General Musharraf was not as disliked in Pakistan in 1999, when he seized power, as he was in 2008 when he lost it. Before we bur him in history as vet another autocratic ruler, it is important to go back and see what he did right together with much that he did wrong. In some ways he was go 0(1 for Pakistan within the dictatorial paradigm of Pakistan because he was a liberal ruler after a decade of General Zia ul Haqs religious rule. Pakistan has buried Zia in its archives of dismissed dictators but remains conscious of the fact that much of what he imposed as Islamisation has been internalized by Pakistani society. Should this also be true of General Musharraf? Have we internalized some of the liberalisation that lie imposed on us This book makes a fair assessment of his foreign policy which was, by and large, successful, and his tolerance of women and the minorities, without sparing him for failing in some of the liberal reforms lie had undertaken, and his weakness vis--vis the jihadi organizations and the army he headed.



The Author:

KHALED AHMED is currently Director, South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), at Lahore, and is consulting editor at The Friday Times, Lahore. He is the author of two earlier Vanguard publications, Pakistan: Behind the Ideological Mask (2000) and Pakistan: the State in Crisis (2001).