She is a politician, horse and cattle breeder, agriculturist, and diplomat. Her book, mostly in self praise, is a political biography of the author in which she has tried to intertwine the impacts that key political events of the country have had on her personal life.
As Leo Tolstoy opens his classic novel Anna Karenina with" All happy families are alike", similarly all feudal families of Pakistan are alike. Syeda Abida Hussain's autobiography is story of the top feudal families of Pakistan (about 100) who had been whimsically, arbitrarily and exclusively sharing power with the civil and military oligarchy for past 67 years to protect their estates / Jagirs / interests and privileges granted to them by the British colonialists bringing the country to the present quagmire.
The author's father Abid Hussain Shah was conferred the rank of Hon. Colonel, to provide manpower (gun fodder) to the British war machinery during WW-2 and her grandfather Sir Maratab Ali Shah was knighted for catering the British Army. Abid owned more than 53,000 acres of land in Jhang district that helped the author to keep her hold on the district council and two National Assembly seats of Jhang district.
After Partition in 1947, the Nawabs, the rural feudal lords and aristocrats remained in power aided by civil and military remained in power to maintain the imperialist status quo and strengthened their political, social, spiritual, economic and coercive sway over people, forcing them to work on their fields generation after generation.
On page 101, she admits that feudal lords thwarted the land reforms by retaining their lands having made back dated mutations in names of retainers, relatives and even children that were not yet born.
Punjab also became the biggest contributor in terms of manpower to the British army in India. The Punjab Feudal class stayed loyal to the British until the very end. Punjab was governed by the Unionist Party, whose official position was that the British should stay in India. This feudal system has made the people of Pakistan pathetic. We whine like sheep.
The reforms carried out by Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were half hearted and half done. Only certain privileged people benefited from these reforms. Very influential people were behind the failure of the reforms. They transferred their lands to relatives and children through spurious methods. Many of them secured their lands by joining Bhutto's party. In this way they continued to political and wield personal clout and influence. The national and regional assemblies were under their influence.
The author has a vast social and political national and international networking with the powers that she felt no difficulty or qualms for changing her political parties / alliances or loyalties during her 42-years active political life. Her daughter is a PPP Senator, her spouse Fakhar Imam contested 2013 general elections on the PML-N ticket, her son is reported to be trying to jump on the PTI bandwagon and about herself she says "My dream is that my country achieves a leadership of unimpeachable integrity and considerable capacity ... That is my dream: .... she concludes the autobiography.
There are a number of glaring factual and historical mistakes in the book. For example:
Page 97: she says "A few months (Islamic Summit in February 1974), Bhutto Sahib dismissed the majority government of Balochistan led by Sardar Ataullah Mengal "In fact, Bhutto had dismissed the NAP government in February 1973 that led to traumatic political upheaval and destabilization of the country till today".
On Page 157 she says "Meanwhile the Appeal was heard and concluded towards the end of 1978' The fact is that the appeal was turned down on February 24, 1979. The same bench heard the review petition. On March 17, the hearing in the review petition came to an end and the judgment was reserved.
On page 219 the author says" She took oath along with 114 male members who had been elected on general seats. The fact is that number of general seats of 1985 election were 207 and not 114. On page 300 she says "In May 1987, the Ojhri ammunition Camp disaster occurred". The fact is that this disaster occurred on 10th April 1988 that led to dismissal of Prime Minister Junejo's government in May 1988.
On page 590 she says that Chief Justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui was replaced by Chief Justice Riaz, the fact is that Justice Siddiqui was replaced by Justice Irshad Hassan Khan. The author has given credit to Munir Niazi of a famous verse that was written by Mustafa Zaidi The book needs proof-reading as it has been published by a reputed publisher, Oxford University Press, Karachi. The author has used more than a dozen times Advise as a noun instead of Advice.
(The writer is former president of Pakistan Parliament Press Gallery Committee)