Malik Firoz Khan Noon studied at Government High School Bhera, from 1902 to 1905. There is some ambiguity regarding the year of establishment of High School in Bhera …. 1864 , 1882 or 1884), In 1905 , he joined Atchison College and remained there till 1912 . In 1912, he went to England for higher studies . ( Autobiography of Firoz Khan Noon , ” FROM MEMORY” ) .
I have written a bibliographic sketch of his younger brother, Colonel Muhammad Ali Noon, Armoured Corps. Those interested may contact me on Whatsapp (0317 5404161) or Email (sheikhzahidmumtaz@ gmail.com). Many more noteables studied at GHS Bhera, but it is difficult to mention their names. Students from far-flung areas attended in this school, as it had a boys’ hostel.
The school went to various phases, some pictures are shared below :
To be continued ………….
Zahid Mumtaz
Excerpts from the book, “From Memory” by Feroze Khan Noon, ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan. (He got his early education from Government High School Bhera).
I was born in the village Hamoka on May 7th, 1893, at 4 a.m. This is a village on the west bank of the Jhelum River, twenty miles down from Khushab and about thirty miles, away as the crow flies from our home village, Nurpur Noon. According to the family custom, my mother went to Hamoka to give birth to her first child in the house of her mother. Most customs have a good reason behind them. On an occasion like this, the presence of the mother with the young daughter must be a source of great courage and confidence. This must have been so in the case of my mother, who was only sixteen when I was born. The only religious ceremony for a newly born baby is that the Imam of the Mosque comes very soon and recites the call to prayers into the ears of the baby, “Allah is great and bears witness that Mohammad is His Messenger.” The child’s name is usually given by the eldest member of the family. In my case Malik Hakim Khan asked his young son Malik Sardar Khan, aged eight, what my name should be and, since a family guest, Raja Firoz Khan of Ahmedabad, opposite Bhera, had only recently stayed with Malik Hakim Khan, he liked this name, so he blurted it out and others liked it too and I became Firoz Khan and my mother added “Mohammad” to my name for good luck.
In 1902, my father decided that my brother Ali and I should go to school. Therefore, we were sent to Bhera town, ten miles away, where there was a public school like the grammar schools of England. It was financed by the government and went up to the tenth class. There was no boarding house, so we lived in a building belonging to Malik Hakam Khan Noon, the head of our family. His son, Malik Sultan Ali Noon, also went with us, and so did his grandsons, Malik Mohammad Sher and Gul Sher, from Kot Hakam Khan village. We used to come home on our ponies on Saturdays and go back early in the morning after I had picked up my uncle Sultan Ali Noon from Sardarpur Noon, a servant walking behind me shouted, “Snake, snake, snake.” My pony had stopped to urinate, and as it started walking, a snake was pulled out by a stick and killed. In the summer, many a bullock, cow, and buffalo were killed by snake bites when feeding out in the fields. Today, somehow or the other, we do not seem to see so many snakes.
My mother observed strict purdah, and even when I was at school at Bhera, only ten miles away, and fell ill with high fever, she did not come to see me. I was only eleven years old, and my father was away in service, and he, too, could not visit me for about thirty days. Eventually, he did come, and I was happy to see him and recovered quickly thereafter. I probably had typhoid fever and must have been on my way to recovery after thirty days when my father came, but in my childish mind, the reason for my recovery was that my father had come to see me. It is a pity that nowadays, many parents lead such busy lives that they do not have much time to see their children while they are at school. Typhoid is a terrible disease, and I am talking of 1902-1905, but I am sorry to say that conditions are not much better today.
The streets of Bhera town were narrow and dirty with open drains, and the latrines were on the roofs of houses, and so is the case even now after fifty years. We have to thank the Almighty for giving us the hot sun, which kills a great many germs. The sub-soil water of Bhera town is sweet, and most people have wells in their houses for drinking purposes, so epidemics are not easily spread through infected water. There are so many germs we come in contact with in one form or another that we develop immunity, which is not the good fortune of the Europeans who come out East.
Not far from our village is a village called Sheikhupura, near Bhera Town, where the hakims have been famous for generations past. ….. …. …
Zahid Mumtaz