Pakistan: A Personal History

Born only five years after Pakistan was created in 1947, Imran Khan has lived his country’s history. Undermined by a ruling elite hungry for money and power, Pakistan now stands alone as the only Islamic country with a nuclear bomb, yet it is unable to protect its people from the carnage of regular bombing from terrorists and its own ally, America. Now with the revelation that Pakistan has been the hiding place of Osama bin Landen for several years, that relationship can only grow more strained. How did it reach this flashpoint of instability and injustice with  such potentially catastrophic results for Pakistan?

Recounting his country’s history through the prism of his own memories, Imran Khan starts from its foundation, ripped out of the dying British Raj. He guides us through and comments on subsequent historical developments which shook the Muslim world – the wars with India in 1965 and 1971, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and America’s retribution ten years later with the assassination of bin laden- to the current controversial and intractable war in Afghanistan. We see these events viewed not only through the eyes of Westerners, but through those of ordinary Pakistanis.