The Role of Pakistan Armed Forces in the Tradition of Urdu Autobiography

Abstract

Autobiography is an ancient and important genre of Literature, which falls in non-fiction category. In fact, it’s not only a true depiction of author’s life, but also of his surroundings, social, political, cultural and other aspects. Truthfulness and realism are basic principles of good and valuable autobiography. Writing of an autobiography is not restricted only to regular or fiction writers, it may be written by anybody belonging to any walk of life. Beside civilians and regular writers, armed forces personnel have also played a pivotal and in the services of Urdu literature, especially in the field of Urdu autobiography. They have enriched and enlarged the area of Urdu autobiography by writing and adding dozens of the autobiographies. In the list of such writers, the names of Siddique Salik, Col (R) Syed Mabool Hussain, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Brigadier Gulzar Ahmed, Major General Shahhid Hamid, General Pervez Musharraf, Lieutenant General Shahid Aziz, Colonel (R) Zahoor ul Haq, Colonel Ghulam Sarwar, Brigadier Nusrat Jahan Saleem, and General Abubakar Usman are mentionable.