Daily Times

A History of Pakistani Literature in English 1947–1988

Tariq Rahman

This is the first history of literature written by Pakistanis, including those Indian Muslims who either migrated to Pakistan or whose work is highly relevant to the themes which engaged the writers of the new country in the years before Partition and immediately afterwards. It contains a historical account of the novels, drama, belles letters and especially of poetry written from the late 1940s till 1990 when the book was first published. It also contains a bibliography of these writings which is important as some of this material is untraceable.

Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan

Hector Bolitho

This book was the official biography of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It proved popular and, from the year of its first publication in 1954, it has been reprinted several times. For a full thirty years, it was the only internationally acknowledged work on Mohammad Ali Jinnah. In this book, Bolitho has collected anecdotes and assessments from a large number of Jinnah’s colleagues and acquaintances and has strung them together very skilfully upon a framework of the domestic events of Jinnah’s life and of the great political events in which he played so dominant a role.

We’ve Learnt Nothing from History

Pakistan: Politics and Military Power

M Asghar Khan

This book focuses on the entry of Pakistan’s armed forces into the country’s politics and the struggle for the restoration of democracy from 1968 onwards. The author played an important role in this struggle, leading a movement against Ayub Khan that resulted in his ouster, and later opposing Yahya Khan when he refused to hand over power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League after they won a clear majority in the 1970 elections. In addition, the author reviews the events that led to the re-entry, in 1999, of the armed forces into politics after a short and turbulent period of ‘democracy’, and provides some insights into possible political developments in Pakistan in the future.

Pakistan

A New History

Ian Talbot

Sidestepping easy headlines to identify Pakistan’s true dangers, this volume revisits the major turning points and trends of Pakistani history over the past six decades. While Ian Talbot’s study centres on Pakistan’s many failures—the collapse of stable governance, the drop in positive political and economic development, and, most of all, the unrealised goal of a Muslim state as envisaged by the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah—this book unequivocally affirms the country’s potential for a positive reawakening.

Negotiating the Siege of the Lal Masjid

Adam Dolnik and Khuram Iqbal

This book is a scholarly examination of how the Pakistani government attempted to deal with one of the most significant and challenging confrontations ever experienced between the state authority and the Islamic extremists. The authors see the siege through the eyes of those closest to the incident ‘whatever side they are from’, which makes the explanations real, and natural, and enables the reader to make sense of the accounts from the diametrically opposed sides; capturing the essence and intricacies of this complex incident.

Published in Daily Times, May 1^st 2018.