Pakistan is presently the battle ground on which the unceasing war between the West and the international Islamic terror groups is being fought. After the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad and the case of Raymond Davis—an undercover CIA agent who killed two ISI agents in Lahore but was later released because of his diplomatic status—the relations between the once staunch allies Washington and Islamabad is at the lowest point in decades. How did they reach this point and how could they, for more than a decade, pretend to be fighting the same enemy together? Most importantly, what does the future hold for them and the rest of the world? Apocalypse Pakistan tries to answer these and more introspective questions, by analysing the political and cultural evolution of the Pakistani elite (generals, politicians, etc.) from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the present, on topics like the relationship with Afghanistan and China, terrorism and nuclear proliferation. The book is based on first person accounts, reportage and personal interviews with two generations of the Bhuttos, the Sharifs, Hamid Gul and also includes Mohammed Hafeez Saeed's first ever interview to a woman journalist. The book presents a multi-faceted history of contemporary Pakistan and offers a balanced view without taking sides or trying to offer solutions to govern the country.
Francesca Marino is an Italian journalist who has covered South Asia extensively. She writes regularly for Limes—Italian Review of Geopolitics and some of the most prestigious Italian and Swiss media. She won the Italian journalism prize 'II Luigiano d'oro' in 2010. She is the Chief Editor of Stringer Asia, an online magazine on South Asia published since 1995. Francesca is also a photographer and her photo reportage has been published in international magazines like Geo. Her previous publication was India in 100 Immagini published in 2007 by Laterza in Rome. She has also translated a few books on Indian philosophy from English into Italian.
Beniamino Natale is Senior Correspondent in ANSA (Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, i.e., National Agency of the Associated Press), the main Italian news agency, in China since 2003. From 1992 to 2002, he was the New Delhi bureau of ANSA. His last publication, L'uomo the parlava con i corvi (The Man who talked to the crows) was about his years as a correspondent in South Asia. He has made TV documentaries on Afghanistan, India and China.
Pakistan is what stories are made of. For the pan decade .d more,. least, there has hardly be. a moment when something exciting has not happened. The country has enormous potential. keep churning out stories, which is one of the many reasons the place was a hay. for 'breaking news' seeking journal,. from all over the world, who were also attracted . the country and myriad tales. This book is most definitely ...come of the authors who were drawn. it not just m see how stories unfold, take the time out weave these tales and them in their own way. A of what is written perception of the place and the people, their perso.1 interactions .d their a bilky to glean through a lot of secondary information. Though they .always through the lens of interested foreigners, they manage. One wonders how one can begin ...id...and a country with its fair share of inbuilt contradictions. You can not help becoming aware of how the same Pakistan known for honour-killings in some par. of the country also managed to twice elect a female prime the political skyline even after her assassination, allegedly by .e of the Taliban groups. She and her husband, the controversial Asif Ali Zarelari, who became Pakistan, 7th Preside. after her death in December 2007, or mien her areh .d political opponent Mian Sharif, appear less mode. and perhaps less liberal than the whiskey-guzzling, cigar smoking military dictator Pervez Musharraf. Indeed, viewed from a foreign angle, the swashbuckling military generals have always appeared more suave and modern than the country's politicians. Skimming through some of the existing literature on Pakistan, we come across commentaries even by renowned analysts and political scientists like Samuel P. Huntington that equate the country's almost 600,000 strong armed forces with modernity. People tend to also get distracted by terms like 'modern versus feudal', with the political class popularly denoting the former. In a European historical context, the term `feudal' presents strange images of people that are described as prisoners in the Middle Ages. However, it is critical to unlock the term 'feudal' when it applies in Pakistan's case especially since the traditional forms of feudalism have melted away and the concept has morphed into newer forms. Thus, characters like General Zia ul-Haq, who caught the author's attention because of his non-feudal background or General Pervez Musharraf, who, at a glance, comes from a middle-class background, are actually more feudal in their dealing, with the state and society. General Musharraf killed the Baluch leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in cold blood. In a later case of confrontation with the judiciary, he ordered his police to manhandle the chief justice of the Supreme Court and drag hint by his hair: an act of stark ego and vanity. Today, Pakistan's civil and military bureaucracies are predominantly middle class. Nonetheless, their tolerance for dissent, preference for an authoritarian state structure, crushing the opposition through use of violence or partnering with jihadis and the Taliban, make them no different from those that the popular political mythology demonises. In fact, private jails are maintained by the ethnic political party, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), which comprises mainly of people from middle-class backgrounds and is qualitatively not very different from the traditional waderas (feudal lords) in Sindh, who kill in the name of tribal honour and justice.
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