In the Line of Fire, A Review

In the line of Fire is President Musharraf’s recently published autobiography. It is a short book comprising only 300 pages, divided into six parts and 32 chapters. There is no depth of thinking involved in this book but it is written nicely and Musharraf’s sense of humor is excellent. Most people think of Musharraf as a military dictator and his regime as undemocratic. There is no denying this fact but we should keep in mind that there are two aspects of democracy. First, assuming the power by democratic means, i.e. by elections. And second, governing the country democratically. Our politicians are most vocal about the first aspect of democracy but they rarely think about governing the country democratically. I agree that Musharraf’s assumption of office by a military coup is blatantly undemocratic but his rule and governance is much more democratic than most of our ’elected despots’.

Thus Musharraf can legitimately be titled as a ’benevolent despot’. He does not possess exceptional intellectual abilities but at least his basic premises are correct. He is a moderate, progressive, forward-looking, intelligent, humorous, frank and straightforward kind of a person. He can afford the luxury of being straight and frank because his source of power is not political and these qualities are quite common in army officers. He believes in the cardinal principles of democracy and modernity, i.e. tolerance, transparency, freedom of speech and expression, equality and emancipation of women, rights of the minorities and secularism. Democracy as a political system without education and democratic culture is a sham. In fact President Musharraf does have a constituency of his own, i.e. the educated and liberal middle class of Pakistan.

First part of the book narrates Musharraf’s early childhood. He was a four years old boy when he arrived in Karachi from Delhi India, during the partition of sub-continent in 1947, as a migrant along with his father, mother and two brothers. His father was a diplomat in Pakistan’s foreign office. His mother was also an educated and working woman and his elder brother is now a bureaucrat and younger brother is serving as a doctor in US. Three years after arriving in Karachi his father was transferred to Pakistan’s embassy in Ankara Turkey. He went there along with his family spent six or seven years there and returned to Karachi in 1956 when Musharraf was thirteen years old. Musharraf and his brothers were admitted to St. Patrick’s, a Catholic missionary school for boys. Musharraf regards Turks and Mustafa Kamal Pasha very highly. Along with English and Urdu, he can also speak Turkish language. Some people suggest that Musharraf is inspired by Ataturk and wants to duplicate their society into Pakistan. My guess is that he is definitely inspired by Ataturk, not only by his social reforms but being a military man also by Ataturk’s military achievements. But he is a pragmatic man and he knows his limitations and also the sensibilities and sensitivities of Pakistani society.

Second part of the book narrates his life in the army. After graduating from Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) he joined the army as a second lieutenant. He says that as a young officer he was non-serious and a happy go lucky kind of a person. He had some disciplinary problems with his seniors. During the 1965 war with India he was in the Artillery corps and took active part in the war at Sialkot and Lahore fronts. Of his many "brushes with death" four were more serious in which he was directly involved. First when he was a student of F.Sc. (12the grade) at Forman’s Christian College in Lahore. He was a good gymnast and some of his friends asked his to pluck some mangoes from a mango tree. While he was plucking mangoes from the tree, hanging upside down from a branch, the branch broke and he hit the ground hard, and fell unconscious. Second incident happened in the 1965 war. An enemy shell hit one of his artillery gun and set its rear compartment on fire. There was a risk that other shells might catch fire. He did not leave his position and with the help on another brave soldier managed to take the ammunition to a safe distance. He received an award for gallantry for saving lives and equipment after the war. His third and fourth brushes with death occurred on 14th and 25th December 2003 when suicide bombers attacked his motorcade when he was a president. He explains these incidents in detail in the prologue to his biography.

In 1966 he joined Special Services Group (SSG), Pakistan’s elite commando outfit. He served in the SSG for two periods of four and a half and two and a half years, first as a captain and then as a major. In December 1968 he got married to Sehba Farid. It was an arranged marriage. They gave birth to two children, first a daughter Ayla, and then a son Bilal. Musharraf says that becoming a father changed his happy-go-lucky attitude towards life and he became more responsible. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1978. From 1985 to 1998 his career took his from lieutenant colonel to chief of the army.

In third part of the book Musharraf explains the events and reasons of the military coup on 12 October 1999 when Musharraf deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and first became chief executive and later became the president of Pakistan. He assigns three reasons for this coup. First, the passage of the13th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan which took away the power of the president to dissolve the parliament and dismiss the prime minister under certain conditions. It is a debatable issue but some people consider that the power of the president to dismiss a prime minister worked as a safety valve and prevented a military coup in Pakistan’s political environment. Second, the Kargil conflict in Kashmir with India in which Nawaz Sharif capitulated to combined Indian and US pressure. Third, Nawaz Sharif tried to dismiss Musharraf as army chief while he was in a plane traveling from Sri Lanka to Karachi. Musharraf considers it as "hijacking" of his plane because the Karachi airport authorities refused him permission to land. It is then that army came into action, arrested Nawaz Sharif and later sent him in an exile to Saudi Arabia along with his family members.

Part four of the book explains his political and economic reforms. Elections were held in the year 2002. Pakistan Muslim League (PML) won the majority of the seats and formed government with the help of its coalition partners. Musharraf was elected president and the parliament was also able to pass Constitutional 17th amendment which restored the power of the president to dismiss prime minister under certain conditions. Musharraf’s finance minister Shaukat Aziz later became prime minister.

Part five of the book is most important and interesting. It describes Pakistan’s role and achievements in the "War on Terror". After the tragic incident of 9/11 the whole international landscape changed and Pakistan was forced to take a U-turn on its Afghanistan policy. This part also contains the life sketches of Mullah Umar (Taliban leader) and Usama Bin Laden, the abduction and beheading of Daniel Pearl, and Pakistan Army’s war on terror in urban and tribal areas. According to Musharraf Pakistan army, intelligence and law enforcement agencies have captured 689 terrorists and handed over 369 to the US. The military operation in tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan is not that successful primarily due to difficult terrain. The terrain is inhospitable and inaccessible - rugged and mountainous, with heights ranging from 8,000 to 15,000 feet, subject to harsh winters and burningly hot summers and largely devoid of roads. Secondly, FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) composed of seven tribal agencies, enjoy a semi-autonomous status. It is home to 3.2 million tribal folk, spreading over 10,600 square miles (27,220 square km.) and is largely governed by age-old tribal customs, with maliks, or chiefs and elders, wielding political and military influence and authority over their tribes. The federal government is represented by "political agents" who exercise control through levies and through a local police force called "khassadars". Local population is fiercely independent even British Empire was not able to establish their writ there, and after the Afghan-Soviet war (1979 to 1988) the people are equipped with most sophisticated weapons.

Last part of the book explains the incident of nuclear proliferation by Dr. A.Q.Khan, international diplomacy, social sector development and the earthquake of October 2005. In the epilogue to his book Musharraf admits that his successes and achievements in life are more a result of good fortune than his own abilities. He says, "I firmly believe that success in one’s life and career depends more on the wholesome development of personality than on mere intellectual brilliance. Everyone needs a healthy balance between intellectual development, moral development, physical development, and social development."