Best of
Pakistan

2016

Memories Of My Future


Ammar Habib - 2016
    In Memories Of My Future, Dr. Avinash Singh is the type of surgeon that other physicians envy, and has the world in his hands. That is until tragedy strikes—and it’s a tragedy that puts him on the ropes, forcing him to revisit his greatest nightmares. It makes him realize that the successful life he had been living has been a façade. To overcome this, he will have to take a glimpse into the past and begin a journey that will teach him where true strength comes from. Along the way, he will see the heroism in his bloodline. He will witness the story of the first nation to defeat Genghis Khan’s army. He will walk alongside the revolutionary whose love for his wife was so strong that even the mighty British Empire could not break it. But the true message Avinash will realize is that the greatest gift Man has is their mind. And once the mind is unlocked, all the answers to Man’s problems will be right before their eyes.What Readers are Saying:"I have been reading books by and about South Asians this year, and this one was a light, inspirational one. I love the authors' belief in the beauty and strength of multiculturalism.""Great reading for anyone wanting an uplifting novel. The history of a person's ancestry could be inspiring for the descendants. This story can help anyone who reads it. It shows what faith in self and others, and the infinite to universe can do. If only the human world can understand that love can conquer all and PEACE can prevail."

Summers Under the Tamarind Tree: Recipes and Memories From Pakistan


Sumayya Usmani - 2016
    Winner 'Best First Book' - Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2016 Former lawyer-turned-food writer and cookery teacher Sumayya Usmani captures the rich and aromatic pleasure of Pakistani cooking through more than 100 recipes as she celebrates the heritage and traditions of her home country and looks back on a happy childhood spent in the kitchen with her grandmother and mother. While remaining uniquely its own, Pakistani food is influenced by some of the world's greatest cuisines. With a rich coastline, it enjoys spiced seafood and amazing fish dishes; while its borders with Iran, Afghanistan, India and China ensure strong Arabic, Persian and varied Asian flavours. Experience the wonderful flavours of Pakistan with: Aloo ki bhujia  (spicy potatoes with nigella seeds and fenugreek)Hyderabadi-style samosas, filled with red onion, mint and green chilliSweet potato and squash parathas Attock chapli kebab (mince beef flat kebab with pomegranate chutney)Cardamom and coconut mattha lassi, and many more sensational recipes.Learn to cook some of the rich, varied and delicious Pakistani dishes with this beautiful showcase of the exotic yet achievable recipes of Pakistan.

Pakistan at the Crossroads: Domestic Dynamics and External Pressures


Christophe Jaffrelot - 2016
    Contributors examine the state's handling of internal threats, tensions between civilians and the military, strategies of political parties, police and law enforcement reform, trends in judicial activism, the rise of border conflicts, economic challenges, financial entanglements with foreign powers, and diplomatic relations with India, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and the United States.In addition to ethnic strife in Baluchistan and Karachi, terrorist violence in Pakistan in response to the American-led military intervention in Afghanistan and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas by means of drones, as well as to Pakistani army operations in the Pashtun area, has reached an unprecedented level. There is a growing consensus among state leaders that the nation's main security threats may come not from India but from its spiraling internal conflicts, though this realization may not sufficiently dissuade the Pakistani army from targeting the country's largest neighbor. This volume is therefore critical to grasping the sophisticated interplay of internal and external forces complicating the country's recent trajectory.

The End of the Great Game: Was Pakistan the real US target?


Hasan M. Sadiq - 2016
    The world order created by the major powers at the end of World War II is now collapsing. The End of the Great Game is the first of such books that talks about the coming changes. This book captures the events of South Asia and the Middle East since the end of World War II and brings the reader to the 21st century which began with war's in Afghanistan and Iraq. The fallout of these wars have been catastrophic. It was not long after that large portions of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East found itself engulfed in bloody conflicts. This caused millions of people, and by some account over 8 million to leave their homes and move as refugees into neighboring countries, even as far as Europe.

Surkh Salam: Communist Politics and Class Activism in Pakistan, 1947-1972


Kamran Asdar Ali - 2016
    While much has been written about Pakistan, little is known about Communism or left-leaning politics in the country post-Partition which played a key role in shaping Pakistani politics today. Kamran Asdar Ali here presents the first extensive look at Pakistan’s communist and working class movement. The author critically engages with the history of Pakistan’s early years while paying special attention to the rise and fall of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP), from Partition in 1947 to the aftermath of Bangladeshi independence in 1971.

