Saeed Rashid

At the age of four years, four months, and four days the tradition of Bismillah was performed. Then a sickness delayed his studies for six months, thus the formal beginning of his education was roughly in the sixth year. This included the study of Qaida i Baghdadi, Aamd Nama, Quran, and Raah i Nijaat (a book of Ethics). For Primary Education he attended Kotwali. From 4th to Intermediate class he studied at Islamia Inter College Bareilly. This school was the product of Syed Ahmad Khan's educational movement.

In his youth Bareilly was the center of the Pakistan Movement. Along with the Muslim League many political parties were in motion. There, he listened to the leaders of Congress Party, Nehru and Gandhi. He also attended the addresses of Attaullah Shah Bukhari and Zafar Ali Khan. In 1942, he finally had the opportunity to hear Quaid-e-Azam.

In 1949, after taking his exam for MA Previous Urdu he enrolled in Teacher Training College, Aligarh Muslim University. Although well acquainted with Aligarh, formally this was his first year there. He now had teachers such as Zakir Hussain, Hadi Hassan, Ghulam-us-Sayyadain, Rasheed Ahmed Siddique, and Hahib-ur-Rehman. He took special inspiration from Syed Ahmad Khan's mission and the Pakistan Movement which were enriched in this environment. When he topped university's B.T. exam it was thought very likely he would get a PhD scholarship in United States, however, his teacher Ishrat Hussain advised him that his destiny would be in Pakistan, not the US, and that he should not be carried away by the glitter of civil service. He told him that Pakistan needed teachers rather than officers, and that nations were made and broken in schools. Saeed Rashid followed his advice and came to Pakistan.

On 22 June 1950, he joined the Military College Jhelum. In the 1950s he was associated with Fine Arts Cultural Center. There he wrote and produced plays. From 1950, for several years he was associated with the editorship of the college magazine Tarbiyat (training). From 1965 to 1968 he was the library officer. From 1967 to 1985 he served as the House Master for Shair Shah House. In October 1974, he was appointed Director of the Research and Development Cell and in 1991 he became secretary of Alamgirians Society.

After retiring from Military College Jhelum in 1990, he joined Army Public School Jhelum and Mangla Cantt and served as its principal from 1990 to 1994. Afterward, he was director of Tameer-e-Millat Institute of Education and Research Islamabad and Director of Sultana Foundation Department of Character-building and Pakistaniat, Islamabad.

He died on 19 June 1999 at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Rawalpindi, after a protracted illness. He was 73 and left four daughters and two sons.