KARACHI
STAFF REPORT
Pakistan’s diversity and resilience have rarely figured in the single-issue focus of recent literature on the country. But that is now set to change, with the Oxford University Press’s (OUP) launching Pakistan: Beyond the ‘Crisis State’ on Friday.
The book has been edited by distinguished journalist and diplomat Maleeha Lodhi, and presents an alternate paradigm and a deeper understanding of the country’s dynamics that may help explain why Pakistan has confounded all the doomsday scenarios. The book brings together an extraordinary array of leading experts, including Ahmed Rashid, Ayesha Jalal, Zahid Hussain, Maleeha Lodhi, Akbar Ahmed, and Munir Akram, who debate Pakistan’s strengths and weaknesses and offer ways out of its current predicament.
Divided into 17 chapters and Lodhi’s introductory and concluding notes, the book provides an analysis of Pakistan’s political, economic, social, foreign policy, and governance challenges. It also discusses the complex interplay between domestic developments and external factors that are central to the Pakistan story, and explain the vicissitudes in its fortunes. Lodhi and her contributors argue that Pakistan and its people have the capacity to transform their country into a stable, modern Muslim state, but bold reforms will be needed to bring about this outcome.
Lodhi has twice served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, as well as Ambassador to the United Kingdom. She has been editor of two of Pakistan’s leading daily newspapers, The News and The Muslim. She served on the UN Secretary General’s advisory board on disarmament, taught at the London School of Economics, and has been a fellow at Harvard University and at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Centre. In 1994, Times magazine named her as one of 100 people who would help define the twenty-first century.
The launch ceremony was well-attended by diplomats, bureaucrats, politicians, academics, and the media. The evening featured a panel discussion with Institute of Business Administration Director Dr Ishrat Husain and Dr Maleeha Lodhi, with former senator and federal minister, Javed Jabbar, moderating the discussion. The debate brought to the fore some very important points about the challenges that Pakistan faces, and the latent capabilities and unrealized opportunities that exist in the country which could bring about a change in the country’s fortunes.
Earlier in her welcome address, OUP-Pakistan Managing Director Ameena Saiyid said that the contributors in this book have been able to look beyond the failures and misfortunes of the immediate present to envisage possible outcomes of the potential of Pakistan.
She further added that the distinctive feature of this book is that the writers have supplemented their analyses with clear and convincing recommendations on policy. Neil Tomkins, managing director of the international division of OUP-UK also spoke on the occasion.
