Major opposition parties in Pakistan have lashed out at

President Pervez Musharraf, saying he disclosed state secrets to increase the sale of his memoirs and used national resources for its launch.

Commenting on ‘In the Line of Fire’ launched in the US on Monday, a spokesman for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Gen Musharraf seemed to have decided to make some money, realising that his ‘political demise’ was near.

In a statement mailed to Dawn from London, spokesman Nadir Chaudhri described the book as anti-Pakistan and a pack of lies aimed at rewriting history.

He said the general had made personal attacks on Mr Sharif and lied about the Kargil disaster and the ‘illegal coup’ he mounted to overthrow a democratically elected government in 1999.

The spokesman condemned what he called the maligning of AQ Khan and said it was reprehensible and unprecedented that an army chief had presented such a negative image of Pakistan.

He said the only motive could be his desire to rake in as much money as he could.PPP spokesman and former senator Farhatullah Babar said the book had raised the ‘moral and political’ question whether a sitting army chief and president should take public positions on national policy issues and whether he should spend public funds for promoting his book.

At best, he said, the book is a one-sided version of critical events namely nuclear proliferation, war on terror, the Kargil conflict and the Oct 12, 1999 military takeover.

—AMIR WASIM & ASHRAF MUMTAZ