Aboard the Democracy Train
150 pages
English

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150 pages
English

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Description

A gripping front-line account of Pakistan's decade of turbulent democracy (1988-1999), as told through the eyes of the only woman reporter for the nation's leading newspaper.


‘Aboard the Democracy Train’ is about politics and journalism in Pakistan. It is a gripping front-line account of the country’s decade of turbulent democracy (1988-1999), as told through the eyes of the only woman reporter working during the Zia era at ‘Dawn’, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper. In this volume, the author reveals her unique experiences and coverage of ethnic violence, women’s rights and media freedoms. The narrative provides an insight into the politics of the Pak-Afghan region in the post 9-11 era, and exposes how the absence of rule of law claimed the life of its only woman prime minister.


The book is set during Pakistan's decade of turbulent democracy, which began when President Gen. Zia ul Haq's military rule abruptly ended with his plane crash. Then, as the only woman reporter at the nation's leading newspaper 'Dawn', the author was closely associated with late Benazir Bhutto's bid to become and remain the nation's first woman Prime Minister.


The book comes full circle from the Cold War era, when the events of September 11 forced Pakistan's military leaders to re-enter the U.S. orbit of influence. It is an account of why Benazir Bhutto fell victim to terrorism while her widower Asif Zardari is described as having taken on of the world's most daunting tasks of negotiating between a superpower and the military, amid a ferocious resurgence by the Taliban.


List of Figures; Preface; Introduction: The Effects of Partition; PART I: POLITICS AND JOURNALISM IN PAKISTAN; 1. Aboard the Democracy Train; 2. Ethnic Violence in Sindh: The MQM Saga; 3. News is What the Rulers Want to Hide; PART II: HUMAN RIGHTS; 4. Where Have All the Women Gone?; 5. Uncovering a Murder; PART III: TERRORISM IN PAKISTAN; 6. Pakistan in the Shadow of 9/11; 7. The Democracy Train Revs for Motion; Epilogue; Select Bibliography; Index