Of Smokeless Fire


A.A. Jafri - 2016
    Human beings cannot create or beget them, but whether it was a djinn or not, a rumour took birth that day that a djinn was born at the residence of Noor ul Haq, bar-at-law.So begins the story of a lifelong friendship between three unlikely children. Mansoor, the rumoured djinn, who balances his love and loyalty between his devoutly religious mother and his erudite, alcoholic father. Mehrun, the churail—a Medusa-like creature-who struggles to get an English-medium education, the elusive ticket out of poverty. And Joseph, the bhangi, a derisive name for a sweeper, who dreams of becoming a movie star as he cleans the toilets of the rich and powerful. Wearing their insults like a garland, they transgress society’s norm and follow their dreams. Their lives intimately tied to the vagaries of Pakistan’s politics, alternating between tragedies and triumphs.Of Smokeless Fire is a story about belonging and displacement. It is a reminder that belonging is not just about allegiance, and exile is not just physical. The novel asks the questions: Once you are ripped from your homeland, do you become homeless forever? What does it mean to live in a land that has forsaken you? Whether rooted or uprooted, is your relationship with your country conditioned by its politics?

The Pakistani Connection


Stuart Craigie - 2016
    His name was Naeem Fiazudin and before being recruited, he was an ex SAS soldier of Pakistani origin with an exceptional fighting record in Afghanistan. He discovered that Al Qaeda was currently being run by a far more powerful man in the background. After the CIA raid in Abbottabad, in which Ben Laden was killed, Al Qaeda and their Taliban allies, decided to use the skills of their new recruit to mount a raid on the Pakistani atomic bomb factory near Islamabad. MI6 came up with an ingenious and supposedly fail safe plan, which allowed the raid to go ahead and expose the danger that both MI6 and the CIA had for years feared, with the aim of forcing the Indian sub-continent to put their nuclear arsenal under international control as a step towards disarmament.Mike Sander, the new MI6 director had recruited Naeem Fiazudin together another ex SAS soldier, John Sebastian, who was severely injured and took up the position of an Al Jazeera investigative journalist. The two of them were close friends and took part in the Tora Bora raid in Afghanistan at the beginning of the hunt for Bin Laden. The journalist was the convert contact man for Naeem.The story relates the Odyssey of Naeem Fiazudin, starting with his recruitment in a Mosque in South London leading to him joining the Red Crescent organization in Pakistan and subsequent contact with the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the Swat Valley, where he had to prove himself. He was first asked to organize and mount a raid on the Pul- e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, where a brother of the Afghan Taliban leader Omar was being held and due to be executes. The raid was successful and he got the attention of a man known as the Sheikh in Dubai, who was the de-facto leader of the world wide Al Qaeda network, under the cover of a wealthy and successful businessman in the building industry.The Sheikh decided that his new recruit should train a team of the best Al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban fighter and mount a raid on the Pakistani Kahuta bomb making factory and steal four small portable atomic bombs. They would be aided by an inside man, who was an engineer in the end control, who was a devout Muslim and Taliban sympathizer. His job was to build in a GSM triggering device, so the bombs could be detonated anywhere in the world, in particular US and Europe. To this end the Sheikh had an ingenious plan. However, MI6 had also a high ranking Engineer in placed in the PAEC, which oversaw the Kahuta plant. His job was to disarm the bombs and place a small tracing and tracking device in them. Naeem would only be given the go ahead if he successfully accomplished this, just before the bombs were due to be collected.Something went wrong, and although the Sheikh and the top Al Qaeda leaders, were captured or killed in a meeting in Dubai, the control of the bombs got into the hands of the IS leader. Mike Sanders, together with Naeem Fiazudin and John Sebastian had to stop him using them before it was too late, because one of the bombs had not been neutralized. This bomb was traced to London.

Twenty Two New Asian Short Stories


Mohammad A. QuayumPriscilla S. Macansantos - 2016
    twenty-two stories in the volume, and this is how the tally stands country-wise: one each from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal and Pakistan; four from the Philippines, five from Singapore and eight from India. In this count, I have considered only the country of origin of the authors, because some of them have moved either to another country within Asia or to the West ... if we leave out the internal migrations within the continent, there are only three writers in this volume, who are based in the West, compared to ten in the previous volume which prompted one reviewer, renowned Bangladeshi poet Kaiser Haq, to ask half-humorously if the whole of Asia was in exile. “A Continent in Exile?” was the title of his review of A Rainbow Feast.

Desert Food Chains


Rebecca Pettiford - 2016
    Includes activity, glossary, and index."--

Cinema and Society: Film and Social Change in Pakistan


Ali Khan - 2016
    The multiplicity of voices and approaches enhances the appeal of this collection, which is the firstever to delineate the diversity in the cinematic and extra-cinematic traditions of Pakistan, as well as in the histories of production, exhibition, and reception. The work also highlights aesthetic and affective politics in relation to nationalism; Islamization in policy and practice; thebiopolitics of morality, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality; and the phenomenology of film exhibition and urban formation. The book incorporates rarely seen nostalgia items, such as pictures of studio shootings, as well as of film actors, film scenes, posters, and lobby cards.