<b>Musharraf has a chat with old pals</b>

The Independent - Bangladesh

Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf yesterday spent over an hour at breakfast with his old pals- batch mates of the 29th PMA (Pakistan Military Academy) Long Course-exchanging jokes and reminiscing about their days as cadets for two and a half years at Kakul.

One of the guests, Major General ( rtd) Manzur Rasheed Khan, said he met General Musharraf after 38 years and happily found him to be the same warm-hearted person he was in 1964 when they were cadets together.

The President was warm and cordial.

In addition to his five batch mates invited to breakfast with their wives, there was another invitee who was also present with his wife. He was Major(rtd) Abdul Mannan, MP, who once served with Musharraf in the same battalion.

The other guests were Freedom Fighter Col (rtd) Shafat Jamil Bir Bikram, Brigadier (rtd) Abdullah al-Hussain, Brigadier (rtd) Zahed Latif and Col( Rtd) Shahabuddin.

For about an hour and a quarter the host and his batch mate guests were immersed in the past, their memories going back to the days when they were young cadets looking forward to a career in the army. Today, so many years hence, they pride in the career record of the 29th PMA Long Course cadets.

The wives, including the First Lady of Pakistan, listened to the heart-to-heart conversations of their husbands.

There were seven Bengali cadets in the 29th PMA Long Course. Of them was martyered at a young age as aCaptain during the liberation war while another died later. The latter had risen to the position of a Major General in the Bangladesh Army.