Student organisations which had been banned under Zia became very active. My father quickly got involved in student politics and became known as a talented speaker and debater. He was made general secretary of the Pakhtoon Students Federation (PSF), which wanted equal rights for Pashtuns. The most important jobs in the army, bureaucracy and government are all taken by Punjabis because they come from the biggest and most powerful province.

齐亚.哈克时期被禁止的学生团体开始活跃了起来。父亲很快就加入了学生自治会，成为众所皆知的演说家和辩论家。他成为巴克同（普什图人的另一个称呼）学生联合会[2]的秘书长，他向联合会提出诉求，要求普什图人的平等权。当时军中、官僚体系和政府里的重要职务，都由旁遮普人担任，只因为他们来自最大且最强势的省份。

The other main student organisation was Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba, the student wing of the religious party Jamaat-e-Islami, which was powerful in many universities in Pakistan. They provided free textbooks and grants to students but held deeply intolerant views and their favourite pastime was to patrol universities and sabotage music concerts. The party had been close to General Zia and done badly in the elections. The president of the students’ group in Jehanzeb College was Ihsan ul-Haq Haqqani. Though he and my father were great rivals, they admired each other and later became friends. Haqqani says he is sure my father would have been president of the PSF and become a politician if he had been from a rich khan family. Student politics was all about debating and charisma, but party politics required money.

另一个主要的学生团体是激进的伊斯兰学生社团IJT，它是宗教政党伊斯兰大会党[3]的学生团体，这个团体在许多巴基斯坦的大学里都有十分庞大的势力。他们向学生提供免费的课本和学生贷款，但他们有很深的偏执，且他们最喜欢做的，就是在校园里巡逻，并去音乐集会捣乱。伊斯兰大会党是亲齐亚.哈克将军那一派的，在选举中惨败。他们在杰哈兹布大学的学生团体主席当时是伊赫桑.哈克.哈卡尼。虽然他与我的父亲身份敌对，但他们却互相欣赏，后来成为好友。哈克.哈卡尼说，他敢肯定，如果父亲出生在富裕的贵族家庭，一定会成为巴克同学生联合会的主席。成为学生政治团体的领袖需要的是辩论能力和个人魅力，而政治党派就需要有钱了。

One of their most heated debates in that first year was over a novel. The book was called The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, and it was a parody of the Prophet’s life set in Bombay. Muslims widely considered it blasphemous and it provoked so much outrage that it seemed people were talking of little else. The odd thing was no one had even noticed the publication of the book to start with – it wasn’t actually on sale in Pakistan – but then a series of articles appeared in Urdu newspapers by a mullah close to our intelligence service, berating the book as offensive to the Prophet and saying it was the duty of good Muslims to protest. Soon mullahs all over Pakistan were denouncing the book, calling for it to be banned, and angry demonstrations were held. The most violent took place in Islamabad on 12 February 1989, when American flags were set alight in front of the American Centre – even though Rushdie and his publishers were British. Police fired into the crowd, and five people were killed. The anger wa sn’t just in Pakistan. Two days later Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s assassination.

大一时，他们最激烈的辩论议题是关于一本小说--萨尔曼.拉什迪写的《撒旦诗篇》。这本书拙劣地仿述先知在庞贝的生活，被绝大多数穆斯林视为渎神之作。这本书引发的狂澜如此之剧烈，以至于大家几乎都遗忘了其他议题。奇怪的是，这本书出版时，根本没有人注意到，而且它也并没有在巴基斯坦销售。事情的缘起是突然之间，一个住在离我们的情报局很近的毛拉，连续在乌尔都的报纸上发表文章，斥责这本书羞辱先知，并号召穆斯林群起抗议。很快，整个巴基斯坦的毛拉开始响应，斥责此书，要求将其列为禁书。愤怒的抗议活动陆续展开。而其中最暴力的一次活动，发生在1989年2月12日的伊斯兰堡。愤怒的人群在美国文化处前放火烧毁了美国国旗--而事实上，拉什迪和他的出版社都来自英国。警方朝民众开枪，致五人死亡。愤怒的情绪不只在巴基斯坦燃烧。两天后，伊朗精神领袖阿亚图拉.霍梅尼宣布判处拉什迪死刑，并悬赏追杀他。

My father’s college held a heated debate in a packed room. Many students argued that the book should be banned and burned and the fatwa upheld. My father also saw the book as offensive to Islam but believes strongly in freedom of speech. ‘First, let’s read the book and then why not respond with our own book, ’ he suggested. He ended by asking in a thundering voice my grandfather would have been proud of, ‘Is Islam such a weak religion that it cannot tolerate a book written against it? Not my Islam!’

父亲的大学举办了一场辩论会，座无虚席。许多学生主张这本书应该被禁被烧，并执行追杀令。父亲也认为那本书是对伊斯兰教的冒犯，但他强烈支持言论自由。“首先，我们先读完这本书。然后，我们为什么不自己写一本书来反击呢？”他这样建议。最后，他用连我的祖父都会感到骄傲的磅礴音量问道：“伊斯兰教难道软弱到不能承受区区一本书的批评吗？那不是我所认识的伊斯兰教！”

For the first few years after graduating from Jehanzeb my father worked as an English teacher in a well-known private college. But the salary was low, just 1, 600 rupees a month (around ￡12), and my grandfather complained he was not contributing to the household. It was also not enough for him to save for the wedding he hoped for to his beloved Tor Pekai.

从杰哈兹布毕业后最初几年，父亲在一所很有名的私立大学教英文。但是教书的薪水很低，一个月才1600卢比（19美元），祖父抱怨他不拿钱回家。这点钱也不够他存起来和心爱的托.贝凯举办婚礼。