This is a biography of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the story of the creation of Pakistan. At a time of much interest and concern about Pakistan in the international community, this volume provides a historical context which helps in an understanding of the present. It traces the development of the Muslim identity on the Indian subcontinent and follows Jinnah as he rode the wave of Muslim communalism to ultimate success in the demand for the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan at independence from British rule. Jinnah’s successful espousal of the demand for Pakistan was a remarkable feat. In achieving this success, Jinnah traversed a long distance from the beliefs with which he entered public life. He started out a nationalist, as a protégé of senior Congress leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji. However, the introduction of separate electorates for Muslims after the Minto–Morley reforms in 1909 led him to change his position in order to appeal to his changed constituency. Even so, it was not until 1937 that he unabashedly played the religious card. He now began to see the Congress and the Hindus as his adversaries rather than the British. Through these twists and turns of posture, the one constant factor was his underlying ambition to remain in a position of leadership and eminence. This volume traces the zigzag course of Jinnah’s political life and the establishment of Pakistan within the broader framework of the Indian freedom struggle. Indeed the main players in this struggle with three protagonists were the Indian National Congress and the British rulers. This work demonstrates how this bigger struggle opened the door for Muslim separatism led by Jinnah. It was through this opening, aided by British moves to use the Muslim League as a foil to the Congress, that Jinnah very astutely led his party to success in its demand for the creation of Pakistan.

This book focuses on the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure development project intended to connect Asia with Europe, the Middle East and Africa. By introducing a new analytical approach to the study of economic corridors, it gauges the anticipated economic and geopolitical impacts on the region and discusses whether the CPEC will serve as a pioneer project for future regional cooperation between and integration of sub-national regions such as Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Further, it explores the interests, expectations and policy approaches of both Chinese and Pakistani local and central governments with regard to the CPEC’s implementation. Given its scope, the book will appeal to regional and spatial sciences scholars, as well as social scientists interested in the regional impacts of economic corridors. It also offers valuable information for policymakers in countries participating in the Belt-and-Road Initiative or other Chinese-supported development projects.

In Pakistan at the Crossroads, top international scholars assess Pakistan's politics and economics and the challenges faced by its civil and military leaders domestically and diplomatically. Contributors examine the state's handling of internal threats, tensions between civilians and the military, strategies of political parties, police and law enforcement reform, trends in judicial activism, the rise of border conflicts, economic challenges, financial entanglements with foreign powers, and diplomatic relations with India, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and the United States. In addition to ethnic strife in Baluchistan and Karachi, terrorist violence in Pakistan in response to the American-led military intervention in Afghanistan and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas by means of drones, as well as to Pakistani army operations in the Pashtun area, has reached an unprecedented level. There is a growing consensus among state leaders that the nation's main security threats may come not from India but from its spiraling internal conflicts, though this realization may not sufficiently dissuade the Pakistani army from targeting the country's largest neighbor. This volume is therefore critical to grasping the sophisticated interplay of internal and external forces complicating the country's recent trajectory.

Winner of the 2021 Overseas Press Club of America Cornelius Ryan Award The former New York Times Pakistan bureau chief paints an arresting, up-close portrait of a fractured country. Declan Walsh is one of the New York Times’s most distinguished international correspondents. His electrifying portrait of Pakistan over a tumultuous decade captures the sweep of this strange, wondrous, and benighted country through the dramatic lives of nine fascinating individuals. On assignment as the country careened between crises, Walsh traveled from the raucous port of Karachi to the salons of Lahore, and from Baluchistan to the mountains of Waziristan. He met a diverse cast of extraordinary Pakistanis—a chieftain readying for war at his desert fort, a retired spy skulking through the borderlands, and a crusading lawyer risking death for her beliefs, among others. Through these “nine lives” he describes a country on the brink—a place of creeping extremism and political chaos, but also personal bravery and dogged idealism that defy easy stereotypes. Unbeknownst to Walsh, however, an intelligence agent was tracking him. Written in the aftermath of Walsh’s abrupt deportation, The Nine Lives of Pakistan concludes with an astonishing encounter with that agent, and his revelations about Pakistan’s powerful security state. Intimate and complex, attuned to the centrifugal forces of history, identity, and faith, The Nine Lives of Pakistan offers an unflinching account of life in a precarious, vital country.

In 1982, at the age of just twenty-three, Elspeth Beard left behind her family and friends in London and set off on a 35,000-mile solo adventure around the world on her motorbike. This is the story of a unique and life-changing adventure.