I had been born into a sort of democracy in which for ten years Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif kept replacing each other, none of their governments ever completing a term and always accusing each other of corruption. But two years after I was born the generals again took over. It happened in a manner so dramatic that it sounds like something out of a movie. Nawaz Sharif was prime minister at the time and had fallen out with his army chief General Pervez Musharraf and sacked him. At the time General Musharraf was on a plane of our national airline PIA coming back from Sri Lanka. Nawaz Sharif was so worried about his reaction that he tried to stop the plane from landing in Pakistan. He ordered Karachi airport to switch off its landing lights and to park fire engines on the runway to block the plane even though it had 200 other passengers on board and not enough fuel to get to another country. Within an hour of the announcement on television of Musharraf ‘s sacking, tanks were on the streets and troops had taken over the newsrooms and the airports. The local commander, General Iftikhar, stormed the control tower at Karachi so that Musharraf ‘s plane could land. Musharraf then seized power and threw Sharif into a dungeon in Attock Fort. Some people celebrated by handing out sweets as Sharif was unpopular, but my father cried when he heard the news. He had thought we were done with military dictatorships. Sharif was accused of treason and only saved by his friends in the Saudi royal family, who arranged his exile.

我出生的时代，政权由贝.布托和纳瓦兹.谢里夫在十年间互相轮替，两方政府都没有做满任期，并且不断地互相指控对方的贪污问题。但我出生两年后，军方再度掌握政权。当时的情况实在太戏剧化，可媲美电影情节。那时的总理是纳瓦兹.谢里夫。他和军方领导人佩尔韦兹.穆沙拉夫失和，并把他解职。当时，穆沙拉夫将军正搭乘国有航空公司--巴基斯坦航空的飞机，从斯里兰卡回国。纳瓦兹.谢里夫因为太担心穆沙拉夫将军的反应，企图禁止飞机降落在巴基斯坦。他下令机场关闭降落灯号，并把消防车停在跑道上，完全无视飞机上其他两百名乘客的生命安全，而飞机的燃油根本不足以飞到另一个国家去。在电视里公布穆沙拉夫将军下台的消息一个小时之内，坦克就开上了街头，军队占领了新闻台和机场。当地指挥官伊夫蒂哈尔将军冲进位于卡拉奇的机场塔台，让穆沙拉夫将军的班机得以降落。穆沙拉夫将军随即接管了政权，并将谢里夫关进阿托克堡的监狱。有些人发糖果庆祝，因为谢里夫不受欢迎。父亲却在收听新闻的时候哭了，他原以为巴基斯坦再也不会出现军人执政时代了。谢里夫被指控叛国罪，最后在沙特阿拉伯皇室的协调下被流放，逃过一劫。

Musharraf was our fourth military ruler. Like all our dictators, he started by addressing the nation on TV, beginning, ‘Mere aziz hamwatano’ – ‘My dear countrymen’ – then went into a long tirade against Sharif, saying that under him Pakistan had ‘lost our honour, dignity and respect’. He vowed to end corruption and go after those ‘guilty of plundering and looting the national wealth’. He promised he would make his own assets and tax return public. He said he would only run the country for a short time, but no one believed him. General Zia had promised to be in power for ninety days and had stayed more than eleven years until he was killed in an air crash.

穆沙拉夫是我们国家第四位军人执政的领导人。和其他的军人执政者一样，他从在电视上对民众喊话开始，他喜欢用“亲爱的国民”作为开场，然后长篇大论地攻击谢里夫，并指责说在谢里夫的统治之下，巴基斯坦“丢了荣誉、自尊和敬重”。他誓言要终结贪渎，追究那些“偷窃、掠夺国家财产的人”。他保证要把自己的财产和税金都还给大众，并说他只会短暂地掌控国事。但是，没有人相信他说的话。齐亚.哈克将军曾保证只会掌权90天，却控制了我们11年多，直到他坠机而死为止。

It’s the same old story, my father said, and he was right. Musharraf promised to end the old feudal system by which the same few dozen families controlled our entire country, and bring fresh young clean faces into politics. Instead his cabinet was made up of the very same old faces. Once again our country was expelled from the Commonwealth and became an international black sheep. The Americans had already suspended most aid the year before when we conducted nuclear tests, but now almost everyone boycotted us.

父亲说，这不过是旧事重演。而且他说对了。穆沙拉夫保证要结束封建体制，不让整个国家受少数十几个大家族控制，并保证要引荐年轻的新秀进入政坛。结果，他的内阁还是由那些老面孔组成。我们的国家再次从英联邦国家中被剔除，并成为国际社会的众矢之的。美国在前一年，在我们进行核武器测试的时候，就已停止对我们的大部分援助。现在，几乎其他所有国家都开始抵制我们了。