In the Line of Fire: A Memoir[1][2] is a book that was written by former President of PakistanPervez Musharraf and first published on September 25, 2006. The book contains a collection of Musharraf's memories and is being marketed as his official autobiography.
The book consists topics regarding Musharraf's personal life to the international and national issues and his rise to power. He writes about his childhood, education and life. The memoir also includes some very important international events which had direct connection with Musharraf and his policies. Besides these he writes about his life in Pakistan Army and the major assassination attempts on him. He also states that he wasn't involved in the 1979 Makkah seizure
The book includes a chapter on Pakistani military coup in 1999 against Nawaz Sharif and reveals his view point on Sharif's plane hijacking. He criticizes Nawaz for setting him aside as military commander and believes Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz Sharif had been under the immense influence of their father, Mian Mohammad Sharif, who influenced prime minister his son Nawaz Sharif to stage the coup against him.
On September 11
Musharraf, in his memoir, says, he had little choice after the September 11 attacks but to back the U.S.-led war on terror. Pervez Musharraf agreed to back the U.S. led war against terror, fearing the threats made by that time U.S. Secretary of StateColin Powell on a phone call to him. He said "You are either with us or against us". The next day, he says, Powell's then deputy, Richard Armitage, telephoned the chief of Pakistan's top spy agency, and threatened to nuke Pakistan back to the stone age.
On the pressure aforementioned, Musharraf accepted all the seven points, set before him as demands, by Colin Powell. This readiness amazed Washington and has been criticized since in Pakistan.
Editions
Hindi version
Currently the book is published in five editions: Pak (English & Urdu), US (English), UK (English) and Indian (Hindi). All feature the picture of Pervez Musharraf at the centre of the green and white background. The Urdu edition hit the market 3 weeks after the initial publication in English.
In the US edition the president appears in a salutary posture with his right hand fingers touching the forehead. In the UK edition, the author seems in a thinking posture with his left hand fingers kept on his chin. In comparison with the US edition, the UK edition sports a crescent on the silky green background of the book.
In India
All the 8000 copies of the English version were sold out in India during the initial stage of the launch. The Indian distributor had ordered another 4000 copies to meet the demand, according to the news reports. Copies sold in India outnumbered the copies sold in Pakistan citing the curiosity in analyzing his viewpoints. A lot of views from India were that the curiosity of Indian readers has only added to the sales and popularity of the book.[7]
Hindi edition
A New Delhi publisher published the Hindi version of his book titled as Agnipath (The Path of Fire), ostensibly after a popular 1990 Indian film of the same name whose lead actor, Amitabh Bacchan, Musharraf reportedly liked. The Hindi translation re-edited portions related to the Kargil War.[8]
The Hindi edition, translated and printed in India, came out in early October 2006 and was sold in India for Rs 395, about one third of the English version's cost.[9]
Tamil edition
New Horizon Media, an Indian-language publishing house based in Chennai, India, has published the Tamil translation of his book, titled உடல் மண்ணுக்கு (Udal Mannukku) ( ISBN81-8368-252-9), under its கிழக்கு பதிப்பகம (Kizhakku Pathippagam) imprint.
The Tamil edition's title was taken from the popular Tamil quote “Udal Mannukku, Uyir Thamizhukku!" (My body to the soil, my life to Tamil!) . Nagore Rumi translated the book into Tamil. B. S. Raghavan, a former Ministry of Home Affairs bureaucrat of the Government of India, released the book in Chennai during the 30th Chennai Book Fair January 10, 2007.
The Tamil version is priced at Rs. 250, about a quarter of the price of the English edition, which is sold in India for Rs. 950.
Urdu edition
An Urdu edition named Sab Se Pehle Pakistan (Pakistan Comes First) of the book was also released. It however removes the controversial comments made in the English book including that the government was paid for the capture of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
Bengali edition
A Bengali translated version of the book titled as same as the English (transliterated) was published in Bangladesh.
Criticism
This book and its launch generated a fair amount of criticism. It was subjected to harsh reviews in India.[10]
Bhasin R.V. has authored "Musharraf's 'Skewed' Line of Fire" in 2007. The book satirically outlines flaws and "untruths" by the General in his autobiography.
