Zia-ul-Haq

New Delhi, Oct. 3 (Reuters): Actor Om Puri has been chosen to play Pakistan’s former military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in a Hollywood production about the CIA’s role in arming mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan.

Puri said he had been cast in Universal Pictures’ Charlie Wilson’s War alongside Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

The film, based on a book of the same name, revolves around Charlie Wilson, a charismatic, wheeler-dealer Texas Congressman, played by Hanks.

Wilson teams up with a rogue CIA agent to manipulate the US Congress, the CIA and a host of foreign governments in a covert operation.

“The film discusses the entire political scenario of the time,” 56-year-old Puri said. “I appear as a well-settled Pakistani President who strikes a deal with the Americans that money and arms to the Afghans must flow through his country,” he said, adding that he loved the character of Zia.

Zia ruled Pakistan from 1977, when he took power in a bloodless military coup, until 1988 when he died in a still unexplained plane crash.

Om Puri

His reign witnessed the enforcement of strict Islamic law in the country and was instrumental in providing US-backed military aid to the Afghan resistance against the Soviet occupation.

The movie is slated for release next year and Puri, who has starred in several Hollywood productions, said he was looking forward to working with Hanks and Roberts in locations such as Morocco later this month.

“Most of my scenes are with them. I expect to have a wonderful time with them as they are very talented professionals,” he said.