad Din get off the ship because they wanted him to call the Ambassador of Pakistan to tell him that they were not ready to serve with the ship's officers against whom they had many complaints. The sailors' demands included the removal of the officers from the ship and for a representative of the government of Pakistan to meet them and listen to their woes and demands. The captain of the ship had conveyed all this to the Ambassador on telephone. So the Ambassador and the Head of Chancery, presumably after informing the Government in Pakistan, decided to send me to the ship in Mersin to settle the matter.

I was given a detailed briefing and instructions such as these: 1) I had to be extremely careful in handling the situation because the sailors, according to the Captain, were highly agitated and could resort to violence; 2) I had to avoid any situation in which the sailors may take me as a hostage which would create an even more serious situation; 3) I was to accept any reasonable demands of the mutineers and then persuade them to let the ship sail to Pakistan because further delay would attract heavy docking fees. Besides, the wheat that the ship was carrying for Pakistan was badly needed there; 4) The RCD [Regional Cooperation for Development-the precursor of ECO] shipping headquarters in Istanbul had been requested to send a representative to join me in Mersin. (National Shipping Co. of Pakistan, the owner of the Shalimar, was a member of the RCD Shipping Co.); 5) The Governor and Police Chief of Mersin were being requested to extend all necessary assistance and support to me; 6) Captain Mohammad Din would receive me at the Adana airport and would take me to the ship some 50 kilometers from there.

My air passage to Adana, the airport nearest to Mersin, had been arranged. The staff car took me to Ankara's Esenboga airport. I had neither any training nor experience of dealing with such a situation. I did not speak or understand the Turkish language. I was equipped with nothing other than a pocket Turkish-English phrase book. I prayed to God for help and relied on my common sense and grit. But I was not nervous. Mr Delhavi, a smart young man who looked more a Turk than a Pakistani (he spoke perfect Turkish and French; the latter was his mother tongue), had contacted all the relevant authorities and had made excellent arrangements to facilitate my job.

I landed at Adana, a big city and cotton capital in the south of Turkey. Captain Mohammad Din was there to receive me. It was about an hour's drive from Adana airport to Mersin where we had to go and meet the Governor before going to the ship. During the one-hour drive the captain briefed me about the situation on board the ship. In response to my questions he informed me about the sailors' backgrounds, their complaints against the ship's officers, their demands and what they might do. He said that some half a dozen of them, who were senior in age and experience than the rest, were the real troublemakers. The captain seemed a bit shaken and was apprehensive that the mutineers may turn violent. From what the captain was telling me, I assessed that the sailors mostly came from poor urban families, had no known criminal backgrounds and were probably infected by the euphoria generated by the recent socialist slogan 'power to the people' of President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's Peoples Party government. Here I recalled a taxi ride from Islamabad to Rawalpindi. I had taken the taxi just a few days after President Bhutto had taken over. The talkative taxi driver was in very high spirits-the loss of East Pakistan did not bother him - and he was delirious at the advent of a golden age for the poor and the deprived of the land. Pointing to the rows of palatial houses along the Murree Road, he said to me: "All these will soon be ours." Now in Mersin, I said to myself, these sailors too were under the illusion of the coming of a socialist revolution in which they would be equal with the rich and the powerful. So their mutiny was a manifestation of their expectations of the things to come under the Pakistan Peoples Party government rather than any genuine complaints against the ship's authorities.

We went straight to the Governor's office. He received me with great courtesy - Turks in general hold Pakistanis in special regard. He had summoned the Police Chief and his other aides as well. We held the meeting in his imposing office. Captain Mohammad Din explained the situation on his ship. I informed the Governor that I had been assigned the job to settle the mutiny peacefully by reasoning with the mutineers so that the ship could leave Mersin port and be on its way to Pakistan. The representative of RCD shipping had arrived from Istanbul and was there to provide any transport that I might need. The Governor also assured me of his support and protection.

But he also cautioned me: Turkish police would take whatever action I would request if I felt threatened on Turkish territory, but under international law, if anything serious happened to me on board a ship belonging to Pakistan, the Turks' responsibility would be limited. The Chief of Police, attending the meeting, said he had armed policemen in sufficient number ready to move as soon as needed. The captain was of the view that armed policemen should not be seen by the sailors because if they sensed that the police was to be used against them they may turn violent. It was therefore decided that while I would board the ship with the captain and meet the sailors, the police chief would join us later if needed and all this time the armed policemen would stay close to the ship-hidden from view from above - and would wait for their chief's signal.

The meeting ended and captain Mohammad Din led me up the gangway to his cabin on the top deck of MV Shalimar. I wanted to meet and talk to the mutineers. The captain sent a messenger to the sailors' quarters on the lower deck, informing them about my arrival and asking them to come to the captain's office to meet me. Back came the response. They refused to come and demanded that I go to their quarters to meet them. The captain was reluctant to let me go down for fear of the worst. I said to the captain that I had no hesitation in going down to the sailors' place because I apprehended no threat from them. I was thinking: 'Why would the sailors harm me, or hold me hostage, without even listening to me?' So the captain accompanied me to the lower deck where all the 75 or so aggrieved sailors had gathered.

