In 1959, six years before I was born, Pakistan was ruled by a general who had seized power in a military coup and elevated himself to the rank of Field Marshall—the highest rank in the British army, whose structures and hierarchies were inherited by several post-colonial nations.

One of Field Marshall Ayub Khan’s main claims to power was that he was best friends with American president Lyndon B Johnson. Their mutual bonhomie is preserved in several portraits. Field Marshal Khan patting President Johnson on the cheek; President Johnson approaching a camel cart driver on a Karachi street and asking if he would like to be friends with him.

Field Marshal Khan must have had some doubts about the nature of their relationship because he ended up writing a book about it and called it Friends

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