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Within Three or Four Years the Texture of Pakistani Life Changed
In this interview with Claudia Kramatschek, Nadeem Aslam talks about his native Pakistan, the military rule of Zia ul-Haque, and his most recent novel, about Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion
The era of Zia-ul-Haque has an indirect role in your new novel because Zia was responsible for Pakistan s fatal involvement in the Afghanistan war that still haunts the world today. Your family had to leave Pakistan under Zia s regime – was this a defining moment in your life?
Nadeem Aslam: I wouldn t be here talking to you if Zia s regime hadn t decided to support the mujaheddin in Afghanistan. Because when in 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, it was decided by the CIA and by the American administration that billions of dollars and weapons would be brought into Afghanistan via Pakistan to help the mujaheddin fighting against the Soviets. And there were people in Pakistan at that time who were sayin