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SLEEPWALKING TO SURRENDER
₨ 2,595Pakistan is still on the brink of becoming a failed state as a consequence of its decades-old practice of using proxy warriors in the region. Because of the weakening of the writ of the state, neither governance nor the economy can function normally; in fact, some say the two strong entities in today’s Pakistan are the Taliban and the army. Non-state actors, and the extremist terror outfits they control, pursue extortion, kidnapping and murder to fund their activities, and receive ideological, financial and logistical support from the deep state.
The army continues to use them in its India-centric agenda. Civilian institutions are intimidated and individuals who speak out against the terror outfits become targets of their retribution. Violence, not law, increasingly commands human conduct, and the state’s willingness to enter into ‘peace talks’ with the Taliban is viewed as a form of surrender to extremism. Khaled Ahmed is Pakistan’s most respected columnist, and his formidable expertise on the ideologies of extremism is internationally acknowledged. In Sleepwalking to Surrender, he analyses the terrible toll terrorism has taken on Pakistan and appraises the portents for the future.
ISBN: 9780670088966
Publisher: PENGUIN VIKING
Subtitle: DEALING WITH TERRORISM IN PAKISTAN
Author: KHALED AHMED -
RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS IN PAKISTAN
₨ 995The paradox of General Musharrafs years in power was that he was a “liberal” ruler under whom Pakistan became a religious- extremist society. He advocated ‘enlightened moderation’ but was rebuffed by a people most in need of enlightenment and moderation. Terrorism flourished under him in the shape of new religious attitudes and as a reaction to his largely successful foreign policy that included cooperation with the United States in the war against terrorism and normalization of relations with India after his ‘Kargil blunder’ in 1999. He was probably the most creative handler of the Kashmir issue since independence but was unable or unwilling to counteract the jihadi organizations intent on undermining his governance. The surge of sectarian violence during his time was in no small measure owed to his use of ambivalence as a tool of policy. It is therefore an irony that violence and terrorism escalated in defiance of his liberal mission statement. This 1)00k records tins phenomenon and examines the mainsprings of General Musharrafs failure as a ruler. It thus also foreshadows and explains the chaos that has engulfed Pakistan’s resumed democracy after 2008.
ISBN: 9789694025391
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS
Subtitle: The Musharraf years – 1999-2008 – Vol 2
Author: KHALED AHMED -
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN PAKISTAN
₨ 995General Musharraf was not as disliked in Pakistan in 1999, when he seized power, as he was in 2008 when he lost it. Before we bur him in history as vet another autocratic ruler, it is important to go back and see what he did right together with much that he did wrong. In some ways he was go 0(1 for Pakistan within the dictatorial paradigm of Pakistan because he was a ‘liberal’ ruler after a decade of General Zia ul Haq’s ‘religious’ rule. Pakistan has buried Zia in its archives of ‘dismissed’ dictators but remains conscious of the fact that much of what he imposed as Islamisation has been internalized by Pakistani society. Should this also be true of General Musharraf? Have we internalized some of the liberalisation that lie imposed on us This book makes a fair assessment of his foreign policy which was, by and large, successful, and his tolerance of women and the minorities, without sparing him for failing in some of the liberal reforms lie had undertaken, and his weakness vis-à-vis the jihadi organizations and the army he headed.
ISBN: 9789694025384
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS
Subtitle: The Musharraf years – 1999-2008 – Vol 1
Author: KHALED AHMED -
PAKISTAN
₨ 995If democracy in Pakistan collapses repeatedly because of military takeovers, why have the army chiefs of Pakistan been in trouble since the death of General Zia? If the ISI is the most powerful institution in Pakistan, why are its chiefs removed unceremoniously from their jobs and sometimes put under trial? If Pakistan is a security state, who is in charge of deciding matters of security? If the government and the various permanent institutions of the state formulate policy, why are non-government jehadi organisations allowed to make their own decisions affecting the security of the state? Is the security of Pakistan linked to the interest of the state or to its emotion? Does the nuclear device give Pakistan its security through deterrence? Why is Pakistan’s bomb less safe for the world than India’s? Why is the Muslim scientist prone to being a fundamentalist? How does Islamic faith affect a state employee’s training of obedience to legal authority? If the economist all over the world is known as an opponent of war, why is the Pakistani economist ready to co-exist with Pakistani rulers’ warrior inclinations? How is the clergy’s vision of the state different from that of the non-clerical Pakistani, and how does he successfully dictate it to the state? Why is the average Pakistani continuously deluded about the United Nations and insists on invoking provisions that are non-existent? Can Pakistan live next to India without fighting unsuccessful wars with it and without capitulating? What will be Pakistan like in the next 25 years?
Khaled Ahmed was in the Pakistan Foreign Service from 1969 to 1978. He left it to become a journalist of distinction in The Pakistan Times. Then he was the Joint Editor of The Nation. Later he became the Editor of The Frontier Post. Since 1993, he has been the Consulting Editor of The Friday Times. He is a founder-member of Track-two Neemrana Dialogue between India and Pakistan.
ISBN: 9694023652
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS
Subtitle: THE STATE IN CRISIS
Author: KHALED AHMED
