Reacting to political confederations of the 1950s between Egypt and Syria and then Jordan and Iraq, the Shah proposed to President Ayub Khan a confederation between ran and Pakistan with a single army and the Shah as the head of state. In 1971, Pakistan met its daily consumption of 60,000 barrels per day of crude oil by buying 50,000 barrels from Iran. The Shah of Iran was helpful, becoming the largest bilateral donor to Pakistan, providing $800 million in loans and credits till 1976. Rieck’s The Shias of Pakistan: An Assertive and Beleaguered Minority, Qureshi notes that Iran and Pakistan were members of the pro-West and anti- communist blocs CENTO and SEATO until 1979. I should say that it would be a calamitous if Pakistan were ever to become a Muslim state in an exclusive and intolerant way, for then Islam might become a far more disruptive force than the racial and linguistic differences which Islam at present overrides.” 1947, the Muslim community in the Indian subcontinent decided that there was still not enough common ground between the two communities, Muslims and Hindus, to remain united under a single government, given that the former British Indian Empire was to become independent and self-governing.”Įxplaining the role of religion and the risks associated with it, Toynbee made a statement which is perhaps at the crux of the crisis that the country faces more than five decades later: “A common adherence to Islam manifestly a force that binds a majority of the people of Pakistan together but now I am going to venture onto more controversial ground. In one of his reviews, Qureshi picks apart historian Arnold Toynbee’s insight on Pakistan from 1955: “A child of the strife that has arisen from the impact of Islam upon Hinduism.” Although it had been nearly 1,000 years since Islam established itself in Indian subcontinent, Toynbee rationalized the creation of the new state when he wrote “the pace of the psyche’s self-adjustment is so slow that, in A.D. Among the Muslim shrines which received state patronage were the shrines of Data Darbar and Mian Mir (Lahore), Hazratbal and Shah Hamdan (Kashmir), Pir Mitha (Wazirabad) and Sakhi Sarwar (Dera Ghazi Khan) in addition to support for eminent families such as Syeds in Multan, Peshawar and Bannu as well as descendants of Baba Farid in Pakpattan and Bahauddin Zakariya in Multan. Nearly 7 percent of the state revenue was spent on religious institutions. Ranjit Singh was liberal in extending state patronage to Sikh, Hindu and Muslim institutions. The rise and fall of the Sikh Empire is a fascinating tale of the courage and sagacity of Ranjit Singh followed by the incompetence and avarice of his unworthy successors, who squandered it away in 10 years due to intrigue and internecine warfare powered by gendered family politics. Ranjit Singh’s sprawling Sikh Empire, which extended from areas of Afghanistan on the northwest to Tibet on the northeast, was a fusion of Mughal and Sikh traditions and embraced military ideas from the Europeans. Qureshi’s compilation begins by restoring historiographical balance in Pakistan’s “authorized version” of history by taking a look at Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Punjab. Taylor’s book of selected writings in New Delhi, I have authored my debut book: a symposium of essays and book reviews penned in five cities during the last 15 years.” Taylor’s masterpiece The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918, set something off in him, as he sums up: “Nearly 25 years after buying A.J.P. With an introduction by Pervez Hoodbhoy, Qureshi’s book is a keepsake from a rare banker. from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, and, finally, a Masters in Finance from imperial College London, U.K. A compilation of author Ammar Ali Qureshi’s essays and reviews covers a gamut of the issues concerning PakistanĪuthor Ammar Ali Qureshi’s Views and Reviews (Folio Books 2021), collecting 39 published columns and book reviews, can be rated amongst the most readable books of the year, containing more political wisdom in 200-odd pages than most other recent texts.īorn in Lahore, and educated in Pakistan, Iran and United Kingdom, Qureshi holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, in addition to an M.BA.
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