Periscope on Pakistan

Turkish lessons in patriotism:
In Karachi, Musharraf went to St Patrick8217;s, and when he was about 10, his father was posted to Ankara. quot;I learnt to love Turks. They are spontaneous, and emotional like us. I drew inspiration from their concept of patriotism. I was inspired by the Battle of Gallipoli when Mustapha Kemal Ataturk addressed his troops and asked them to lay down their lives for Turkey. Over 200,000 Turks died in that battle but they saved Turkey. I admired Ataturk for his martial qualities, for his nationalism. He revived his country which was known as the sick man of Europe8217;. But I am not inspired by the extremism of his secular views. I think the reaction that has now set in is the consequence of that extremism. I think extremism is counter-productive; moderation moreconstructive.8221;

The culvert test:
quot;I joined the army because of the glamour,quot; he confesses. The general admits that initially, at the PMA, he was homesick and irritated by his seniors8217; ragging. But soon he had taken to the system like a duck to water. Given his gutsy temperament, Musharraf was a natural for the Special Services Group SSG. He describes the perilous exercises which he put his men through to test their quot;confidencequot;, their nerve. quot;It was only after I had done the culvert test myself that I asked my men to do it. The culvert test involved lying belly down on a culvert next to a railway line, holding the sides with arms outstretched. You had to look at the oncoming train, until it passed. Anyone who blinked was not up to par.

Storm in a tea cup:
General Musharraf recounts an experience at the Infantry School in Quetta in 1968 when he had a run-in with a major. quot;The food was terrible. I had a cup of undrinkable tea in my hand and I said to my friend Rana Bilal, Look atthis horrible tea and these two dirty bakery biscuits. They charge us one rupee for this8217;. We both agreed that someone should complain and so off I went to the major and said the tea was horrible and since we paid for it, we had a right to ask for it to be improved. The major already had a bee in his bonnet about us SSG boys. He ignored me so I said if he wasn8217;t ready to listen to me, I would not drink the tea. I overturned the mug and threw it over my shoulder. What I didn8217;t realise was that 250 men looking at me would follow suit.quot;

He was a lively fellow8217;:
In 1968, Musharraf married Sehba, the daughter of a literary and learned family. It was an arranged marriage, proposed by a mutual aunt. But, the young Musharraf made quite an impression on his fiance. As she says now, quot;I liked him because he was a lively fellow. You could expect the most unusual, interesting things from himquot;. The couple have two children, a son and a daughter.

Anyone for lassi?
quot;In the airplane,quot; he says, quot;I waspreparing notes for a meeting I had long been planning with Nawaz Sharif. I had marked out a quote from Nixon8217;s book in which he says a leader8217;s greatest quality is to select the right people and fire the wrong ones. A real leader steels his nerves and does the needful. I had decided to give Mr Sharif the quotation, along with my ideas for how he could improve governance and how the army could help. It came as a shock when I realised that Sharif had other ideas.quot; The general relieved the atmosphere by joking that he still has one thing in common with Sharif: his love of lassi!