BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Title: Pakistan: in the shadow of jihad and Afghanistan

Author: Mary Anne Weaver

Pages: 284 pages

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition (October 20, 2002)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0374228949

ISBN-13: 978-0374228941

Cover Page:

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 PAKISTAN: IN THE SHADOW OF JIHAD AND AFGHANISTAN

1. Background

(a) Title & Subject. “Pakistan: in the shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan”
presents the author’s personal journey through Pakistan, reconstructing,
largely in the voices of the key participants themselves from Zia to Musharraf.
The author provides an essential background on fundamentalism and Jihad,
tracing the roots to US Sponsored Afghan Jihad in early eighties.

(b) Author. Mary Anne Weaver is a foreign correspondent for “The New
Yorker”, and is the author of “A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the
World of Militant Islam (FSG, 1999)”. An Alicia Patterson Fellow for 2001, she
had travelled extensively in Pakistan and the Middle East and wrote a number
of books on the subject.

(c) Theme and Summary. The book is a collection of seven essays,

covering the geography of Pakistan from Baluchistan to Kashmir, tracing a
time span of around twenty years. The essays are narratives of authors
travels, interviews and observations specifically related to the elite class of
Pakistan. She has tried to restrict herself to facts and abstain from forcing her
own views, yet few very biased views have slipped from her pen.

2. Contents

(a) The book is divided in seven parts, starting from the events of 9/11
which triggers the author’s vivid images of the Pakistan which she had
extensively travelled. She is intermittently seized by random flashes of
memories about her previous visits and the reader seems to follow her
hypnotically across the meandering alleys of her thoughts.

(b) Post 9/11, while Pakistan is forced to side US in letter and spirit, the
former is entangled in a web of vicious circles where each step ends up in a
catch 22 situation. Musharraf is depicted walking on a thin rope balancing US
demands and national interests.

(c) Right in the middle of the discussion, the author venues into
Baluchistan, meeting the Nawabs and Sardars, trying to identify the roots of
discord between them and Pakistan. She travels extensively from Quetta to
Gawadar and meets students, politicians and intellectuals.

(d) Next she dwells in very minute details about the hunting of Hobura
Bustard by the Sheikhs of Middle East in the deserts of Sind and Baluchistan.
She goes at length explaining the details of the hunt, the fighting back of wild
life advocates and the helplessness of the government.

(e) From there she jumps to her memoirs about Benazir Bhutto, following
her life from childhood to power, a story of fear and hope and finally

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 arrogance. Then she returns back to 2002 and follows the events in the
shadow of Osama Bin Laden. The subject then drifts to Kashmir and the
author links the Kashmir struggle with Afghan war. The author asserts that the
recent wave of international terrorism and religious fundamentalism is in part
to be blamed to the US for establishing a formidable web of Jihadi outfits with
millions of dollars and weapons. The spillover, post cold war, could have been
averted if US would have remained committed to the region.

3. Evaluation

(a) The author offered glimpses of events and interviews and left more for
the reader to crave and think. Hence the subject is not covered in detail, nor
does it have any in depth analysis. At times, the discussion seems to be going
astray, but keeps the reader glued because of the style of storytelling.

(b) The author has not proposed any distinctive thesis or personal
viewpoint on the subject. Occasional disjointed comments or viewpoints do
not propose any one single point of view. However, the most assertive
argument is that US is partly responsible for the mess in Pakistan and
Pakistan cannot be left alone in the fight to recovery. An unstable Pakistan
disturbs the equilibrium of the whole world.

(c) Masterfully written in first person, the book captures the readers’
imagination almost instantaneously. The author sweeps the reader along
with her across the rocky mountainous terrain of Baluchistan, Northern
Pakistan and Kashmir. However, flashing back and forth in time and space at
times confuses the reader and the chronology of events is lost in between.

(d) The lucidity of expression and the fluency of her language do not allow
the interest of the reader to sag at any point that is what makes the book
interesting and readable. Her provoking remarks and comments compel the
reader to yearn for more.

(e) The author has tried to remain neutral, narrating only the events and
interviews as facts. However, through deliberate slips of pen, she had shown
a bit of bias towards her own homeland. Similarly, she narrated few, very
simple events with a twist in the end that shocks one’s mind and raises
questions and doubts.

(f) This is a good read for a casual reader as it divulges on the subject in
the form of storytelling. However, for an academic or research work, it does
not provide any authentic or well referenced information.