Musharraf signs book deal
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has sold the rights to his political memoirs, which will feature his views on the US war on terror and the Bush administration.
Coming to an arrangement with Simon & Schuster Imprint Free Press on Thursday, the company said Musharraf had showed his proposal to several New York publishers before settling for the unit of Viacom Inc.
The military officer who seized power in October 1999 has been a key Bush administration ally as the US pursued wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The book is to be published in late 2006, according to Free Press vice-president and senior editor Bruce Nichols.
“He’s going to cover the ‘war on terror’ from Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s up to the hunt for Usama bin Ladin,” Nichols said.
“He’s certainly also going to discuss his relationship with the Bush administration,” he added.
Musharraf is seen as having taken a political risk by supporting US President George Bush, and some in Washington are concerned about his ability to hold on to power.
But in return for his support and his efforts to curtail the black market for nuclear weapons parts, Washington has taken a lenient view of his reneging on promises to move Pakistan closer to democracy.