Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself by Pamela Constable
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very enlightening book on the ails & ills of a country--with so much potential--that has, unfortunately, consistently gone awry. So much hope dashed; so many millions kept bound up in illiteracy & poverty--beholden to the rich, powerful land-owners (tenants), political party big-whigs, and all-pervasive, dominating military forces (& notorious ISI). A country & government & governing bodies shot through with corruption. So much potential; so much negligence & waffling. So much double-talk. Constable's title states it frankly--this is a nation that has been at war with itself and one that has continually played with fire, almost losing control in recent years, due to the double-dealing of the military/ISI with the Pakistani (al-Qaeda-fueled) Taliban. A good quote on the horrendous impact this has had across the nation: "THE GREAT SECTARIAN DIVIDE in Pakistan—the one that presents the gravest threat to domestic peace and regional stability—is not between Muslims and non-Muslims but between Sunnis and Shiites. abetted by both Iran and Saudi Arabia, which have spent huge sums to build rival mosques, seminaries, and universities on Pakistani soil. It has spawned militant hate groups on both sides whose exclusive aim is to wipe out the other, and who have no scruples about gunning down hundreds of people at prayer. Between 1999 and 2009, official figures indicate that more than a thousand incidents of sectarian violence took place across Pakistan, killing more than three thousand people. Shiites bore the brunt of these attacks, many of which took place in mosques packed with worshippers."

There are many good things about Pakistan & its cultures/peoples--but I agree that it has been overshadowed & eviscerated with the corruption, blindness, implacableness, and extremist Islamist leanings assiduously pushed under the military dictatorship of General Zia in the 1970s. Pakistan, in its relatively short national history, has not recovered from this yet...and doesn't look to for years to come. A sad, short-sighted, surreal history shot through with corrupting influences that have, unfortunately, sorely impacted its economic potential, as well as its rich ethnic heritage.


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