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« Neglected news stories? | Main | More on James Brown » Thursday, December 28, 2006Musharraf speaksThe new London Review of Books includes a review by the left-wing writer Tariq Ali of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf's new memoir, "In the Line of Fire." This is the book, I would add, whose attendant contract was cited by Musharraf during a press conference following a recent state visit with Bush as the reason he couldn't go any further into details of his past conversations with members of the Bush Administration. Musharraf stated at the time that Richard Armitage had threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" if Musharraf didn't comply with the US's antiterrorism plans for the region. It seems that that turns out to be, naturally, the juiciest bit he offers, though there does seem to be some more score-settling in the book, most of it internal to Pakistan. Ali's review is most valuable as a compact primer on the last few decades of political history in Pakistan -- a rambunctious period marked by an unsteady mix of civilian and military leadership. This mix led, for instance, to Musharraf's assuming power aboard an airplane intentionally kept airborne despite fuel concerns while another leader in line for the presidency, then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was arrested. Ali slips in a mention of the fact that he was in college in Lahore with senior General Ali Kuli Khan, who was considered for high office, and he writes with a corresponding personal authority on the region. According to him, "'In the Line of Fire' gives the official version of what has been happening in Pakistan over the last six years and is intended largely for Western eyes. Where Altaf Gauhar injected nonsense of every sort into Ayub’s memoirs, his son Humayun Gauhar, who edited this book, has avoided the more obvious pitfalls." Nevertheless, Ali notes a fact I didn't know -- that the book has been created by widespread and vocal dissent in the media, which Musharraf admirably tolerates. Crucial clues to his fate, this worthy review suggests, probably can be found in the autobiography. Posted by Evan Hughes at 05:00 PM
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