A 21st Century Perspective
Rethinking Pakistan brings together some of the best minds of the country and invites them to reflect upon the most pressing issues that it is facing in all spheres, including politics, external relations, environment, human rights, gender relations, religious fundamentalism, education, and freedom of expression. This edited collection is highly accessible to everyone.
About Book
This book brings together the leading contemporary currents of thought from a galaxy of established scholars and intellectuals of Pakistan. It is a monumental contribution to the national debate on a series of crises and lingering issues that need attention of the stakeholders all around.
The book covers three major areas of investigation into public life in the country. One, it delves into the historical, sociological and cultural causes of various political conflicts, ranging from the negative role of the educational curricula for national harmony to cultural violence and persistent militarism to the curse of enforced disappearances. There are highly analytical contributions that define the conflict-resolution nexus. Two, the book is a source of inspiration on the liberal agenda of creating a scientific frame of mind, setting the feminist debate in a global context, challenging the shrinking space for media and focussing on the largely forgotten area of industrial relations. Readers will find ample issue orientation in the analysis and policy orientation in the deliberations. Three, the book enters a domain of hope, planning for a bright future and focussing on some longer-term issues couched in comprehensive new approaches to development, environment, energy, foreign policy and feminism.
The scope of the book is amazingly wide, the analysis is rich with conceptual references and empirical finding, and the scholarly idiom is comprehensible for both the articulate section of the population and the scholarly community.
Reviews
Addressing the major social, economic and political issues facing Pakistan in a series of bracing arguments, this volume will be of interest to policymakers as much as to scholars and members of the reading public. It brings together in one place the most concise exposition and analysis of questions that all Pakistanis will have to grapple with over the next decade, and offers the reader clear options as to how they might be understood and addressed. — Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford.
Author Information
Bilal Zahoor is the founder and editorial director of Folio Books, a Lahore-based independent publishing house.
Raza Rumi is a policy analyst, journalist and author, and is currently the editor-in-chief of NayaDaur Media.