South Asian politicians do not keep diaries. Most Western politicians do. And a great deal of history is written on the basis of the immediacy that is offered by the word written in the white heat of the moment. Which is why Neville Chamberlain’s letters to his sister are a more authentic record of the appeasement of Hitler than the bland official record. Or the gossipy diaries of Chips Channon of the Churchillian milieu more than the grandiose (and self-serving) grandstanding of Churchill’s own magisterial works. And the master of all diarists is surely Alan Clarke, whose delightfully indiscreet observations and naked but innocent ambition mark his Diaries as the authentic voice of the Thatcher years.
Fakir Syed Aijazuddin has more than filled the South Asian lacuna with this wickedly perceptive account of his six months as minister of culture, environment and tourism in the interim government of (Pakistan) Punjab between Gen Musharraf’s last days in office and Zardari’s rise—November 2007 to April 2008. Aijaz is a veteran...
