his is story of two students of the same school, of the same age, taught by the same teachers, then going on to the same college and, amazingly, after graduating going to the same law college in L ahore ... yet being so very different from one another. The drama is just beginning.

The finale has yet to come, though on the near horizon one can see, in fading clouds, the outcome. It was ironic that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, educated in St. Anthony`s High School of L ahore, was confronted in the highest court of the land by another Anthonian, the lawyer Naeem Bukhari. The cricketloving politician who loved to `bat` with a friendly umpire was facing a pretty decent former GC-Crescent Club`s swing bowler. Ironically he represented, legally only, the finest f ast bowler of the land. Naturally, bails had to rattle.

But though every Pakistani is a cricket fanatic, what interests me in this piece is how both Nawaz and Naeem had so very different values planted in their minds. One would expect given their educational path that there would be some convergence.

After all they went to the same school, are of the same age,ended up in the same college and to top it in the same law college.

Most of the time, they had the same teachers. Amazing coincidence.

The history of St. Anthony`s High School of Lahore is seldom told. But then the men who set it up do need a mention in a column on Lahore. The former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was `educated`, initially, at Lahore`s St. Anthony`s High School on Lawrence Road. He would come to school every morning with his two brothers on a brown `tonga`, which would wait outside for the final break to take them back home.

This was in its day the finest English-medium school of the city, and combined a strong tradition of learning the languages, the sciences, religious studies and sports in all its aspects. As we hear more and more not very nice news about this former `Anthonian`, it made me wonder just what went wrong. After all the Marist Fathers of Ireland who ran this school, all referred to as `Brothers`, were known as the most honest, upright and competent teachers of this `French-inspired` movement of Catholics that was opening schools all over the world.

The initial St. Anthony Day School was set up on Empress Road in 1892 in the `Peeli Khoti`.

It started with just four studentsended up in the same college and to top it in the same law college.

Most of the time, they had the same teachers. Amazing coincidence.

The history of St. Anthony`s High School of Lahore is seldom told. But then the men who set it up do need a mention in a column on Lahore. The former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was `educated`, initially, at Lahore`s St. Anthony`s High School on Lawrence Road. He would come to school every morning with his two brothers on a brown `tonga`, which would wait outside for the final break to take them back home.

This was in its day the finest English-medium school of the city, and combined a strong tradition of learning the languages, the sciences, religious studies and sports in all its aspects. As we hear more and more not very nice news about this former `Anthonian`, it made me wonder just what went wrong. After all the Marist Fathers of Ireland who ran this school, all referred to as `Brothers`, were known as the most honest, upright and competent teachers of this `French-inspired` movement of Catholics that was opening schools all over the world.

The initial St. Anthony Day School was set up on Empress Road in 1892 in the `Peeli Khoti`.

It started with just four studentswhile construction work on the new school building progressed.

The Lawrence Road school was completed within eight years in the year 1900, making it 117 years old today. It was dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, the `Patron Saint of Lost Things`.

Ah-ha. Maybe that could explain something.

A bit about St. Anthony of Padua. Born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal, he belonged to a rich f amily and became a teacher and preacher and moved to Padua in Italy. His preaching centred on the proposition that `unbridled love for the poor and the sick` is what all prophets from the beginning of time practiced. All religions profess this noble trait. The Vatican, always late on the up, canonised him only 71 years ago.

St. Anthony`s influence led to the creation of the Marist Fathers of Lyon in France in 1816 by Father Jean-Claude Colin, who sought people of all f aiths to be spiritual in their daily work.

This spirituality was to be reflected in extreme truthfulness and absolute honesty, and the medium was to be education.

As the Islamiat teacher of this school, Maulvi Munawaruddin, explained the Marist philosophy in Islamic terminology that `Iqra`, the very first word uttered by the Almighty to all prophets, was the `chosen` route for all mankind. The word `Marist` isderived from the French word `Society of Mary`, hence Marists.

As I was one of five Sheikh Brothers who also went to St.

Anthony`s school, my affection for it exists. So my information about not only the school, but also both the politician and the lawyer is pretty first hand, because all of us brothers followed them to the same college.

My interest, primarily, was in the `Brothers` who taught us, they being Brother Brien, Br.

Henderson, Br. Keely and others.

My search recently took me to Dublin in Ireland to look them up at Marian College on Lansdowne Road, Ballsbridge in Dublin.

Questions about my schoolteachers initially drew a blank.

But then they were kind enough to look up old ledgers and it was great to see their names up there. All of them belonged to different villages in Ireland.

Amazingly they belonged to different counties, they being Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught. These were the names of our School Houses. So our `Brothers` when in Lahore had a bit of their country with them. Major Shabbir Sharif, Pakistan`s hero-martyr, led Munster House and won all the prizes on and off the field. In the days of Nawaz and Bukhari, students virtually worshipped him.

He was like a Greek god, perfectin mind and body and, let me say, good manners. He was the true `Anthonian`. Amazingly his younger brother Mumtaz Sharif always came a close second. No one else stood a chance. The youngest Raheel Sharif was not in the picture then.

Once in Government College these two Ravian class-fellows certainly knew of and about the other, though they kept a healthy distance. Here enters in the picture a third Ravian, that being Justice Asif Khosa, who was one of four Khosa brothers, all of whom excelled in their studies. But our lawyer was more into the arts, debates and books. The political Ravian whistled his days sitting in Malik Sahib`s milk shop with his `merry tough friends` to put it politely. So the college had two Bukhari brothers, three Sharif brothers and four Khosa brothers, not to forget hve Sheikh brothers.

The lawyer and the politician both took `different` routes to pass their examinations. In Lahore`s law college, Naeem Bukhari excelled. Ironically at law college, Nawaz`s wife was there too and she was a `pretty` good student. So it must have been a bit of an irony when two class-fellows, from school to college to law college should be representing two very different traditions, one based on pride inknowledge and books and the other on power and profit come what may.

The Supreme Court`s Ravian judge`s reference to Mario Puzo`s best seller probably would be much better described in the writer`s own quote: `Never hate your enemy, it affects your judgement`. And it is f aulty judgement that brought our political Anthonian to a sorry pass. It seems the lessons of the Marist priest `Brothers` and the insistence of utter honesty anduprightnessjustdidnot make sense to one of the two. No wonder, and this is school legend, the political Anthonian never reached his final examination in school. But he managed to make it to GC and then to law college. He sadly had his `special` ways and means to help him along.

As we watch the final drama being enacted of these two famous Anthonian school-fellows of Lahore, it seems the call for `Iqra` seems to have affected them differently. Probably their school notice says it more eloquently. The words of Mary, mother of Jesus, written on its main building, just as it is written on the Marist Society building in Dublin, quotes the Bible (Luke 1.52): `The Almighty has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has also lifted up the humble`.