On 17th August 1988, the President of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, perished in a plane crash along with his top Generals and Arnold Raphel, the US ambassador to Pakistan. After this there were many theories but no clear answers as to what transpired on the Lockheed C-130 plane during the few minutes that it stayed in the air. A Case of Exploding Mangoes tries to imagine the last days of the dictator and what could have led to his death.

I came across Mohammad Hanif on YouTube. Quite often, videos from BBC News Punjabi would pop up in my feed with the titles beginning with “Hanif’s Vlog on ‘the latest social/political issue’”. I ignored these for a while until I came across an obituary of the Pakistani scholar Manzur Ejaz in these videos. Hanif’s videos are crispy four-to-five-minute monologues, biting and incisive. On searching more about the man, I discovered that he is a journalist who has written a few books. So, ignoring the unread books in my room, I decided to buy a new book after a really long time. It was a pleasure to read this book; Mohammad Hanif writes in English in the same way as he speaks in Punjabi.

There are two narratives in the book which proceed in alternative chapters. The first voice is that of Under Officer Ali Shigri who is still a cadet at the Pakistani Airforce Academy. Ali is the head of the Silent Drill Squad that is scheduled for inspection by the President on Independence Day, 14th August. Ali is planning to kill the president during the Silent Drill to avenge the death of his father, Colonel Shigri. The second voice is a third-person omniscient narrator which has the same irreverence for the Pakistani state and its instruments as Ali Shigri. It is safe to presume that this voice is also the voice of Ali Shigri as he imagines what went on in the General’s life in his last days.

General Zia-ul-Haq, if the narrator is to be believed, spent his last days fearing for his life. He runs the country from Army House, which is the residence of the head of the army. He refuses to move to the newly-built Presidential palace as he fears for his life. He reads verses from the Quran and interprets them as signs and omens for the future of Pakistan. He is under constant fear of those out to get him and trusts no one except Brigadier TM, his chief of security, and General Akhtar, head of the ISI. His subordinates make sure he never encounters any real people. Even the public crowds that he meets in front of cameras are army staff in civilian clothes. He is scared to leave the Army House. The press is scared to publish anything against him. The whole state is a giant machine to uphold the supremacy of the military rule.

The story begins as Ali is arrested following the disappearance of his roommate Obaidullah who flies away with an aircraft from the academy. Ali is whisked away from the infirmary for interrogation by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – the intelligence wing of the army. He is thrown into the dungeons of Lahore Fort which are being used to hold political prisoners. There is a man in the cell next to him who communicates through a loose stone in the wall. He has been languishing in the darkness of that cell for so long he has no idea of how much time has passed. This man was the “Secretary General” of the All Pakistan Sweepers’ Union. And before that he was a mango farmer. The implication is that the dungeons are full of people who have been picked up for the inanest suspicions. Major Kiyani, who is General Akthar’s right-hand man and number two in the army is in charge of the Lahore Fort. He never wears his uniform, drives brand new cars without number plates and drives only at full speed, regardless of traffic or road.

The writer himself is a former officer in the Pakistani air force, and drawing from his experience, he minutely portrays the customs and rituals of the force. Lethargy and stagnation permeate everyday lives of military men. There is pretty little to fill your day except mindless drills, shouting at your juniors and drinking whiskey. Wars and promotions are few and far away. There are a colourful bunch of officers in this book – each with his own eccentricities – but everyone within the army looks down upon civilians as if they are germs.

There are actions and motivations in the book that are typical of Punjabis, such as one of the generals who has taken to wearing Ray-Bans at all times after his promotion, which irks Zia so much he ultimately has him hand those over on some pretext. The general, after handing those over, immediately pulls out an identical pair from his pocket and wears them. Being irked by sunglasses as a challenge to one’s authority and having someone remove them to assert power are typical patterns of Punjabi thinking, or at least to my mind.

One recurring theme in the book is the story of Jonah and the Whale as told in the Quran. Zia keeps encountering this verse every time he opens the Holy Book. He sees this as a bad omen, never realising that he is already a Jonah inside a whale. Jonah failed to spread the word of God and found himself trapped in a whale. The author uses this image of Zia as Jonah to critique his rule, which came into being after ousting an (ostensibly) socialist elected government. Zia’s rule saw increasing Islamization of laws and policies. Jonah got out of the whale after repenting and bowing before the will of Allah. For Zia, there is no such escape. He fails to mend his ways and is consumed. There is no pathos in it.

The Indian media likes to blame everything that goes wrong in Pakistan on its Islamic origin. However, the book subtly points out that injustice and tyranny have less to do with Islam, and more to do with the character and motives of those who wield it.

The final moments are tragicomic. Fate comes into play. Some people eager to remain seated are forced to get off the plane, others who do not want to be there are ordered to get on it. But for Zia, the Jonah of this tale, there are no loose ends. The author portrays Zia’s death as a convergence of all the conspiracy theories that could have led to his death. These include a plot by the communist farmers, the revenge of those languishing in jails, his own generals plotting to take his place, his ailing health, and the curses of those who have been denied justice in his rule.

The plot of the book seems to drag on in some places. Characters criss-cross across the two narratives and their actions give fuel to the story, but sometimes they take too long to arrive. There are other things left unsaid because of the choice of narrator. Ali Shigri is not a devout Muslim, but he is perturbed by his own homoerotic attraction towards another cadet, which is only briefly mentioned. Overall, the book is enjoyable to read. You do not need to know anything about Pakistan or its history to enjoy it, because after all, it is a tale of revenge.