2013 film by Sabiha Sumar

Set in 1979 Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq has imposed martial law and, within a few months, the country is decreed a Muslim state. Aicha, a well-adjusted woman in her forties, devotes her life to the education of her eighteen-year-old son Salim, in the little village of Charkhi, in the Pakistani Penjab. Salim is a quiet dreamer, but the fast moving political situation fills Aicha with anxiety, since her son is changing out of all recognition.

What are the implications for democracy in Pakistan when secular political parties have succumed to the Islamic agenda? What does it mean when the army appears to be the only force able to contain the opponents of democracy? President Musharraf agrees to explore this apparent contradiction at length over dinner at his official residence, the Army House, with filmmakers Sabiha Sumar and Sachithanandam Sathananthan. They film encounters the MMA - an alliance of religious parties - a tribal parliament, truck drivers, young eite party goers, a Sindhi peasant woman and her husband and people on the street. The filmmakers engage them in discussions on President Musharraf and democracy. "Dinner with the President: A Nation's Journey" only partly explores the pressing questions regarding Pakistan's future and the prospect of current unelected President Pervez Musharraf. Flawed but most telling for Western viewers as a specifically Pakistani view of Musharraf's political dilemmas and the nature of his support and opposition.