They were sitting on the floor; I was given a table and chair. To send them the right message I did not take the chair and remained standing throughout. I wished them in greeting, introduced myself and informed them why I had been sent to talk to them as a representative of the government of Pakistan. I told them that I would listen to all their complaints and grievances and would make sure that no injustice was done to them. For this I had the authority from the Government of Pakistan to do and promise whatever was necessary.

I also appealed to their sense of patriotism and emphasized the need to settle our differences amicably because the people back home were waiting for the urgently needed wheat and the ship had already overstayed in Mersin, resulting in heavy docking charges.. I then asked them to tell me their side of the story, which I would note down myself. One of them stood up and started speaking. I told him to wait for his turn and asked them to start from one end. Some voices said he was their representative and would speak on behalf of all of them. I said I would not listen to representatives only, because I wanted to let each and every one of them have his say. Some responded that this would take a long time and that all of them had agreed that only representatives should speak. I did not agree. I told them that I had come for them and would stay with them for as long as necessary, therefore I had all the time to listen to them individually. So I started from one end, asked the first man his name and noted down whatever was his complaint.

The whole thing must have taken about two hours. Some testimonies were very brief, and some men said they agreed with what others had said before them. Those who spoke at length with anger and emotions were the ones the captain had earlier described to me as troublemakers. After everybody had had his say it was my turn. I summed up to them their grievances, which were all against the ship's officers, who according to the sailors, drank and danced and made merry, ate the best and most expensive food, deprived the sailors of their authorized rations, gave them stale and substandard food and rotten towels and bed linen, and used abusive language for them. There was not a single voice of disagreement. I said that I sympathized with the sailors and was assuring them that in future they would be treated with respect and given all their due rights and facilities. I said I had already discussed this with the captain who had guaranteed that no injustice would be done to them. I had also talked to the officers who had pledged to abide by the code of conduct and not to give any cause of complaint. I would leave this in writing with the captain and also inform the government authorities. If the sailors still had complaints during their journey from Mersin to Karachi, action would be taken against the officers in the light of my report. I then appealed to them to prepare for their journey to Karachi.

The group's leaders said that notwithstanding my assurances they were not prepared to serve if the officers were not removed from the ship. I told them it was not possible, as they well knew, because a ship cannot sail without the minimum complement of navigators, engineers, etc. The spokesmen of sailors did not agree with me; the rest kept quiet. I then decided that we would have a short break of 15-20 minutes during which they could discuss the situation among themselves, consult each other and give me their final decision.

Everyone went out on to the open deck. I mixed with the sailors and talked to them individually. Some came to me separately and told me under their breath that they were afraid to speak against their senior colleagues who were creating this fuss otherwise they had no complaints-they were poor people earning livelihoods for their families and were happy with their jobs. By now the whole picture was quite clear to me. There were just about half a dozen among the 75 or so sailors, who had cajoled and pressurized others to follow them in raising a revolt against the ship's officers. The 'mutiny' was without much justification or force behind it. Interestingly, there were no complaints against the captain of the ship or about payment of the sailors' salaries and dues. Based on the information provided to me by the captain, and on my own interaction with all the hands on the deck, I made a list of seven ring leaders.

After the break was over I called everybody back into the meeting hall. I also alerted the police chief, who was waiting in the captain's office, to remain ready to join me along with his armed policemen, who had in the meantime come on board the ship unnoticed by the sailors. I asked the sailors about their considered decision. There was pin drop silence. One of the leaders (out of the seven) stood up and said they were not prepared to serve if the officers were not removed from the ship. Everybody else kept absolutely quiet. I gestured to the captain to call the police chief and his force. I asked the sailors to think again. But there was no response. By this time the police chief and his armed soldiers attired in their beautiful Turkish uniforms entered the hall. There was still no stir or commotion; even if the sailors were surprised they didn't show it.

I spoke again. I said that I had understood the situation very clearly. Only a few were behind all this trouble. The complaints were minor and mostly flimsy. Yet I had assured the sailors of addressing these complaints. I took out the list of seven troublemakers and said, "The person whose name I call will come out. One policeman will accompany him to his living room. He will pack up his belongings and will be led to the microbus waiting to take him to Istanbul." I read out the seven names one by one and a policeman each took them to the van arranged by the RCD Shipping representative. Nobody said a word or raised a finger. These seven were signed off the ship and were taken to Istanbul where they were to face a naval court.

The mutiny was over.

And the captain was relieved. It was now for him to take the ship to Karachi, which I understand he did without any further trouble from his sailors. The captain took me to my hotel close to the seaport, where I stayed for the night. I could clearly see MV Shalimar from my hotel window. And, before I went to bed, I saw it sail out of Mersin port on way to Karachi.

Nazar Abbas is a former ambassador of Pakistan