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Publié par
Date de parution 01 avril 2011
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9780857288943
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0050€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Aboard the Democracy Train
Aboard the Democracy Train
A Journey through Pakistan s Last Decade of Democracy
N AFISA H OODBHOY
CONTENTS
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction: The Effects of Partition
British Influences
Roots in Pakistan
Western Education vs. Culture
Karachi Loses its Religious Diversity
India s Migrants Flood Karachi
Political Challenges of the 1970s
Knowing the Real Pakistan
The End of Populist Rule
The Only Woman Reporter at Dawn Newspaper
PART I: POLITICS AND JOURNALISM IN PAKISTAN
Chapter 1: Aboard the Democracy Train
Getting to Know Benazir Bhutto
The Democracy Train Takes Off
Rural Sindh is a World Apart
The Masses Vote for the PPP
The Face of Sindhi Feudals
Democracy or Anarchy?
Eat from Jatoi, Vote for Benazir
Elections Were the Tip of the Iceberg
Unleashing the Dacoits
Benazir Fights Back
The Road to Islamabad
Chapter 2: Ethnic Violence in Sindh: The MQM Saga
Two Days that Sinned
The First Spark
Pashtuns Take Revenge
Pashtuns and Punjabis Ally
An Early Karachi Discord
September 30 Accused Go on Trial
Operation Clean-up Splits the MQM
Benazir Issues Shoot to Kill Orders
Karachi s Killing Fields
The MQM Saga Lives On
Chapter 3: News is What the Rulers Want to Hide
What are you Writing? You re Writing too Much
It was the Best of Times, it was the Worst of Times
1991: A Year of Living Dangerously
The Press Fights Back
Knives Were Used to Send a Message
An Historic Protest
What Price for a Free Press?
Exchanging Places With Daniel Pearl
Pearl Becomes a Player in Media Politics
A Brave New Media
PART II: HUMAN RIGHTS
Chapter 4: Where Have All the Women Gone?
Cry Rape to Get a Visa to Canada
The Nurses Rape Case
A Young Man Flees the Moral Jury
Breaking Out of the Veil and Four Walls
Poorest Women are the Victims
What Hope for Women?
A Powerless Woman Prime Minister
Brides of the Quran
Women are Broken to Break Benazir
The Beijing Conference on Women
Whither Women?
Chapter 5: Uncovering a Murder
A Young Woman Disappears
Missing Girl was Murdered
Fauzia s Murder Makes Waves
Accused Member of Parliament Runs Away
Murder s Impact on Society
We Hunt Together for the Killer
Women Surprise Government Legislators
History is Made
A Woman is Offered in Exchange
Follow Your Heart - A Friend s Advice
Tying the Knot
Caught Taking Bribe, Released Giving Bribe
Hope Arrives in the Form of a Muslim Cleric
The Past is Never Forgotten
PART III: TERRORISM IN PAKISTAN
Chapter 6: Pakistan in the Shadow of 9/11
Why do They Hate US?
The Chickens Were Primed to Come Home to Roost
The Mujahideen in Pakistan
The View From Soviet-Dominated Kabul
Fleeing Militants Massacre my Christian Friends
9/11 Gives License for Disappearances
Running With the Hare and Hunting With the Hound
The Taliban Sets up Shop in Pakistan
Drones Attack Last Refuge for Jihadists
Pakistan in 2007 AD
A General Loses Face
Chapter 7: The Democracy Train Revs for Motion
A Prime Minister in Waiting
Democracy is the Best Revenge
Squaring Off with a Potential Adversary
The Chief Justice Notices the Disappeared
Dressing the Wounds of Balochistan
Musharraf s Emergency Breaks
The Rawalpindi Conspiracy
A Mourning Federation Catapults the PPP to Power
The Swat Operation
The Army Takes On the Pakistani Taliban
No Stops on the Democracy Train
Epilogue
Pakistan s Epic Monsoon Floods
Select Bibliography
Index
LIST OF FIGURES
Front Cover
Benazir Bhutto addresses supporters at Kotri railway station in Sindh on May 30, 1979 - Photo by Zahid Hussein.
Map 1
Map of Pakistan.
Figure 1
Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto addresses public meeting in Pishin, Baluchistan on March 1, 1977.
Figure 2
Benazir Bhutto in her ancestral home town of Larkana, Sindh
Figure 3
MQM chief Altaf Hussain addresses election rally in Karachi.
Figure 4
JSTPP chief Qadir Magsi addresses a rally in Larkana, June 12, 2009.
Figure 5
Newspaper article of author after attack on September 23, 1991.
Figure 6
Karachi journalists protest attack against press on September 30, 1991.
Figure 7
Women protest against religious fundamentalism on February 12, 2009 in Lahore.
Figure 8
PPP parliamentary leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro addresses Sindh Assembly.
Figure 9
JUI (F) Chief Maulana Fazulur-Rehman addresses rally in Sukkur, Sindh on September 26, 2004.
Figure 10
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Chief Baitullah Mehsud in Sararogha, South Waziristan on February 7, 2005, shortly before he signed the peace deal with the Musharraf administration.
Map 2
Map of FATA.
Figure 11
PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto is welcomed on her return at Karachi Airport on October 18, 2007.
Figure 12
Protest rally against enforced disappearances of nationalist leaders of Sindh and Balochistan, taken in Hyderabad, Sindh on July 1, 2007.
Figure 13
Excerpt of Benazir Bhutto s will.
Figure 14
Paramilitary personnel patrol a road in Bajaur tribal agency on February 28, 2009.
PREFACE
T his is a book about politics and journalism in Pakistan, told through first-hand experiences. It is one I have long wanted to write because of my access to people, places and events that are normally hidden from public view. By relating my personal experiences, I hope to give an original insight to Pakistan and reveal who really rules the country, as well as expose the enormous effects that being in the US s orbit of influence has had.
In 1984, I began my career at Dawn newspaper as its only female reporter, just as Benazir Bhutto made her bid to become Pakistan s first woman prime minister. That year, I had come back from the US, armed with a master s degree in history and a dream, not only to work for the nation s most established newspaper, but to also effect change while working within the bounds of its staid but reliable coverage. As an energetic, young, Western-educated woman, my editor bypassed senior male reporters and deputed me to cover Benazir and her Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
That decade of tumultuous democracy, which marked the onset of civilian rule and the end of 11 years of military dictatorship, would reveal to me why Pakistan has stubbornly resisted change. As an insider, my experience informs the reader on how the establishment - acting in collusion with feudal lords, tribal chiefs, ethnic and mafia groups - has worked against untidy civilian rule.
As a journalist in Pakistan, I constantly walked a tightrope, informing readers about the machinations of corrupt and dishonest military and government leaders, all the while working for a newspaper that often depended on the goodwill of the establishment. In attempting to get the inside story, I often found myself skating on thin ice and this book relates some of the narrow escapes I had from violently enforced censorship.
My status as a female journalist in a Muslim society inadvertently defined my career. In a society already laden with archaic customs, I covered Islamic legislation that aimed to tie women to medieval ways. The laws were supposedly meant to protect women, yet all around me women were raped and murdered, without recourse to justice. This only motivated me further to use my influence as an insider journalist.
The book focuses primarily on the decade of democratic rule (1988-99) when as a political reporter I had a front seat on history. Again, as a US-based academic and journalist from 2000 to the present, I have shared my unique perspective on Pakistan s politics since it partnered with the US. Whilst the post-9/11 alliance opened the door for Benazir s PPP to return to power, it culminated in her murder and exposed the conspiracies and intrigue that are woven into the nation s political fabric.
This book carries the reader through the issues that face a complex society like Pakistan, in which the population spins out of control, violence breeds because of the total collapse of judicial institutions and the situation for women is one of the most difficult in the world. Indeed, the region is a ticking time bomb - and one that teems with conspiracies that threaten it, not only internally, but also on a global scale.
I was only in my late twenties when I began an exciting career as a journalist in Pakistan. As a young, idealistic woman I began with a clean slate and without any preconceived notions of the complex interplay between politics and society. Back then, I worked according to the news industry s modus operandi to cover breaking news. Given that journalism is often described as literature in a hurry, and I was too busy gathering facts to form a proper narrative at the time, this book is an attempt to unpack the message.
In essence, I hope to give a human face to a region associated with stereotypical images of Muslim women and terrorists. In offering a nuanced picture of Pakistan, I want readers to appreciate the fascinating kaleidoscope of its recent history. It is a nation riddled with contradictions, where the past and present live side-by-side and where the more things change, the more they remain the same.
It is with the intent

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