In The Line of Fire: A Memoir - Criticism

Criticism

This book and its launch generated a fair amount of criticism. As expected, it was subjected to harsh reviews in India.

• Musharraf claimed that Daniel Pearl's murderer was an MI6 (British Intelligence) agent; The Pentagon however released a statement that Al-Qaeda trained, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had confessed to the murder.

• 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'."

• 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. The former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto has described the memoirs as a cheap attempt to gain popularity at the cost of Pakistan’s vital national interests.

• 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.

• 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 offering any new facts. 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.

• 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.

• 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. Its quoted that such remarks do little help in the ongoing dialogue between the two countries. Even Pakistani authors have panned the book for turning a defeat in Kargil into a victory. Pakistan opposition slammed the book as a "pack of lies" and a "national shame," while PML-N stated that it was the most contradicted book of any dictator. Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif " and foreign minister Sartaj Aziz have both blasted the book as a "plethora of lies. Daily Times of Pakistan notes that Kargil blunder would take many years to rectify.

• 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. 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." It adds that contrary to his version that Kargil helped restore peace, Pakistan "was forced to the table by the drubbing it took there."