In 1959, six years before I was born, Pakistan was ruled by a general who had seized power in a military coup and elevated himself to the rank of Field Marshall—the highest rank in the British army, whose structures and hierarchies were inherited by several post-colonial nations. One of Field Marshall Ayub Khan’s main claims to power was that he was best friends with American president Lyndon B Johnson. Their mutual bonhomie is preserved in several portraits. Field Marshal Khan patting