The editor of this book, Maleeha Lodhi, is a well-known personality in Pakistan.

She also served in

executive branch of Pakistan and thus examined the policy and state structure of Pakistan at its core. In
the book under discussion, if said proficiently, she provided a ground for the field experts and analysts
to play their respective roles in discussion, that directly or indirectly supplements the title of the book.
The script is directed towards writing the review of this book, Pakistan Beyond the Crisis State. It would
initiate the discussion by describing the main theme of book that is presented by Maleeha Lodhi herself
and will go on to discuss the systematic as well as fundamental challenges and possible remedies
thereto, that are discussed by various authors in the book. Eventually the script would take a stance as
to how all this discussion is supplementing the main theme/objective of book by Maleeha Lodhi that is
that all issues in Pakistan’s system and challenges faced by it, can be remedied by taking reasonable
steps as all these problems took birth with the birth of this country and have evolved themselves over
the course of time. It can be said that these challenges and issues are entrenched along with state
structure. But the point to be focused on is that, at the end, these problems have roots in the state and
its evolution is well known by the state. So, it can be remedied by considering and directly approaching
that roots.
The book is written in form of chapters and each chapter is discussed by relevant expert. In the Chapter
“Beyond the crisis state” which is written by Maleeha Lodhi. She emphasized more on the feudalism and
political dynasty that is running in the state. She argued that the major problem of Pakistan is
manipulated political system of Pakistan which pretends to be democratic but it is more inclined
towards dictatorship which is not of a man but of a privileged family. These points clearly suggest that
the writer is naming, the politician and rulers, for the destruction of Pakistan’s political system. The
chapter also pointed out patronage as the main component of Pakistan political system. But she also
emphasized in the book about remedying these problems. Her topic of discussion revolves around the
paradox of Pakistan as a weak state and a strong society. The possible remedy, suggested by this
chapter, over this is the intervention of society in political system. That means that the social values and
civilization should jump into the system to, on equitable basis, remedy this as it is the only possible
remedy that operates in contradiction to the dictatorship and rule by feudal lords. But the main
ingredient for this is absent and that is the political will. The next two chapters would discuss the role of
army as central element of Pakistan’s politics.
Shuja Nawaz in his chapter “Army and Politics” addressed the uprising issue in Pakistan nowadays. He
suggests in his chapter that for our better or loss, the army must not intervene in the matters of
government. This is a very relevant topic to be discussed now as this is the major issue Pakistan is facing
in the shape of current political tension. This point can be supported discussing it in legal boundaries as
the department of army is democracy deficit so they can never take the place of parliament as at least,
in theory, Pakistan is otherwise a democratic country. This point is also relevant with the Greek
philosopher Montesquieu’s principle of separation of power for the state. As the military department is
already accumulated with power and any further right or privilege conferred to them would inevitably
result in the abuse of power and it is evident from the history that over the years since Pakistan has
born, the military has not only intervened but ruled the whole system and the basis on which they have
done that are unknown. This chapter will be supplemented by the next chapter “praetorians and the
people” by Saeed Shafqat, which shows a mild hope the coming policies of Pakistan and the transition of
civil and military bureaucracy will restrict the military intervention in the politics.
The next chapter “Ideologically Adrift” by Zahid Haider, outlined the two major issues. First, is the
phases of incorporating Islam into state system and second is the radicalization of military and
empowering them. The chapter suggests the phases like in Bhutto’s tenure. He came up, bringing with
him, a concept of Islamic socialism. Subsequently, he banned alcohol and gambling and declare Ahmadis
as non-Muslims. He also presented an Islamic bomb to counter the Jewish, Christian and Hindus. This
phase of islamisation was overarched by the Islamizing concept of Zia Ul Haq. None of the institution
remained untouched by his concept. He has altered the course of history by incorporating, so rigorously,
the concept of islamisation in Pakistan. Then another big disaster created by Zia is the radicalization of
the military which arose concepts like jihadism in the military and it sufficiently overpowered the
military. In short, the chapter suggested as all know that dictatorship is a big tragedy for any democratic
nation, but the system of Pakistan is being dictated by using a tool called Islam. The dynastic political
families, Militants and Mullahs have used it to dictate and rule rather to govern the nation. Zaid Haider
presented the remedy for this that a subtle and rational approach should be taken towards religion and
the extent to which religion should intervene the system, should be clearly defined. This approach also
ends at a hope.