Later during an interview to the CNN, Musharraf backtracked on some of the claims mentioned in the book. To a question quoting the passage from his book ("Those who habitually accuse us of not doing enough in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to the Government of Pakistan."), he answered, "You know, I don't know whether this is to the Government of Pakistan. I don't think I wrote `the Government of Pakistan'."[13]
By penning his memoirs while still in office, Musharraf is emulating another military dictator of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan, as a strategy to sell it while in limelight. Ayub Khan wrote Friends, Not Masters while still in office.[14] The former prime minister of PakistanBenazir Bhutto described the memoirs as a cheap attempt to gain popularity at the cost of Pakistan's vital national interests.[15]
The book is believed to have been ghost written by Humayun Gauhar, the son of a Pakistani bureaucrat. Mistakes may have crept in because the editor in charge asked for rewrites to change the content and style.[14]
Ayaz Amir, a reputed Pakistani journalist and known for his critical views on the military's involvement in Pakistani politics, says the book is a sellout of the nation's pride for the sake of the author's personal gain. The book is seen as an embarrassment to the country rather than offering any new facts.[16] Many media reports in Pakistan and abroad have panned the book for its inaccuracies and the attempt to portray himself as a saviour at the cost of showing Pakistan in poor light.[17]
The daughter of controversial Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan has criticised claims made by President Pervez Musharraf in his autobiography. Khan was put under house arrest after admitting passing nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. In the book, Musharraf said that Khan sent a letter to his daughter, Dina, asking her to "go public on Pakistan's nuclear secrets" through British journalists, a claim which she vehemently denied as ludicrous.[18]
The references of the Kargil conflict-related contents have irked many around the world, including Pakistanis. The English version of the book has left out the number of Pakistani casualties, while the Hindi version lists Pakistani casualties numbering 357.[19] It is quoted that such remarks do little help in the ongoing dialogue between the two countries.[20] Even Pakistani authors have panned the book for turning a defeat in Kargil into a victory.[16] Pakistan opposition slammed the book as a "pack of lies" and a "national shame,"[21] while PML-N stated that it was the most contradicted book of any dictator.[22] Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif "[23] and foreign minister Sartaj Aziz[24] have both blasted the book as a "plethora of lies. Daily Times of Pakistan notes that Kargil blunder would take many years to rectify.[25]
The version of the Kargil war was also lambasted by a fellow Pakistani Army General Lt Gen Ali Kuli Khan Khattak. In a hard hitting interview, he said that, "It was a disaster bigger than the East Pakistan tragedy," and disputed many claims that Musharaff gave in his book.[26]The Economist has been scathing in its reviews on the book, especially on the Kargil episode stating that he has failed to mention how thousands of Pakistani fighters were "slaughtered in a humiliating retreat."[27] It adds that contrary to his version that Kargil helped restore peace, Pakistan "was forced to the table by the drubbing it took there."[27]
Errors
Some of the factual/typographical errors in the book surfaced so far are:
Pervez Musharraf was a Pakistani army general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. He also served as the 10th Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1998 to 2001 and the 7th Chief of Army Staff from 1998 to 2007.
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pakistan, having served a total of more than 9 years across three tenures. Each term has ended in his ousting.
The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (Urdu: پاکستان مسلم لیگ (ن), romanized: Pākistān Muslim Līg (Nūn)abbr.PML(N) or PML-N) is a centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate. The party was founded in 1993, when a number of prominent conservative politicians in the country joined hands after the dissolution of Islamic Democratic Alliance, under the leadership of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The party's platform is generally conservative, which involves supporting free markets, deregulation, lower taxes and private ownership. Although the party historically supported social conservatism, in recent years, the party’s political ideology and platform has become more liberal on social and cultural issues. Alongside the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), it is one of the three major political parties of the country.
The Pakistan Muslim League Urdu: پاکستان مسلم لیگ (ق); Pākistān Muslim Līg (Qāf), Acronyms: PML(Q), PML-Q, PMLQ, "Q League") is a political party in Pakistan. As of the 2018 parliamentary election, it has a representation of 5 seats. It previously served as an ally of former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf's government, and led a joint election campaign in 2013 alongside Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Punjab and Balochistan provinces against its rival Pakistan Muslim League (N), a fiscally conservative and centre-right force.
