Pakistan: Democracy, Terror and the Building of a Nation.

• Author: Greener, Peter
• Position: Book review

PAKISTAN: Democracy, Terror and the Building of a Nation

Author: Iftikhar Malik

Published by: New Holland Publishers, London, 2010, 208pp, 9.99 [pounds sterling].

Pakistan: Democracy, Terror and the Building of a Nation is a comprehensive work which focuses in the main on the role of contemporary actors in the Pakistan political landscape: the military and political leaders (often one-and-the-same), lawyers, journalists and broader civil society. These actors and their organisations are clearly spelt out in a section at the end of the book entitled 'Political Parties and Players', which helps to illuminate the often confusing elements of Pakistan's political life. Within the 208 pages of the book the author successfully attempts not only to catalogue the most important contemporary events but also to provide a historical context.

The author begins by providing a clear appreciation of the social and historical development of Pakistan, taking account of its geographical and geo-political location. Whilst seeking to cast light on the three A's of current importance to Pakistan--Allah, the Army and America--the importance of civil society and the desire for democracy, law and a developing economy is a constant theme throughout. A succinct history of ancient settlement of the Indus Valley, and the wave upon wave of subsequent invaders, is followed by an exploration of the emergence of modern political movements in the 20th century. Here the author describes the tension between those who sought a pluralistic India, which would provide a homeland for Muslim and Hindu together with all of the 'minorities of a polyglot India', and those who sought the development of a Muslim political creed. Three major groups which emerged to contest the new future are described: the Islamist-nationalists, who sought a revival of Islamic life within a united India; the culturalist-modernists, who sought to develop Muslim nationalism in a separate nation; and the regionalists, who saw themselves as first and foremost Punjabi, Bengali, Sindhi and so on. The culturalists won, and the separate state of Pakistan emerged. Whilst the author makes a strong plea for the recognition of the vision of the founding fathers of modern

Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Muhammad Iqbal, who sought to prevent the Balkanisation of the region and develop a 'fair and just society', he nevertheless goes on to describe the shocking impact of Partition and in particular the horrors that...