Page 294 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

I couldn’t believe it! On one side of me was the President, on the
other the Prime Minister. No wonder there were so many security
guards! I knew many of the faces from news reports on TV: it
seemed half the Cabinet was in the room.
I found talking to Musharraf fascinating. I used the opportunity
to ask him why education was in such a mess and why the country
has such a bad reputation overseas, and I was surprised to hear
how modern, how Western, I suppose, his outlook is.
‘James,’ he began in impeccable English, ‘it’s very easy being an
armchair critic, but sometimes, unless you’re in a position to
understand the implications of making the kind of decisions you’re
talking about, don’t judge. Things that appear really simple to an
outsider are more complicated than you realise. Let me give you
an example: when I came to power, one of the first things I realised
is that in a lot of modern economies women contribute more to
the national wealth than men. Also, they have had to be
resourceful to break through barriers, so I thought an obvious
thing to do would be to get more women in parliament. So I
introduced legislation that guaranteed 100 female MPs, which,
you can imagine, in a country where most women stay at home is
a very big statement.’
I agreed.
‘It didn’t go down particularly well,’ he continued, ‘but as far as
I was concerned we should have more balance. We attracted 100
very professional, well-educated, smart women, and they’ve had
an incredible impact on the country. Within a year of them coming
into power, they lobbied the government to change an Islamic law
that states if a woman is raped, in order to mount a prosecution
she needs to produce three witnesses. You’re probably thinking
what I’m thinking, that this means women can never bring a
prosecution and so rape goes unpunished.
‘You would think implementing this new law would be easy,
wouldn’t you? Who wouldn’t support such a simple change that

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