Chequered Past, Uncertain Future

Tahir Kamran is Head of the Department of the Liberal Arts at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Director of the Khaldunia Centre for Historical Research and the editor of the Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies. His books include Colonial Lahore: A History of the City and Beyond (with Ian Talbot, 2017).

• Introduction by Ian Talbot1 From Pre-Historic to the Early Modern Era: 3800 bc to ad 1707 2 The British Rule and the Rise of Muslim Nationalism 3 Bloodied Partition and Punjab’s Bifurcation: 1947 4 Multiple Challenges, Limited Options: Making sense of the Early Problems5 Faltering Years of a Nascent State, 1947–586 Praetorianism Unbound (Ayub Khan’s Rule), 1958–697 Praetorianism Under Gen. Yahya Khan and East Pakistan’s Separation, 1969–718 The Era of Populism: Zulfi Bhutto, 1971–79 Piety and Praetorianism: General Zia ul Haq’s Reign, 1977–8810 The Rule of Troika and the Onset of ‘Establishmentarian Democracy’, 1988–9911 Pervez Musharraf: An Autocrat Re-Engineering Politics, 1999–200812 A Decade of Uncertainty: 2008–1813 Imran Khan Assumes Charge14 Regime Change and a Year of UncertaintyEpilogueReferencesBibliographyAcknowledgementsPhoto AcknowledgementsIndex

This comprehensive history of Pakistan sets as its tragic and acute frame the tension between democracy and religious ideology in the country . . . the best recent political history of the country, with a well-judged narrative of its crisis of legitimacy and sharp portraits of its major actors.