Dispatches from Pakistan
By: Madiha R. Tahir, Qalandar Bux Memon, Vijay Prashad, editors
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780816692231; 9780816692248
Subjects: Politics and government; Foreign relations
Description: " Since 9/11, Pakistan has loomed large in the geopolitical imagination of the West. A key ally in the global war on terror, it is also the country in which Osama bin Laden was finally found and killed--and the one that has borne the brunt of much of the ongoing conflict's collateral damage. Despite its prominence on the front lines and on the front pages, Pakistan has been depicted by Western observers simplistically in terms of its corruption, its fundamentalist Islamic beliefs, and its propensity for violence. Dispatches from Pakistan, in contrast, reveals the complexities, the challenges, and the joys of daily life in the country, from the poetry of Gilgit to the graffiti of Gwadar, from an army barrack in Punjab to the urban politics of Karachi.This timely book brings together journalists, activists, academics, and artists to provide a rich, in-depth, and intriguing portrait of contemporary Pakistani society. Straddling a variety of boundaries--geographic, linguistic, and narrative--Dispatches from Pakistan is a vital attempt to speak for the multitude of Pakistanis who, in the face of seemingly unimaginable hardships, from drone strikes to crushing poverty, remain defiantly optimistic about their future. While engaging in conversations on issues that make the headlines in the West, the contributors also introduce less familiar dimensions of Pakistani life, highlighting the voices of urban poets, rural laborers, industrial workers, and religious-feminist activists--and recovering Pakistani society's inquilabi (revolutionary) undercurrents and its hopeful overtones.Contributors: Mahvish Ahmad; Nosheen Ali, U of California, Berkeley; Shafqat Hussain, Trinity College; Humeira Iqtidar, King's College London; Amina Jamal, Ryerson U; Hafeez Jamali, U of Texas at Austin; Iqbak Khattak; Zahra Malkani; Raza Mir; Hammad Nasar; Junaid Rana, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Maliha Safri, Drew U; Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, Lahore U of Management Sciences; Ayesha Siddiqa; Sultan-i-Rome, Government Jahanzeb Postgraduate College, Swat, Pakistan; Saadia Toor, Staten Island College. "--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: What Does Pakistan Mean? / Pakistan Ka Matlab Kya?  -- Habib Jalib; title: Introduction: Pakistan's Futures  -- Madiha R. Tahir, Qalandar Bux Memon, and Vijay Prashad; title: Several Dawns Over the Indus: three maps  -- Zahra Malkani; title: New Wine in Old Bottles  -- Aasim Sajjad Akhtar; title: The Neoliberal Security State  -- Saadia Toor; title: The Modern Mixed Economy of Pakistan  -- Maliha Safri; title: The Generals' Labyrinth: Pakistan and its Military  -- Ayesha Siddiqa; title: The Desperate U.S.-Pakistan Alliance  -- Junaid Rana; title: I'll be Your Mirror: The Politics of Pakistan's Populism  -- Madiha R. Tahir; title: Feminism and 'Fundamentalism' in Pakistan  -- Amina Jamal; title: Punjab in Play  -- Humeira Iqtidar; title: Blood on the Path of Love: Faisalabad, Punjab  -- Qalandar Bux Memon; title: Balochistan Betrayed  -- Mahvish Ahmad; title: A Tempest in My Harbour: Gwadar, Balochistan  -- Hafees Jamali; title: Swat in Transition  -- Sultan-i-Rome; title: Inside Militancy in Waziristan  -- Iqbal Khattak; title: Poetic Reflection and Activism in Gilgit-Baltistan  -- Nosheen Ali; title: The Nature of Conservation: Conflict and Articulation in Northern Pakistan  -- Shafqat Hussain; title: An Art of Extremes  -- Hammad Nasar; title: Will You Not See the Full Moon / Kya Tum Poora Chaand Na Dekhoge -- Fehmida Riyaz.