By SHAHEEN SEHBAI

How many times has a beautiful and charming Hollywood super star asked a Pakistani to turn around at a public place because she would like to give him a shoulder massage?

And how many times can it happen that two globally known and respected public figures like former president Bill Clinton and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan turn up to disrupt that massage, because they are guests of the same Pakistani.

And what does it mean when a Pakistani finds himself at the centre of all this action in a city and a country where every Pakistani-American is looked at with suspicion, as if he is a suicide bomber, a plane hijacker, a terrorist or at least a first cousin of all of them.

All this and much more did happen last Friday, December 8, in the 9/11 city of New York when the Pakistani-American president of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), created waves by organizing and holding the most successful ever annual ball of the association, bringing together not only the outgoing UN Secretary General but the incoming one as well, Mr Ban ki Moon.

The UNCA is the apex body of all journalists posted at the UN from around the globe and has acquired the distinction of being the conscience of the world, with every top leader mercilessly questioned by its members, whether he be Jacques Chirac, Hugo Chaves, Ahmedinejad or General Musharraf. It has about 300 members dominated by those from the west and Japan. But 25 Arabs, 10 Chinese, four Russian and three Pakistanis besides one or two from almost every country make up its general body. Three Pakistani journalists, Iftikhar Ali, Azim M Mian and Masood Haider have been elected as presidents, with Mr Haider elected unanimously for 2006.

Haider, with years of journalism at the UN behind him, was the key organizer of this year's annual ball and when it was proposed by him that he should invite both Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon, most UNCA members were skeptical that a Pakistani could actually pull off the event. There were so many protocol hurdles to overcome including huge egos of UN officials. But when Haider added Bill Clinton to receive UNCA's Citizen of the World Award for his work as UN Secretary General's special envoy for Tsunami, everyone, particularly members of the western press, feared that he would fall flat on his face.

At a time when every bit of news in the US media about Pakistan is either negative or devastating, the fear of the UNCA journalists was grounded in reality. It was thought that a Pakistani would not only drag UNCA to the ground, his presence may embarrass even UN officials. But Masood had big plans and the bigger support of his colleagues who had elected him unopposed last year but wanted him to contest the election again for 2007, which he had declined.

UNCA thus invited not just Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan and Ban-ki Moon, celebrities like Angelina Jolie, the star of "A Mighty Heart" and Julia Ormond, the British super star of films like "Legends of the Fall" (opposite Brad Pitt) and "Sabrina" (with Harrison Ford), who admired Fidel Castro, is now appearing in a film on Che Guevara and is also a UN's goodwill ambassador.

While Angelina could not make it, Julia flew from Los Angeles especially for the event and it was she who offered to massage Masood Haider's shoulder when he received her for the event at the UN. "Why are you so tense, what is wrong with you?" she asked the UNCA president. She was told that it was a tension filled job to handle people like her and 300 world journalists at the same time.

"Turn around," she ordered and when Masood did, she started to give him a shoulder massage. It could not last long as soon Bill Clinton and Kofi Annan arrived. Clinton must have felt an immediate sense of jealousy seeing Julia give Masood a shoulder rub but he was also the guest of the UNCA president.

Everyone including Annan, Ban ki Moon, Clinton and Julia were in high spirits and in an expansive mood. Masood welcomed them all, calling Kofi Annan a diplomat of diplomats. "This is a momentous occasion," he said. "We are meeting on the eve of the change of the United Nations' leadership from a son of Africa to a son of Asia."

His words for Clinton were equally generous. "Your policies and programs made you exceedingly popular in the US and you still maintain your popularity. But your hard work and travels to the difficult, Tsunami-battered areas endeared you to the peoples of the world. Indeed, you were the angel of mercy for the traumatized people. You touched the lives of millions of people in south-east Asia. They will certainly miss you when you leave the humanitarian assignment early next year."
 

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