Current Affairs

Pakistan in the Twentieth Century Lawrence Ziring – OXFORD

Pakistan in the Twentieth Century Lawrence Ziring. This book by a leading scholar is the definitive history of Pakistan. Beginning with an examination of the people and forces that shaped the construction of an independent, predominantly Muslim state within the subcontinent, Ziring provides an incisive and comprehensive description of the events that influenced Pakistan’s development in the subsequent fifty years. Compressing the political history of Pakistan into a single volume has been a daunting task. Judging what was to be included and what omitted, how much detail and how much analytic rendering, challenged the author through the two years of its drafting. Needless to emphasize, the research for this volume began several decades ago when, as a young graduate student, I had my first opportunity to experience Pakistan close up. In some of these pages, therefore, the author could not avoid including some of his own recollections. Thus, although I have refrained from injecting myself into the story, I recognize that my account is sometimes influenced by the events I personally witnessed and the many people who shared their insights and performance with me. Arriving in Pakistan for the first time during the administration of H.S. Suhrawardy, I was able to observe the last segment of the initial parliamentary period. During the Ayub era, I was domiciled first in East, and later in West Pakistan. In subsequent years, I was exposed to the Bhutto and Ziaul Haq administrations, and in more recent times, to the Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif governments. Having devoted so much of my professional life to the study of Pakistan’s government and politics, this one-volume history was both a test and an opportunity, that is, a test of my scholarly capacity and an opportunity to raise significant questions. Pakistan in the Twentieth Century Lawrence Ziring. This book by a leading scholar is the definitive history of Pakistan. Beginning with an examination of the people and forces that shaped the construction of an independent, predominantly Muslim state within the subcontinent, Ziring provides an incisive and comprehensive description of the events that influenced Pakistan’s development in the subsequent fifty years.