Author: Ikram Sehgal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789692262002
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Farahnaz Ispahani
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190621656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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In Purifying the Land of the Pure, Farahnaz Ispahani analyzes Pakistan's policies towards its religious minority populations, both Muslim and non-Muslim, since independence in 1947.

Author: Pamela Constable
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 067960345X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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A volatile nation at the heart of major cultural, political, and religious conflicts in the world today, Pakistan commands our attention. Yet more than six decades after the country’s founding as a Muslim democracy, it continues to struggle over its basic identity, alliances, and direction. In Playing with Fire, acclaimed journalist Pamela Constable peels back layers of contradiction and confusion to reveal the true face of modern Pakistan. In this richly reported and movingly written chronicle, Constable takes us on a panoramic tour of contemporary Pakistan, exploring the fears and frustrations, dreams and beliefs, that animate the lives of ordinary citizens in this nuclear-armed nation of 170 million. From the opulent, insular salons of the elite to the brick quarries where soot-covered workers sell their kidneys to get out of debt, this is a haunting portrait of a society riven by inequality and corruption, and increasingly divided by competing versions of Islam. Beneath the façade of democracy in Pakistan, Constable reveals the formidable hold of its business, bureaucratic, and military elites—including the country’s powerful spy agency, the ISI. This is a society where the majority of the population feels powerless, and radical Islamist groups stoke popular resentment to recruit shock troops for global jihad. Writing with an uncommon ear for the nuances of this conflicted culture, Constable explores the extent to which faith permeates every level of Pakistani society—and the ambivalence many Muslims feel about the role it should play in the life of the nation. Both an empathic and alarming look inside one of the world’s most violent and vexing countries, Playing with Fire is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand modern Pakistan and its momentous role on today’s global stage.

Author: Intizar Hussain
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
ISBN: 9353057094
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Set in the terrifying times of Zia-ul-Haq's rule, The Chronicle tells the epic story of a family and its illustrious homes. As Ikhlaq, the main character, struggles to build a home in Lahore, the reader is introduced to a darkly comedic and dramatic chain of events. These events are interspersed closely with Ikhlaq's exploration of the tazkirah, a family chronicle, which inspires him to write its last chapter-the story of his life and times. The Chronicle is an abiding tale of Ikhlaq's ever-changing life, and the document that chronicles his family's long history going back to Persia serves as the imaginative soundboard of his life. Mixing the narrative styles of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic myth and legend with fast-paced contemporary prose, Husain proves once again his mastery of diverse narrative forms.

Author: Kim Barker
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385533322
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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A true-life Catch-22 set in the deeply dysfunctional countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, by one of the region’s longest-serving correspondents. Kim Barker is not your typical, impassive foreign correspondent—she is candid, self-deprecating, laugh-out-loud funny. At first an awkward newbie in Afghanistan, she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about our ability to win hearts and minds in the region. In The Taliban Shuffle, Barker offers an insider’s account of the “forgotten war” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, chronicling the years after America’s initial routing of the Taliban, when we failed to finish the job. When Barker arrives in Kabul, foreign aid is at a record low, electricity is a pipe dream, and of the few remaining foreign troops, some aren’t allowed out after dark. Meanwhile, in the vacuum left by the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban is regrouping as the Afghan and Pakistani governments floun­der. Barker watches Afghan police recruits make a travesty of practice drills and observes the disorienting turnover of diplomatic staff. She is pursued romantically by the former prime minister of Pakistan and sees adrenaline-fueled col­leagues disappear into the clutches of the Taliban. And as her love for these hapless countries grows, her hopes for their stability and security fade. Swift, funny, and wholly original, The Taliban Shuffle unforgettably captures the absurdities and tragedies of life in a war zone.

Author: Ikram Sehgal
Publisher: OUP Pakistan
ISBN: 9780199066070
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The first Prisoner of War (PW) to have escaped from an Indian PW Camp in Pakistan's history, Ikram Sehgal's narration about his incarceration and eventual escape in 1971 is dark account of life in Indian custody, yet at times is surprisingly humorous and captures the never-say-die human spirit.

Author: A. Manzar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781608762064
Category : Insurgency
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The book is a focused area study of the emergence of the Taliban in Pakistan, with consequent repercussions for regional security. The book engages in profiling the Pakistani Taliban Warlords like Baitullah Mehsud (who has been categorised as more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden), Fazlullah (who has transformed a hitherto peaceful Pakistani area into a Taliban and Al-Qaeda haven) and Mangal Bagh etc. in minutiae and bringing their organisations, personal traits, terror tactics and links with terrorist organisations under extensive scrutiny. A detailed analysis of the widespread ideology of Deobandi and Salafi thought patterns throughout Pakistan's tribal areas is undertaken, along with the international and Pakistani responses to rise of the same. The impact of Talibanisation on society and its aftermaths are discussed, with a view to projecting future trends. The resurgence of the Taliban in Pakistan, their organisation centres, their ideological basis and seminaries from where they get their religious sanction are mapped out in meticulous detail, along with a detailed look at suicide terrorism in Pakistan, besides in depth analysis of the factors radicalising the Pakistani society. This is the first book of its kind which engages with the phenomenon of the emergence of the Taliban in Pakistan in such minute detail, and will prove invaluable to strategists and general readers alike about the subject.

