Book Review: A Journey to Disillusionment | Sherbaz Khan Mazari

As an aside, I was persuaded that Mazari's account of Pakistani politics was honest because of the sympathetic treatment Mazari gives Bhutto throughout his book, despite the Bhutto regime's clear violations of human rights and basic human dignity. For instance, Mazari is strongly critical of the show trial which ended in Bhutto's execution. Indeed, Mazari's portrait of Bhutto is strangely affectionate at times.

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By A Customer | June 6, 2000

A Journey to Disillusionment

This review is from: A Journey to Disillusionment (Hardcover): "Not an easy read, but remarkable book on Pakistani politics"

This autobiography of one of Pakistan's former, most well-connected politicians - actually written with the help of his son, Shehryar - is superb. The writing style is clear and concise (Shehryar was, after all, partly educated in New Zealand!). Not being an expert in Pakistani politics, I can't vouch for the rightness or wrongness of many of the views expressed within the book, but it struck me as being remarkably balanced.

It is clearly not a book for beginners. Mazari talks of many famous Pakistani figures, and various important events in Pakistan, but without a chronology or some familiarity with Pakistani politics and society, it is difficult to truly enjoy the book. Often, Mazari assumes too much of the reader, and so he focuses on the minutiae of various incidents. But many were the times when I had to turn to a history of Pakistan to work out what was going on in the wider context.


Having said that, Mazari's autobiography is excellent. Mazari makes it pretty clear that the actions of virtually all Pakistan's leaders have engendered a great deal of contempt for the ideals of democracy. In Pakistan, politics is something entered into not because one has ideals, but simply to be in a position to dispense largesse. By way of example: Mazari tells how when General Zia took military control over Pakistan in 1977, and suspended all elections for a decade, Zia sought to increase his legitimacy with the people by forming a cabinet of unelected politicians. Mazari was against joining, since none of them had been elected, but a large proportion opted for the power that would follow from being part of the government. As it turned out, the politicians found they had little power. Zia and his generals were using the politicians to give the façade of legitimacy to their government.

None of Pakistan's leaders come out well under Mazari's critical eye. Ayub Khan comes across like a bumbler, but Zulfikar Bhutto comes across as malignant - a Pakistani Hitler (indeed, Mazari makes note of Bhutto's fondness for the German dictator). General Ziaul Haq is portrayed as a rather lost individual who became addicted to power. Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif are shown to have contempt for democracy (even in its most formal sense), but only because they don't know any better - the institutional and historical environment in which they were weaned gave them little reason to act differently.

The real villain of modern Pakistan politics emerges as Zulfikar Bhutto. Mazari argues, quite strongly, that Bhutto's politicking and brute lust for power lay behind the secessionist war of East Pakistan (Bangladesh), to say nothing of Bhutto's actions as Prime Minister. As an aside, I was persuaded that Mazari's account of Pakistani politics was honest because of the sympathetic treatment Mazari gives Bhutto throughout his book, despite the Bhutto regime's clear violations of human rights and basic human dignity. For instance, Mazari is strongly critical of the show trial which ended in Bhutto's execution. Indeed, Mazari's portrait of Bhutto is strangely affectionate at times.

Mazari doesn't just blame the politicians - the army gets a major drubbing too, as well they should. They have stunted the possibility of elective and accountable democracy ever being a reality in Pakistan (and the recent 1999 coup may or may not be an exception). The judiciary is also criticised for bowing to whatever government is in power. Mazari is particularly harsh on Chief Justice Munir, who apparently collaborated with Ayub Khan to suspend the 1954 Constituent Assembly set up to create a Constitution for Pakistan.

Mazari often adds humorous anecdotes in the midst of all the corruption and terror that apparently seems part of Pakistani culture. For, instance, he tells of how when he was being watched by military surveillance. He and a friend were talking Balochi (Mazari's native language) on the phone when suddenly a third voice (obviously a soldier assigned to listen to Mazari's conversations) burst out, "I can't understand Balochi - speak in English or Urdu"! Other stories are not so funny, like the incarceration of all the opposition leaders under the Bhutto regime.

A couple of quibbles: there's no map of Pakistan, so for ignoramuses like me, it's difficult to place events. Also, the index is a bit weak. There are many references to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but no attempt to categorise them, eg, "long rivalry with author for rare books", "begins autocratic regime", etc. There is also no attempt to list the various political parties with all their acronyms, which made things difficult for a novice like myself to follow. And, as I noted earlier, some references to the wider picture would have been useful to place some events in context.

Even less satisfying was the very short discussion Mazari gives to regimes of later leaders, like that of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in the 1980s and 1990s. Perhaps this is to be expected, since it would seem most of Mazari's political career was over by that point. And, one might add, unlike more recent regimes, he can write freely about troubles of previous regimes without too much fear of reprisal. Still, what he does give the reader is a strong sense that these two leaders are no better than previous politicians. Benazir comes out worse, because she at least had some inkling of what democracy was; Sharif, on the other hand, has never understood the meaning of the word, because politics was never about the peaceful contesting of different world-views of governance - it is simply about power.


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