It didn't impact me or the armed forces as much it did the civilians. It was very insidious: Everyone started wearing sherwanis instead of suits because Zia was wearing sherwani, But it was also very superficial. I know that with Musharraf everyone has gone back to wearing suits and there are no compulsory prayers etc.

It had never occurred to Pakistanis that they were lapsed Muslims. A fraction of people went for prayers, another fraction went to the bars. And the rest was struggling with flour and sugar prices or trying to get bigger antennas so that they could catch Doordarshan. Half my village decamped to Lahore when DD showed Mughal-e-Azam.

I wasn't a lapsed Muslim and I still think I am not. People admit they are lapsed Muslims or Hindus actually scare me.

Exclusive on rediff.com: The day Zia died

Though Zia was quickly forgotten by the military - it was as if he had not existed, even for his successors - yet the changes he initiated like Islamization have survived him. In your evaluation, how did the Zia years impact Pakistan? Do Pakistanis still remember him, the longest-serving military ruler of your country? Why has been consigned to historical oblivion?

For the last nine years Pakistanis have been too busy trying to deal with a dictator who was alive rather than dead. Even Musharraf never mentions Zia. So he is no national icon. He is not even a mascot for any religious group.

I think Musharraf has had that effect on Pakistanis. If Zia hanged one Bhutto, Musharraf has watched over exiles, jail terms, rigged elections, assassinations, disappearances. Zia pondered over a noose for Bhutto for a few months, Musharraf has never hesitated before ordering his F-16s to bomb his own people.

And I am not only talking about the Taliban in the north but Balochs in the south who are exactly the opposite of the Taliban. Pakistanis don't remember Zia at all, done and dusted a long time ago. So will be Musharraf. Probably much sooner.

Is Zia's influence best seen in Pakistan's army, where, it seems, a parallel line of Islamist generals co-exist with a more secular stream, the best example of the latter being General Musharraf? Or is the so-called Islamist influence in the Pakistani military considerably overstated? Is Pakistan's military establishment -- who I understand run a huge range of business ventures, including hairdressing salons -- more concerned with preserving their financial firepower rather than pursue crusades for Islam?

I think only Indians and Americans see them as crusaders of Islam. People in Pakistan have never had and never wanted such delusions for themselves or for their armed forces. I have seen them running barbeque joints and bakeries, I guess, hair salons are a legal business; any business empire can run out of ideas. And that's what is happening in Pakistan.

Pakistanis are very enterprising by nature, but lately every corner they turn they see a 'mil business', as Pakistani writer Ayesha Siddiqa likes to call it. Some of the bloodiest conflicts in Pakistan right now are not about identity, the Balochs are not being bombed for being anti-Pakistan, the peasants in Okara are not barricading themselves against some cultural invasion. They are fighting with the army over their bread and butter.

Unlike Indian writers who, to my mind, are incapable of achieving the heights of Swiftian satire which you have scaled, I am always amazed by the breathtaking verve with which Pakistani writers use satire to unveil the deficiencies and foibles of the Pakistani system. Do you think working within the limits enforced by military dictatorships and intolerant regimes like Bhutto's and Sharif's have spawned a grand tradition of satire, to bypass censorship and the limits on free speech? Do you believe democracy is a deterrent to great satire?

I'll happily swap this so-called grand tradition of satire for a semblance of democracy. But I think you are being unfair to Indian writers by suggesting they have no sense of humour. I think Vikram Chandra is very funny. I think Nayyar Masud has probably written the funniest and saddest stories I have read in any language.

I think more than fiction writers, it's the Indian media, journalists like you and me, who take themselves very seriously, and try to do their nationalistic duty. We have got Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gillani for that purpose. We should let them get on with their jobs.

I also think equating dictatorships with the Bhutto and Sharif regimes is a bit unfair. It might look the same from the outside but there is a slight difference which we journalist tend to forget.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and army chief General Ashfaq Kiyani during the change of command ceremony in Rawalpindi, November 28, 2007. Photograph: Amir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: 'Musharraf fails to remember that army chiefs in Pakistan have not had a very nice life'

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