Memoir of the Career of Thomas Edward Rogers [‎55r] (109/118)

SERVICE WITH PAKISTAN
Only six weeks after Independence did normal conditions return fully
to Quetta with the gradual abandonment of curfews, roadblocks at the city
outskirts and police patrols, and I could think of taking some leave.
My passport of the time suggests that the strain of the riots and their aftermath
had not abated my urge to find some means or route of travel outside the
ordinary. I had obtained visas to go home via Afghanistan and Iran -
a journey I had long wished to make as the return leg of the trip to Calcutta
from London by car I had completed in 1937 on first joining the ICS.
The war had prevented my going further than the Middle East on my journey
from Bandar Abbas to Cairo via Iraq, Syria and Palestine in 1943.
But the trip via Afghanistan had to be given up when a telegram came from
the Foreign Office calling me to London for interview. My only course
was to fly.
I went with no conviction that I wanted to join the Foreign Service and when
I was offered an appointment I did in fact decline it. On return to Karachi
I became a Deputy Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat dealing with
establishment and personnel. For me this was new work. I cannot say I liked
or had any flair for it. But I have never worked the less wholeheartedly
for finding a posting less than attractive and I knew the hard-pressed Government
of Pakistan needed all the help it could get. There was much to be done
m forming from scratch totally new cadres from thos Muslim (and a few non-Muslim)
officers of the Government of India who had been uprooted from their jobs
and homes to start a new life in Pakistan. A new Foreign Service was needed
to conduct diplomatic relations worldwide whereas the old Political Service
had only operated in countries bordering India. In that Service few Muslims
had served though more than Hindus because of the claims of the North-West
Frontier areas.