Following my column of June 17 'Give him a fighting chance' and subsequent columns in which I complimented General Pervez Musharraf I have been under verbal fire from my friends, acquaintances and from known and unknown web surfers via e-mail.

Why am I supporting a military man? was the grouse expressed. My simple answer is that I would support anyone, in or out of uniform, who makes an effort to live in peace and to coexist with Big Brother India. One friend who fired a verbal rocket is self-appointed goodwill ambassador of Uzbekistan to Pakistan Haji Mohammad Aziz Alex Haji Dossa, another my evergreen friend, perennial politician Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro.

Alex was very angry. He sent me a letter accusing me of being a 'lifafa' journalist and of having accepted an envelope from Musharraf. So I called him over to share with me the contents of the envelope in question. Needless to say, he was apologetic explaining that he had been overcome by the heat of the moment.

He was most distraught over another matter and asked if I had read his letter in Dawn on July 1, 'Killing of a doctor', which indeed I had. According to statistics maintained by the Pakistan Medical Association, of the 64 doctors who have been murdered in Karachi since 1995, 59 were killed merely because they happened to be Shias. Four of these Shias, Doctors Mohammed Hussain Dhevjani, Abdul Kassim Jiva, Sibtain Dossa, and Mahomad Raza Pirani, were Alex's friends.

Pirani was gunned down on June 26 in the midst of busy Soldier Bazaar. Alex had just condoled with Pirani's pregnant widow and four children. He asked, "Why don't you ask your friend Musharraf to find the assassins rather than allowing them to cross our northern border and join their friends the Taliban ?" With sad eyes he watched my sad-eyed English Basset hound, Humphrey Hasdrubal, my Virginian Jack Russell terrier Bopp, his New York mate Billie, my Australian sulphur crested cockatoo, Sardar Benjamin, and my Bath Island cats Tessa and Tobie, all romping around together and drinking water from the same bowl. They are from four different continents but all have been brought up in Pakistan. They are intelligent and tolerant. They have no Sunni-Shia Deobandi-Barelvi problems. Aziz left with the hope one day in this country Shias and Sunnis will be able to learn to live together in harmony, each respecting the other's beliefs, differing but not killing.

Ilahi Bakhsh attacked me in his chaste Sindhi accent, "How can you support an unelected army man?" "Can beggars be choosers?", I asked. "Look at what we have on the ground as leaders. On the one side is the extremely corrupt Benazir with her even more corrupt husband, the remnants of Nawaz's PML who call themselves the like-minded lot abandoned by the corrupt but still hopeful aspiring Ameer-ul-momeneen, and the obscenely corrupt Chaudhrys. On the other, we have Musharraf and his medals and the baggage he carries with him. Which would you have?" Without hesitation, he said, "The last option." "So, then, what are we arguing about?", I asked, "What are we waiting for? A 'farishta' from heaven riding a white charger?" All he could do was to hum and hah.

An irate young Parsi woman, after reading my column 'Dastur-an-Dastur', launched another attack on me for being wrong in my title. She maintained that Dr Narriman Maneckji Dhalla was not a 'dastur-an-dastur' (a high priest of high priests) and the only 'dastur-an-dastur' we Zoroastrians of the sub-continent have had was Dasturji Meherji Rana (1510-1591). I asked her had she ever met Dastur Dhalla to confirm from him whether he was or was not a 'dastur-an-dastur'. Of course she had not. She was barely born when he died. Had she asked him, he would have told her it mattered not a whit.

The Moghul Emperor, Akbar, was wont to hold discussions on religion with the priests and scholars of the different religions in India. Meherji Rana, the most learned Zoroastrian priest of the time, was invited to Akbar's court to participate in one of these sessions and Akbar was so impressed by Rana and his clarity of expression that he made him a permanent member of his court. History records that Emperor Akbar summoned to his court crowds of learned men from all nations, and sages of various religions and sects, all of whom were honoured with private conversations. According to Akbar, "The superiority of man rests on the jewel of reason." He invited representatives of all the religions in his Empire to a conference, pledged them peace and issued edicts of toleration for each cult and creed. As evidence of his own neutrality he married wives from the Brahmin, Buddhist faiths as well as from his own faith. The Emperor took no stock in 'other-worldliness' and accepted only that which could justify itself with science and philosophy.

A tale is told of Akbar and Meherji Rana. Rana had his own chair, reserved for him at the Emperor's darbar. A time came when at several successive darbars Akbar noticed that Rana's chair was vacant. Worried that he may have hurt his feelings in some way, he sent for Rana. He asked him if he had somehow upset him. Rana said, 'no, of course not, you have done nothing. But I am tired of sitting and listening to flatterers and their non-stop flattery'. Akbar accepted his reason, and asked if there were anything he could do for him. 'There is one thing', said Rana, 'just one thing. Send for me every six months or so, summon me before your full court, ask me to approach you and then whisper in my ear. Any old nonsense will do, just as long as everyone notices you are confiding in me. Just that will ensure that I will remain unhindered and live in peace and comfort.'

Now we jump five centuries. Musharraf heads a country, the woes and ills and setbacks of which he cannot cure. It will need at least 20 years of strife-free existence under good leadership for the country to return to zero point. His sincerity is not in doubt. He is now making an effort to coexist with India, to live with it rather than against it. He is going to meet a man who was born on the same day as the official birthdays of Issa of Nazareth and of Mohammad Ali Jinnah of Pakistan, and possibly also of the exiled, disgraced Nawaz Sharif.

If age brings with it wisdom, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was born in the Year of the Lord 1924, has a head start of 19 years over Musharraf. Musharraf will talk to a man who describes his profession as 'Journalist and Social Worker'. Vajpayee has been the editor of the monthly magazine 'Rashtra-dharma', of the weekly magazine 'Panchajanya' and of two daily newspapers, 'Swadesh' and 'Veer Arjun'. He has been elected eight times to the Lok Sabha, and has been prime minister of his country twice. The first term was from May 16, 1996, to May 31, 1996, during which few days he also held the portfolios of external affairs, chemicals and fertilizers, civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution, coal, commerce, communications, environment and forests, food processing industries, human resource development, labour, mines, non-conventional energy sources, personnel, public grievances and pensions, petroleum and natural gas, planning and programme implementation, power, railways, rural areas and employment, science and technology, steel, surface transport, textiles, water resources, atomic energy, electronics, Jammu and Kashmir affairs, ocean development, space, outer space and beyond.

From 1996 to 1997 Vajpayee was leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and as of March 19, 1998, has again been prime minister.

Commando-Gunner Pervez Musharraf is our president, our chief of army staff, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, and the country's chief executive. He started professional life in a military academy and has reached the summit of his career.

Both men are sincere in their quest for peace. The sun does not rise and set in Kashmir alone. We must all wish them success.