Author: Declan Walsh
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393249921
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Winner of the 2021 Overseas Press Club of America Cornelius Ryan Award The former New York Times Pakistan bureau chief paints an arresting, up-close portrait of a fractured country. Declan Walsh is one of the New York Times’s most distinguished international correspondents. His electrifying portrait of Pakistan over a tumultuous decade captures the sweep of this strange, wondrous, and benighted country through the dramatic lives of nine fascinating individuals. On assignment as the country careened between crises, Walsh traveled from the raucous port of Karachi to the salons of Lahore, and from Baluchistan to the mountains of Waziristan. He met a diverse cast of extraordinary Pakistanis—a chieftain readying for war at his desert fort, a retired spy skulking through the borderlands, and a crusading lawyer risking death for her beliefs, among others. Through these “nine lives” he describes a country on the brink—a place of creeping extremism and political chaos, but also personal bravery and dogged idealism that defy easy stereotypes. Unbeknownst to Walsh, however, an intelligence agent was tracking him. Written in the aftermath of Walsh’s abrupt deportation, The Nine Lives of Pakistan concludes with an astonishing encounter with that agent, and his revelations about Pakistan’s powerful security state. Intimate and complex, attuned to the centrifugal forces of history, identity, and faith, The Nine Lives of Pakistan offers an unflinching account of life in a precarious, vital country.

Author: Barney White-Spunner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781471148033
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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The International Bestseller 'Barney White-Spunner's book stands out for its judicious and unsparing look at events from a British perspective.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Review 'This book is at its most powerful in its month-by-month narrative of how Partition tore apart northern and eastern India, with the new state of Pakistan carved out of communities who had lived together for the past millennium.' Zareer Masani BBC History Magazine 'A highly readable account . . .' Times Literary Review Between January and August 1947 the conflicting political, religious and social tensions in India culminated in independence from Britain and the creation of Pakistan. Those months saw the end of ninety years of the British Raj, and the effective power of the Maharajahs, as the Congress Party established itself commanding a democratic government in Delhi. They also witnessed the rushed creation of Pakistan as a country in two halves whose capitals were two thousand kilometers apart. From September to December 1947 the euphoria surrounding the realization of the dream of independence dissipated into shame and incrimination; nearly 1 million people died and countless more lost their homes and their livelihoods as partition was realized. The events of those months would dictate the history of South Asia for the next seventy years, leading to three wars, countless acts of terrorism, polarization around the Cold War powers and to two nations with millions living in poverty spending disproportionate amounts on their military. The roots of much of the violence in the region today, and worldwide, are in the decisions taken that year. Not only were those decisions controversial but the people who made them were themselves to become some of the most enduring characters of the twentieth century. Gandhi and Nehru enjoyed almost saint like status in India, and still do, whilst Jinnah is lionized in Pakistan. The British cast, from Churchill to Attlee and Mountbatten, find their contribution praised and damned in equal measure. Yet it is not only the national players whose stories fascinate. Many of those ordinary people who witnessed the events of that year are still alive. Although most were, predictably, only children, there are still some in their late eighties and nineties who have a clear recollection of the excitement and the horror. Illustrating the story of 1947 with their experiences and what independence and partition meant to the farmers of the Punjab, those living in Lahore and Calcutta, or what it felt like to be a soldier in a divided and largely passive army, makes the story real. Partition will bring to life this terrible era for the Indian Sub Continent.

Author: A.S. Dulat
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9352779266
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Pointing to the horizon where the sea and sky are joined, he says, 'It is only an illusion because they can't really meet, but isn't it beautiful, this union which isn't really there.' -- SAADAT HASAN MANTO Sometime in 2016, a series of dialogues took place which set out to find a meeting ground, even if only an illusion, between A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani. One was a former chief of RAW, India's external intelligence agency, the other of ISI, its Pakistani counterpart. As they could not meet in their home countries, the conversations, guided by journalist Aditya Sinha, took place in cities like Istanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu.On the table were subjects that have long haunted South Asia, flashpoints that take lives regularly. It was in all ways a deep dive into the politics of the subcontinent, as seen through the eyes of two spymasters. Among the subjects: Kashmir, and a missed opportunity for peace; Hafiz Saeed and 26/11; Kulbhushan Jadhav; surgical strikes; the deal for Osama bin Laden; how the US and Russia feature in the India-Pakistan relationship; and how terror undermines the two countries' attempts at talks.When the project was first mooted, General Durrani laughed and said nobody would believe it even if it was written as fiction. At a time of fraught relations, this unlikely dialogue between two former spy chiefs from opposite sides--a project that is the first of its kind--may well provide some answers.