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Dubai: Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's controversial memoirs finally went on the shelves in bookstores yesterday after the censor board passed it after holding it for more than a week.
Distributors said books submitted to the censor board are usually passed in a day, but Musharraf's, In The Line of Fire, had a mention of his nuclear scientist who used Dubai to sell nuclear secrets to other countries.
The Sri Lankan front man of nuclear chief Abdul Qadeer Khan disappeared after the scandal broke and staffers at the computer shop were abandoned without being paid.
The 368-page book was submitted to the censors last Monday and distributors said they expected the book would also be seen by the Abu Dhabi censor board. "But that didn't happen," said a warehouse manager. Dubai apparently passed the book on its own.
The large expatriate population from the sub-continent had been eagerly awaiting the release of the book since it went on sale in the United States more than two weeks ago. The autobiography had garnered interest with the Indian expatriates because of its controversial comments on the Kargil conflict and comments that India benefited from Qadeer Khan's treachery.
Mahesh Shetty, warehouse manager of Jashanmal, said the bookstore had been fielding a number of calls from customers over the book. It initially plans to display 100 copies in its stores in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi.
Musharraf had also made allegations of a purported threat by a senior official from the US administration to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age if it did not collaborate in the war on terror.
A Magrudy spokesperson earlier said that its 300 advance copies were expected to be snapped up within the week.
The censor board has not blocked out any objectionable parts in the memoirs. It is not like magazines where photos are inked out, a wholesale bookseller said. If the censors find the book objectionable it would be banned in the country, he said.
But there seems to be a discrepancy in the sale price among the booksellers. Magrudy's has put a tag price of Dh98 on the memoirs, while Jashanmal will sell it for Dh160.
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