Makhdoom Muhammad Javed Hashmi, is a Pakistani politician, political realist, and a senior conservative thinker on the platform of Pakistan Muslim League (N).
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (Punjabi: چوہدری شجاعت حسین; Urdu: چودھری شجاعت حسین; is a senior Pakistani politician who previously served as 16th prime minister of Pakistan. Hussain is the party president of the Pakistan Muslim League since 2003 .
The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay, which was the codename of the Indian military operation in the region. The Indian Air Force acted jointly with the Indian Army to flush out the Pakistan Army and paramilitary troops from vacated Indian positions along the LoC, in what was designated as Operation Safed Sagar.
The National Security Council is a federal institutional and consultative body chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan as its chairman. The NSC is a principal forum that is mandated for considering national security and foreign policy matters with the senior national security advisers and Cabinet ministers. The idea and inception of National Security Council was first conceived in 1969 under the President Yahya Khan, its functions were to advise and assist the president and prime minister on national security and foreign policies.
Lieutenant General Mahmud AhmedHI(M) is a retired three-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army who served as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence from 1999 to 2001.
The 1999 military takeover in Pakistan was a bloodless coup d'état initiated by the military staff at the Joint Staff HQ working under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf. The instigators seized control of the civilian government of the publicly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 12 October 1999. On 14 October, General Musharraf, acting as the country's Chief Executive, issued a controversial provisional order that suspended the Constitution of Pakistan.
General Muhammad Aziz KhanNI(M) HI(M) SBt TBt, best known as Aziz Khan, is a retired four-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army who served as the 11th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, appointed in October 2001 until his retirement in 2005.
Mushahid Hussain Syed is a Pakistani politician, and journalist who is currently the Pakistan Senator from the Islamabad Capital Territory on the platform of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), since 3 March 2018.
Admiral Fasih BokhariNI(M) HI(M) SI(M) SBt PGAT was a Pakistani admiral who served as the Chief of Naval Staff from 1997 to 1999. He was a well-known pacifist and a prominent political figure as the Chief of Naval Staff from 1997 until his voluntary resignation in 1999, which stemmed from his staunch opposition to the then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's instigation of the Kargil War with India, a conflict that Bokhari reportedly saw as an act of inappropriate and uncoordinated aggression from Pakistan and one that subsequently led him into a bitter dispute with Musharraf. Bokhari also served as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, a Pakistani anti-corruption agency.
Lieutenant General Ali Kuli Khan KhattakHI(M) is a retired Pakistani three-star rank general officer and former field commander of X Corps.
General elections were held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008 to elect members of the 13th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies.
Admiral Abdul Aziz MirzaNI(M) HI(M) SI(M) SBt LoM LoH was a Pakistan Navy officer who served as the Chief of Naval Staff from 1999 until retiring in 2002, amid taking over the command of the Navy after the revolt and resignation Admiral Fasih Bokhari over the appointment of Chairman joint chiefs.
Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar Khan ; was the longest serving Parliamentarian in the history of Pakistan. He served in Provincial Assembly of the Punjab and National Assembly of Pakistan from 1951 to 1999 and was the longest serving member. The first direct elections held in Pakistan after independence were for the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab between 10–20 March 1951. He was elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly in 1951. He was again elected in the 1962 and 1964 Provincial Assembly elections in Pakistan. He remained Member National Assembly of Pakistan from 1985-1999. He was also member of Mājlis-e-Shūrā Pākistān, The Federal Council from 1982-1984.
Lieutenant-General Jamshed Gulzar Kiani, HI(M), SJ, SBt, TJ, was a three-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army, intelligence officer and the former Colonel Commandant of the Baloch Regiment and commander of X Corps.
Tauqir Zia is a Pakistani former military officer and administrator who was the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) between 1999 and 2003.
Abdul Majeed Malik was a lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army, World War II veteran, diplomat and later politician who served as minister of Kashmir Affairs & Northern Areas and minister of States & Frontier Regions from 11 July 1997 to 12 September 99. Prior to entering in the political race, he served as a director for military operations at general headquarters. Before the partition, he was a commissioned officer in the British Indian Army. He also drafted 1958 martial law, the first military coup of Pakistan.
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