Author: Ian Talbot
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 432
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195650735
Description
In this work, Ian Talbot charts the problems, which have beset Pakistan since its chaotic birth in 1947. He begins by looking at the situation in British India of the late 1930s and '40s.
Although Pakistan is now a nuclear power, to some observers it remains a 'failed state', mired in violence, corruption and economic crisis. However, despite its chequered history of martial law and civil strife, it has always confounded its obituary-writers.
He begins by looking at the situation in British India of the late 1930s and '40s surveying how colonial rule and conflicting regional and cultural interests, compounded by refugee situation and the collapse of Indo-Pakistan relations after partition created entrenched difficulties for Jinnah's new state. Successive Pakistani regimes are then reviewed in the light of these and other institutional and social fault-lines, which have undermined democracy and consolidated the hegemony of the military and other unelected institutions.
Talbot goes on to explore the 'second Partition' of 1971 ( the establishment of Bangladesh), the intricacies of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's fall from power, the Islamic dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, the collapse of Benazir Bhutto's two governments, and the coming to power of Nawaz Sharif, underlining their implications for Pakistan's future and pointing to the key issues which need to be addressed if stability is to be achieved.
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Glossary
Introduction
PART I
The Historical Inheritance
PART II
The Destruction of Pakistan's Democracy and Unity
PART III
From Bhutto to Zia
PART IV
Ever-Decreasing Circles: Pakistan Politics Since 1988
Conclusion
Appendixes
Pakistan Heads of State and Government
Biographical Notes
Pakistan Political Parties and Organizations
Select Bibliography
Index