Book Shelf

Pakistan: At the Crosscurrent of History

Author: Larence Ziring Pages: 383; Price: Rs. 895 Manas Publications, New Delhi

Though published in 2005, this book by a long-time observer of Pakistan State and chronicler of unfolding events in that country that was carved out of British India in 1947,  offers food for thought to the observers of the present day scene characterized by an unending spat between two major political players – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML- Nawaz) and the Raymond Davis saga, which in essence is an ugly spectacle of a row of one-upmanship between the CIA and ISI on the one hand and the State Department and the Pakistan Foreign Office on the other hand.  Also to the students of political science who want to know answers to the nagging question, ‘Whither Pakistan?’

The blurb sets at rest any lingering doubts about the continued relevance of the book when it states the author’s interest in Pakistan’s quest clearly and unambiguously. ‘Forced into the spotlight by the international fight against terror, Pakistan has become a global player and an acknowledged nuclear power. Today, struggling to balance Western influences with internal demands, it stands poised at the very crosscurrent of history’.

Author of several authoritative works on Pakistan, Lawrence Ziring is eminently competent to undertake an astute analysis to track Pakistan’s history from the pre-partition period through independence in 1947, to its changing role in the Post-9/11 world. He has first hand knowledge of the country having lived there as an advisor to the Pakistan Administrative Staff College. As President of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and Consultant for the US State Department on internal security issues, he has had a ring side view of ‘the land of the pure’ as Pakistan’s founding fathers wanted the nation to be.

Like his ‘A political history’ of ‘Pakistan in the Twentieth Century’ (647 pages, Oxford University Press, 1997), this book presents a highly readable objective account of people and forces that rocked and shaped the destiny of country which has been radicalised beyond recognition.

After a quick recap of the events in the recent past, which formed the core of his earlier books, Lawrence Ziring focuses on the involvement of non-Afghan Muslims, the Arabs in particular, in the political whirlwinds of Pakistan. It is known that the Arabs have re-entered Afghanistan following the withdrawal of the Soviet Army.

His observations and conclusions on the two-nation theory, British colonial policy and the politics of the Congress in undivided India and its opposition to the Second World War will not find many takers firstly because they appear to be the work of a sanitary inspector in a hurry and secondly because they do no justice to the scholarship the author brings to bear on his work.

He doesn’t show any great enthusiasm in chronicling Indo-Pak relations. Ziring is inclined to take a Pakistan-centric view throughout the volume. His treatment of India was minimal but not hostile.

Ziring turns candid enough in putting across some facts, like for example, when he says: ‘the regions that comprised of the Pakistani nation were too disparate, too disrupted by the manner of the partition to fit into a design reflecting national identity and collective purpose”. He is almost preoccupied with, and his narrative is totally restricted to, the political developments in Pakistan since its inception.

Surprisingly, the author shows a tendency to see dictators in positive light, a courtesy he doesn’t extend to civilian leaders. For instance, he has nothing but praise for Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who he says, ‘was more benign than oppressive’.   

He paints Ayub as a secularist. How and why? ‘Ayub assumed a secular stance in his contest with the Islamists, and for him the country was too divided along ethnic, religious and geographic lines to adopt an absolutist interpretation of Islam’

Ziring comes down heavily on civilian leaders, particularly Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and holds them accountable for many ills afflicting Pakistan today.

Going by the author’s account, one gets the feeling that probably Bhutto deserved the end he was subjected to by his one time favourite general. Consider this remark. ‘His (Bhutto’s) resort to extreme measures, as well as his use of questionable tactics, had embittered wide sectors of the polity”. 

Turning to Baluchistan, Ziring holds Bhutto literally responsible for the ‘second civil insurrection to erupt in Pakistan within a period of five years’. All because of the ‘behaviour and ambition of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’. The first civil insurrection was the revolt in East Bengal, which resulted in the birth of Bangladesh.

Says Ziring, ‘by statesman’s like acts of compromise, Bhutto could have prevented the civil war (in the then East Pakistan). He chose not to do in large part because he believed that, no matter what the outcome of the conflict, he and the nation were better served by the secession of East Pakistan”.  

Intriguingly enough, the author pays no attention to the Shimla Agreement that had followed the end of Bangladesh war. Also to the Kargil conflict and to the lead players in the Kargil Act – Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif and the role played by US President Bill Clinton.

About the PML- N leader, who was at the helm of Pakistan at the time of Kargil war, Ziring has this to say: ‘His (Nawaz’s) administration was more like a Mughal court. Nawaz ignored the conventions of cabinet government… A pompous and sanctimoniously self-righteous individual, he trusted few and suspected almost everyone’.

While Ziring is more or less appreciative of General Zia, he withholds his stamp of approval for Musharraf.  He, in fact, blames the garrulous and highly opinionated General, saying that under him, ‘too many criminals have been provided safe haven in Pakistan simply because they professed an extreme attachment to Islam’.

Since he was writing his book during the Musharraf rule, the author had a word of caution and a word of advice alike. First he says, if Musharraf really wants to bring democracy to Pakistan, he should acknowledge the Army’s failed policy towards Afghanistan. Second he wants Musharraf to understand the “futility of sustaining the Kashmir dispute with India”. Ziring observes: ‘Neither situation is winnable. Both have played into the hands of the militants, drained the country of its limited resources and made a mockery of the pursuit of modern Government’.

What does Ziring think of Pakistan’s future? Well, in his considered opinion, Pakistan stands at croosroads after six decades of its existence as a nation state. He is not too optimistic about its future.

Despite his unconcealed pessimism, he observes ‘Pakistan has always been the master of its own destiny’. And goes on to say, ‘the country has endured much that is ignoble. It is time to accept the failure along with frailties and to nurture a generation of leaders unencumbered by blind doctrines’.

Difficult to disagree with the author’s conclusion!

 

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