06 June 2004	Sunday	17 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, June 5: A recent Urdu novel by an award-winning Australian novelist of Pakistani origin has depicted a nuclear war between India and Pakistan that paves the way for a lasting peace between arch South Asian rivals.

"The novel is a strong desire for peace," says Ashraf Shad who lives in Sydney and is currently in Al Ain on a working assignment with the UAE University.

In Sadr-i-Mohtaram, an idealist president comes into power and turns President's House into a museum of political history and uses a small house as office and presidential residence. During three-years of his rule, Pakistan becomes a welfare state but in the end his army chief starts a military adventure that triggers the atomic war between India and Pakistan.

"Three prime ministers changed in Pakistan when I was writing Wazir-i-Azam," said Mr Shad in the beginning of his new novel. "The entire institution of parliamentary democracy was shelved when I was half way through the Sadr-i-Mohtaram, but it didn't affect the story as, unlike Wazir-i-Azam, my new novel is merely a fantasy," he added.

Mr Shad is a journalist by profession and has been attached with Australian public broadcaster, SBS Radio for the last twelve years.