The military junta headed by General
Ziaulhaq, ruling Pakistan for eleven long and dark years ends up in a plane
crash loaded with mangoes; the ripe mangoes explode and consume the top brass
along with foreign VIPs in C 130 back from Bahawalpur. The reasons need not to
be dealt with in depth, however, the regime of
the harsh and self-administered laws, concentration of power in the
hands of few, the continuation of US anti-Soviet Jihadist project in
Afghanistan, and “ the blind justice in the land of pure” met its fate the moment the weight of mangoes turned
heavier.
Hanif beautifully describes the
inner working of the dictatorship and the lust of power among the key figures
in the junta. The novel depicts the use of religion by Zia for self-centered
objectives of staying longer in the office and meting out harsh treatment to
the dissenters. The contradictory approaches of a dictator, i.e an urge for
becoming a popular figure among the public on one hand, and staying away from public on security
reasons on the other are the recurrent elements in the novel. Gen Zia, who had
suppressed the nation of 130 million, was afraid of his wife because he had
missed ‘to kill the cat on the first night’. From start to the end his
obsession remains, ‘who wants to kill me’?
Ali Shigri undergoes the moments of
torture in the dungeon for his alleged collusion with missing cadet Obaid, in the
Mughal fort, places known for being the frequent abodes of the dissenters in
Zia regime. Hanif depicts the limitations of the ‘powerful dictators’, their
power is reduced to bare minimum the moment they take off the uniform. Zia,
whenever tries to play the role of a politician reaching out to public , is
received by the crowd of soldiers in the civvies playing civilian. A similar
attempt to walk without security having put on a shawl, he is stopped by a
police constable and asked him “ to be a cock. A rooster,” the entertaining farce
by Hanif. The novel vividly depicts how the years of dictatorship were run by
the financial support of US dollars and ideological indoctrination from Saudia
Arbia. The scene of the Secretary General further reflects both the precarious standing and
the paranoid posture of the dictators.
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