PRESIDENT General Pervez Musharraf should not have written a book at this stage of his life. And if he felt compelled to put the pen to paper, he could at least have asked for assistance from a better gang of ‘ghosts’ — perhaps poltergeists would have served him better.

He has chosen as his title ‘In the Line of Fire.’ Now, he joined the army voluntarily and knew the day he did that he ran the risk of being shot at and even killed in the line of duty. In the latter event, he would have earned the title ‘shaheed,’ he would have joined the ranks of the many martyrs.

However, the deed is done, the book has been published and launched and none other than the most powerful man in the world has recommended that it be bought and read. The biggest headline hit was the recounting of what US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage allegedly said to ISI chief Lt-General Mahmud Ahmed in Washington after 9/11 and what Ahmed repeated to Musharraf. President George W Bush, the Genuine Article, the real ‘Jungle ka Badshah’, at that stage could well have conveyed an even a stronger, blunter message.

Musharraf, trained as he was, lost no time in taking the right decision. He read Bush and his administration correctly. In any case, should we not have taken on the fundos, the terrorists, the extremists, all of ‘God’s Warriors,’ rather than let a bunch of dangerous bigots ride roughshod over us?

When the general was asked in Washington whether he felt insulted by what Armitage supposedly said, he responded like a shrinking violet and termed the remark ‘rude’. He should have said that he had read his ‘friends’ correctly and did not want to see what is left of Pakistan bombed to smithereens.

What has become known as ‘the storming of the Supreme Court,’ that incredible incident that took place almost eight years ago, on November 27 1997, is not forgotten, nor is it put behind us. In his book Musharraf has given it a dishonorable mention in three places — and quite rightly too. It must never be forgotten; it must be recorded in bold capital letters in the history of this country and in the annals of its judiciary.

“We even saw political workers, parliamentarians, and officeholders [Q Leaguer Mushahid Sahib amongst them] of one prime minister physically assault the Supreme Court of Pakistan ..”,

“.... there was open and utterly unseemly conflict between the prime minister on the one hand and the president and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the other. As had become the norm, both sides dragged in the army chief to arbitrate. President Farooq Leghari tried to get the chief justice to claim that the constitutional amendment [14th] was unconstitutional.

“If the chief justice had done this, the president would have dissolved the National Assembly and dismissed the government of the errant Prime Minister Sharif. The prime minister convinced certain judges [ we must wonder how] to take his side, and they passed a resolution against their own chief justice. Then the prime minister got his party goons to storm the Supreme Court building while the court was in session ...... This was, to put it mildly, a very low point in Pakistani political history.”

“After emasculating the president, he [Nawaz Sharif] tried to make the judiciary subservient to the executive, taking on the chief justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah, and even going so far as to get his party’s shoddy political storm troopers, many of them parliamentarians, to physically attack the Supreme Court Building. The honourable judges had to hide in their chambers to escape a thrashing. The entire sordid episode was recorded by the security cameras in the Supreme Court building. In the battle that ensued between the prime minister on one side and president and chief justice on the other, the army chief — now General Jahangir Karamat — was again asked to intervene as mediator...”.

The general puts it aptly and succinctly : ‘a very low point’ indeed and a ‘sordid episode’ that epitomises the ‘democracy’ of the 1990s.

Well, at least I have had some fun with the book. Initially, I bought ten copies to present to my more colourful friends whose line of thinking is, to say the least, conspiratorial. I always feel for those they decide to help.

The expected responses were received : six said they did not want to read the book, whereupon they were told it would be given to someone else, at which they jumped back by saying no, no, now you have bought it for me I may as well read it. Four put it differently and told me clearly that they would not buy it but that if presented with a free copy, they would deign to accept it.

Now, may I suggest that the general concentrate on undoing the wrong done firstly by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, which he has listed in his book and which is still with us as well as the manifest wrong done by Ziaul Haq which is frighteningly alive and blighting many lives.

Good luck to him.

E-mail: arfc@cyber.net.pk