In the Line of Humor

One person will be mourning the death of Sidney Sheldon, who died this year, more than anyone else in the world and that is none other than the Pakistani Military ruler General Pervez Musharraff. I mean come on where will he get any more ideas and inspiration to come close to his first literary venture, “In the Line of Honor”.

I read the whole book sitting uncomfortably in one of the bookstore on my two consecutive weekend trips. The book read was more out of curiosity per se’ than my endorsement to the literary talents or thoughts of Mr. Musharraff. Now before you think that I am going to slam the facts and thought presented in the book all through this write-up, I really have no intention of doing that. I loved reading the book but for different reasons and have mixed reactions towards it, the following are some:

General Musharraff (– the person) – The first few sections of the book talks about the childhood of Musharraff and revolves around his education in Turkey and in Pakistan. There are few sections which also talks about his entry in the Pakistan Military Academy and his rise within the military ranks. Although you get a high dose of self indulgence by the author, one has to give credit to the man for what he has achieved. Pakistan have had its share of devious politicians, corruption embedded in its government machinery (including military), religious extremism etc but to grow up from humble backgrounds to the stature of being the President of the country, you got to give some credit to the man, i.e. Musharraff.

Musharraff – the reformer – Pakistan does look like a different country today than it was ever before and there is no denying to that fact. Musharraff has been spot on in marketing his country on the world stage. A country which was on the verge of being declared as a rogue state has been able to bounce back and on the recovery. He has managed well to keep religious extremism at bay and had gone the moderate way on empowering women, initiating infrastructure development projects, reforming madrassas etc. The book has details about many other reforms which he has promoted, which more looks like items right from his resume, the ground reality of many is definitely in question.

Facts of wars – So here’s how it goes…….1965, 1971, Kargil conflict……the reason for the wars…..India’s aggressive attitude and its attack on Pakistani soil. Offcourse this is the Pakistani version of things as narrated by Musharraff and I am pretty sure we as Indians have an altogether different story to tell. Do you and I know the truth??…..I don’t think so. The military buildup around the Indo-Pak border is always heavy and the intensity of the situation, who gets on the offensive first, who got maximum casualty, this all will always have a different version dependent on whether you are Pakistani or Indian. It is for sure that we don’t and won’t ever get the full story.

Story of assassination attempts – I am just guessing who will be first, Vikram Bhatt or Sanjay Gupta, to read the book and utilize the assassination plots from the book into their movies. I bet they don’t even have to twist dialogues around. The events as narrated in the book are exhilarating and edgy. Take for instance a situation, a plane carrying Musharraff and his wife which has fuel worth only a few flying minutes left is refused to land in Pakistan and how the Pakistani military gains control on ground and stage a coup d'état and save their future President by getting the plane land just in time. He is definitely in the line of fire.

Lashing out on India – I think being the President of Pakistan this is part of his job role. He didn’t leave any opportunity in the book to talk ill about India. One of the things I do remember from the book and he mentions that post the failure of the Agra Summit, he was not allowed to speak to the press and he claims what sort of a free country is this where people’s questions are remained answered. Well whatever may be the reasons for not letting Musharraff speak to the media, the Indian government definitely didn’t wanted him to gain any ground by presenting his side of the story…..I guess fair enough. Just on the question of freedom of press and the people’s freedom of choice, we certainly know that very recently a Pakistani media company people were physically abused by the govt. for capturing the police brutality during the protests against firing of Pakistani Chief Justice.

Pakistan and US – Pakistan is a fragile country and no one knows this better than the US. All culprits of the 9/11 event had some or the other links to Pakistan. The US is stuffing money into Pakistan to keep their footing there and monitor things on their own. In a sense the US is making things easy for Musharraff as well by keeping a check on religious extremists and pro-Taliban groups who are definitely a big threat for Musharraff.

His future role and future of Pakistan – He talks about a lot of stuff he wants to do but who knows what is in store for Pakistan. Musharraff has no guarantee that he will stay on the job. There have been many assassination attempts and who knows his luck may run out sooner than he thinks. Pakistan has a troubled history when it comes to politics and the agenda of the whole nation seems to change as soon as a new group comes to power. It would be really foolish to predict where Pakistan is headed....let's just wait and watch.