aWill there be civil war in Pakistan? Pakistan was the product of an ideological confection gown as the ‘two nations theory: This was a device invented by the Muslims in India with the purpose of carving out a separate state where they could develop unhindered by the dominant Hindu ruling class. In his hard-hitting survey of Pakistan today, Tariq Ali analyses its birth-pangs as a nation and the years from 1947 to the present, covering the political economy and the military dictatorships. He also assesses Pakistan from a geopolitical perspective — with particular reference to Afghanistan and Iran —and goes on to argue that the contradictions and tensions within the State, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and te Iranian Revolution have all contributed to Pakistan's chronic instability. «a Pelican Original ‘Comer sotoragh by Chis Yates oyPakistan has been in existence for thirty-five years. For half this period the country has been under the hel of the Pakistan Army, a mercenary force ppar excellence, whose major ‘successes’ have been politico-military cam- ‘paigns against its own population. Since the distintegration of Pakistan and the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971-2, the ruling élites have been in search of a new identity. The collapse of populism and the execution of the country’s first and last elected prime minister, Zulfigar Ali Bhutto, has posed the question of survival. For the frst time in Pakistan's chequered history, many ordinary citizens in the majority province of the Punjab and the minority provinces of Sind, Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) are questioning the birth of the new state. ‘The Pakistan army has been in power since $ July 1977. Ithas attempted to utilize Islam in order to institutionalize a brutal dictatorship. On the external front, the army has mortgaged the country to the United States ‘once again. In return, it has willingly agreed to help service and police the Gulf states. Everything is forsale in Pakistan: its labour force, its army, its ‘women, its doctors and teachers are all leased to the oil-rich oligarchies in the Arab Gulf, Pakistan's uniformed mercenaries in Saudi Arabia are, in fact, strong enough to mount a coup in that country, should the need ever, arise. Inside Pakistan itself, misery reigns supreme. The sense of demoralization and despair can be gauged by the fact that many people Took eagerly to India and even the Soviet Union for salvation from this régime. In reality, relief will come only from within. The length of this third period of military rule is directly correlated with the level of mass struggle in the country. If there isa renewal of urban unrest, this régime will fall ‘The problem, however, extends beyond the current dictatorship and its front-man. Ever since its inception, Pakistan has prevented its intelligentsia from discussing its own history. The poets (Faiz, Jalib, Fakhar Zaman, ‘Ahmed Salim, Fehmida Riaz and many others) have occasionally managed to loosen this ideological straitjacket. Elsewhere silence has prevailed, sometimes broken by the whispers of Baluch insurgents or the loud explo- sions of the Bengalis. The question which now increasingly haunts the new