KARACHI: A book titled The Zardari Presidency Now It Must be Told by Farhatullah Babar, a veteran Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former spokesperson for President Asif Ali Zardari, was unveiled at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Monday evening.

Informing the media on the publication, Mr Babar said once Benazir Bhutto had asked him to pen a book based on his experiences, to which he had replied he`d do so when he wouldn`t be the spokesman for her party.

`Today Pm fulfilling that pledge.He said from 2008 to 2013 he had spent five years with President Zardari as his spokesperson during which he kept taking notes.

After a decades or so he has turned it into a 500-page book.

Mr Babar said it used to be thought of about Mr Zardari that he`s an accidental president.

`I have written in the book that if he was an accidental president, then I was also an accidental spokesperson because during Benazir Bhutto`s tenure I wasn`t counted as one of those who were close to him. It`s an accident of history that I spent five years there.

He commented, `Mr Zardari is neither an angel or villain. He is a human being. As a human being he has many qualities, but as a human being he can also make mistakes...

The lesson from the book is that Mr Zardari has been punished for crimes he never committed (na karda gunahon ki saza mili). And unfortunately only politicians get such a punishment.

`This is not the biography of Asif AliZardari.

It is about the important events that took placeduring his tenure, the events which shook the presidency and the country. Those events have been narrated with context,` he said.

Mr Babar said since those events had Mr Zardariasthe centralcharacter,hispresence is there in the book whose first chapter is `Zardari as a person`.

`If someone is expecting that the book is about `aik Zardari sab per bhari`, it is not about that. And if anyone is expecting that it is to do with `ghazab corruption ki ajab kahani`, it is not about that either,` he said.

Giving out the contents of the book, he first mentioned Osama bin Laden`s presence in Abbotabad. `What was happening in President`s House [on May 2, 2011]! American action takes place at 1.45am and we were there till lam. Newspapers have explained what had happened, but what`s in the book is different from that. It is a narration of a man who was there at that time. Being an eyewitness is one thing, but being part of the decision-making process even when you`re not allowed to speak [at such a difficult time] is something else. I was there in both capacities.

The second event that he mentioned was the Memogate. `You must have heard that Mr Zardari had fallen ill or gone to Dubai, etc. TV was relaying news as if Mr Zardari had finished. I`m an eyewitness to the event. I noted down what was happening moment-to-moment. Who came at 11pm, who was talked with at 12, what happened when the president fell ill... In my view, it was a suicide attack on President Zardari which badly injured him. But nobody got anything out of it.

Another big event was what transpired between Mr Zardari and former Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. `This section has 12 chapters, describing how this war began, which was the moment when Mr Zard ari said `enough is enough` and the message was put across.

Chaudhry If tikhar was riding a high horse and then had to get off the horse. It was no one`s victory or loss. I think the kind of dilemma that the judiciary today finds itself in is a result of that war.

Mr Babar then shifted his focus to CIA contractor Raymond Davis. `The important thing in that connection is that the American ambassador at the time, [Cameron] Munter, was so worried that he had become very pale (rang peela ho gaya tha). Mr Zardari asked me why the ambassador was so troubled; it must have some reason, he thought. The ambassador looked so concerned that Mr Zardari had to go to him and say `don`t worry, relax`.

On the next big event, the former spokesperson talked about a prime minister`s assertion in parliament that a statewithin a state wasn`t acceptable. `This has a story behind it. And its fallout has also been given in the book.

Mr Babar then spoke about Gen Musharraf`s ouster from the Presidency, arguing everyone says he resigned. But what was the basis for the resignation? he asked.

He followed it up by saying: `A strange thing happened on March 15, 2009. Mr Zardari had summoned 23 people. It was the night when it was to be decided whether Justice Chaudhry should be reinstated or not. In the daytime, rumour was rife that the army was going to take over.

When I reached there at 10.30pm, 11 out of the 23 people had come.

He said there were also events which were mysterious and strange. He himself as a spokesperson didn`t know about them.

He said that he had not sought permission for this work from Mr Zardari or from the PPP.

The book also contained insight into the `cat and mouse games` played by the establishment with the civilian and political leadership of the country; three services chiefs abstaining from president`s banquet for a foreign dignitary; Zardari`s offer of talks to India on `no first use` of nuclear weapons and its spectacular failure; secret bid for rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran and a three-hour-long meeting with Aung Suu Kyi in Naypyida and extraordinary conversation.

Earlier, Ameena Saiyid, whose Lightstone Publishers has published the book, called The Zardari Presidency a balanced book.

KPC President Fazil Jamili introduced the guests to journalists.