E-Paper
11 yrs on, ISI can’t get enough of Hanif’s Mangoes
Hanif tweeted on Monday that people claiming to be from ISI barged into the Karachi office of Maktaba Daniyal, the Urdu publisher, threatened its manager and sought “information about our whereabouts”.
Acclaimed Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif has accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of raiding the offices of his Urdu publisher and confiscating the translated version of his 2008 satirical bestseller, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, which is about former military dictator Zia-ul-Haq.
Hanif tweeted on Monday that people claiming to be from ISI barged into the Karachi office of Maktaba Daniyal, the Urdu publisher, threatened its manager and sought “information about our whereabouts”. He said the people confiscated all copies of the Urdu version of the novel and said they would return to get lists of booksellers selling the novel.
A Case of Exploding Mangoes is a comical account of Zia-ul-Haq’s final days and the conspiracies behind the plane crash that killed him in 1988. Despite widespread praise, and international awards, more than a decade passed before the novel was translated into Urdu last year.
Hanif, who graduated from the Pakistan Air Force Academy as a pilot officer before becoming a journalist, also tweeted that he and the publishers had last week received a defamation notice from Zia-ul-Haq’s son, Ijaz-ul-Haq, demanding Rs 1 billion for “maligning” the former dictator’s name. “Our lawyers are preparing a reply. Is ISI acting on Ijaz-ul-Haq’s behalf?” he asked.
Noting that his debut novel had been in publication for 11 years, the New York Times columnist said: “Nobody has ever bothered me. Why now? I am sitting here, wondering when will they come for us. ISI is World’s No 1 spy agency. I am sure they have better things to do. I have my school run tomorrow.”
The media reported the ISI denied its involvement in the matter. Unnamed ISI officials were quoted by the media as saying that Hanif made the claim to increase sales of the book.
Both Hanif and his publisher Hoori Noorani of Maktaba Daniyal were unavailable for comment.
There were reports that major bookstores in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad were asked to remove the book by intelligence officials.
The book satirises the Pakistani military, which is depicted as relying on torture and extrajudicial murder, and covertly supporting jihadi groups to pursue its goals — accusations levelled from many quarters in real life and denied by the powerful army that has ruled the country for half of its history.
Hanif’s novel earned glowing reviews and was longlisted for the Booker Prize, with critics comparing him to satire writers such as Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut.
Zia-ul-Haq was killed when his military aircraft went down in Punjab province. Authorities never released the results of their investigation or said what had caused the crash, which also killed US ambassador Arnold Raphel and then-ISI chief Akhtar Abdur Rahman. The novel cites a rumour that a bomb was planted in a crate of mangoes gifted to the dictator.
