In The Line Of Fire

law, the cabinet minister, was an ally of the prime minister. Also, TP rated himself highly, and was convinced that he could fit into my shoes. He nearly gave the game away when a small news item appeared on the back page of the Rawalpindi edition of a mass-circulation Urdulanguage newspaper, quoting TP as saying that after he took his uniform off in a couple of days he would reveal all about Pervez Musharraf and Musharraf's role in the Kargil affair. It was the kind of comment that could lead to a court-martial.

Nawaz Sharif was extremely upset by the newspaper story about TP's early retirement that ran on October 9, and he asked my spokesman to issue a denial on my behalf. The spokesman replied that he could not do so without clearance from me, and I was in Colombo.

This infuriated the prime minister, because he felt that his request should have been honored whether or not I was in the country. He felt insulted and humiliated and said that he would talk to me on my return home. But my spokesman was only following the usual procedure. In my absence, the prime minister asked the Ministry of Defense to issue a clarification, which, quite properly, it did.

Later that afternoon the prime minister was to go to Lahore. Just before his departure, TP's cabinet minister brother-in-law, who had rushed back from a foreign tour, came to see him and gave him a file. As they came out of the room, the minister, walking behind the prime minister, gave the thumbs-up signal to the prime minister's principal secretary, Saeed Mehdi, who was waiting in the lobby. As Nawaz Sharif was about to board his helicopter, he asked Saeed Mehdi, without turning toward him, when Lieutenant General Ziauddin was due for retirement. Mehdi said that he would have to ascertain the exact date, but thought that it was sometime in April of next year. The prime minister then handed over the file and asked Mehdi to deliver it to the defense secretary. Mehdi asked whether he could read it, and the prime minister replied that he knew Mehdi would read it anyway, as he was only human. Saeed Mehdi later told me that the file contained a request from TP for an interview with the prime minister. This was odd, for even if they are corps commanders, lieutenant generals don't make farewell calls on the prime minister when they retire.

In return, Saeed Mehdi also handed over a file to the prime minister.