Musharraf, Advani wore the same colours once

Earlier this month, the school, located at Saddar here, had a very important visitor. Old boy Gen Musharraf had turned up with his mother and daughter for a reception held on the school grounds before hundreds of students, teachers and staff members.

The only teacher the General remembered was Todd. And he went to see the place of detention where boys were taken to be caned and told Todd that the discipline instilled in him had held him in good stead when he joined the army.

Todd says the students of his school are known for their hard work anddiscipline. "When they set their minds to something, they usually put everything behind it," he says. Many of the teachers remember Musharraf to be a quiet boy who kept largely to himself and stayed out of trouble.

Along with Musharraf came other old Patricians which included Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, the Sindh Governor and the Karachi Corps Commander.

But the one among the illustrious alumni that the school is missing is Advani who spent 12 years at the school and left after completing his matriculation. His name figures prominently in the list of old students who have made a name for themselves kept at the principal’s office.

Staff members recall that Advani nearly made it in 1999 when Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rode that bus to Lahore. He is reported to have told the PM: "Aap Lahore jaaye, mein Karachi jaoonga (You go to Lahore, I will go to Karachi).

If he indeed turns up now, he won’t find many teachers who had taught him. The only one who has been around since the ’50s is Todd. Another aspect that could strike Advani is the fact that girls are also being admitted now, albeit only in the senior section A’ level classes.

Karachi has a number of elitist schools but St Patrick’s stands out because of its special mix of boys from all backgrounds, in terms of affluence and religious and ethnic backgrounds.

Its former students who have rose to prominence are mostly from the middleclass and have made it more because of their hard work than their families’ clout, as in the case of schools like Aitchison in Lahore and the more upmarket Karachi Grammar School.

Muhammad Khan Junejo, former Pakistan prime minister, was a ward of FatherTodd when he was just a junior teacher at the school. Long after his death in the early ’90s, Junejo remains the most respected prime minister in the country’s post-Zia political history. But there are exceptions, one being Asif Ali Zardari, an old boy whose prominence had little to do with his hard work.

And the others too have forgotten the one lesson that the school imparted with so much zeal: The ability to live in peace amongst people of different backgrounds and to tolerate each other in the spirit of brotherhood.