The next few chapters will talk about economic policy of Pakistan. Dr Ishrat Hussain in his chapter
“Retooling institutions” have emphasized on the importance of the institutions in the state. This chapter
outlined the priorities of Pakistan that are more over collecting the weapons for mass destruction. The
policy of system is ruled by two rationales. First, striving to win the next election and accumulating all of
the state’s abilities to point on that strive. Second is the rationale of military to overpower the defense
of country and to overpower themselves at large. But the chapter goes on to provide that no policy, no
matter how well it is drafted, can be successful unless there is a strong institution that is holding its back
or regulating it. Subsequently, the chapter provides the remedy that is that the emphasis of policies and
state officials should at empowering the institutions so that they can strive to make the state prosper
and emerge as rival force against military intervention.
sIn the chapter “An Economic crisis state” by Meekal Ahmed, a leading Pakistani economist, he
emphasized the destructions faced by the Pakistan’s economy by different factors such as terrorist
attacks that cut short the reputation of Pakistan, intervention of Pakistan in external wars like Afghan
war, and the internal factors like making bad policies for economy and Phases of Islamization as
discussed above. This chapter emphasized on the factors that destructed the economy structure of
Pakistan but which was brought by state himself by adopting wrong policies. It can be supplemented by
above mentioned chapter of “retooling institutions” which suggests that Pakistan never had sufficient
strength of institutions that can implement or adopt any reasonable policy. If they ever had, then that
strength was overpowered by the eager of power. The next chapter “Boosting Competitiveness” by
Muddassar Mazhar Malik further supports the view of Meekal Ahmed. In this chapter, he noted that due
to personal grievance and also due to bad reputation of Pakistan, the international media have always
talked about the dark sides of Pakistan but as like the objective of this book, this chapter took an
optimistic view and suggested the strengths of country that can bring it to its highness both in terms of
reputation and also economically. First strength of Pakistan is in being resilient one. As Pakistan is a
developing country who welcomes every reasonable to invest here and Pakistan has practically did so
and proved to be most resilient. So, it can be a hub for international businesses. But US invasion
following 9/11 attack and Russian invasion of Afghanistan has exacerbated Pakistan’s security
challenges.
Secondly, God has bestowed Pakistan with all kind of natural resources from gold to oil and gas. Policies
should be adopted to benefit from that natural reservoirs. Thirdly, Pakistan is geographically an
exceptional country which makes it capable of being a hub for all kind of trade. This chapter highlights
certain strategies for increasing competitiveness and reaching its full potential. Next few chapters will
highlight certain factors that can also be strength if properly used and applied in Pakistan.
In the chapter “turning energy around” by Ziad Alahdad, the importance and significance of Pakistan’s
energy reservoirs are emphasized. It states that due to poor policy making and socalled circular debt has
curtailed the power supply. It outlines that for short term regulation of state affairs or personal affairs,
politicians have neglected the importance of these far-reaching policies. This chapter presented the
concept of IEP. He claims that Pakistan has the capacity to rapidly revive the integrated approach with
the assistance of supporting institutional structures. The next chapter which is far more beneficial than
everything else is the educational sector. In the chapter “Education as a strategic imperative” by Shanza
Khan and Moeed Yusuf they suggested that education should be seen as a fundamental right of
everyone. Besides this, they outlined the problems with Pakistan’s educational system. Firstly, our
educational system has failed to reach a large population. Secondly, system was unable to deliver quality
education and also it failed to provide quality livelihoods or jobs to the educated. This threat is rising
with rise in population. This chapter emphasized the need for reform of educational system. The next
chapter “Pakistan as a nuclear state” by Feroz Hassan Khan just outlined the benefits and needs of
nuclear energy and need to adopt certain strategies to preserve and increase nuclear energy as it will
strengthen the defense of Pakistan. The final section of this chapter concludes with potential future
trajectories for Pakistan over the next decade.
Munir Akram's chapter 'Reversing Strategic Shrinking' highlights the current strategic challenges to
Pakistan ranging from Pakistan's involvement in Afghanistan, economic stagnation and energy crisis.
Ahmed Rashid in his chapter The Afghan Conundrum' highlights the problems of Afghanistan in the
backdrop of NATO exit and the critical role of Pakistan for the peace talks. In the last chapter Dr Syed
Riffat Hussain, talks about the troubled relations between India and Pakistan and also lists many
occasions when agreements have been reached as a reminder that good relations are beneficial for both
the countries.
After all the above discussion, Maleeha Lodhi again takes the charges by explaining various policies to
overcome the challenges that the country is currently facing. She further asserts that no policy could be
implemented without a political will.
All the chapter above have outlined the problems, regarding their field, faced by Pakistan and
subsequently presented remedies and suggested ways by which that problems can be rectified. This
discussion eventually established that all the authors, in their view, have supplemented the main
rationale behind writing this book. If presenting the review of the book in short sentence, it can be
stated that “hope triumphed over facts.” Thus, the stance mentioned at start of script is sufficiently
established till now that states that all the problems that Pakistan is facing can be remedied by directly
encountering the roots of that problems.