Tariq Ali Critical Essay | Critical Review by William Crawley

Critical Review by William Crawley

SOURCE: Crawley, William. Review of Can Pakistan Survive?, by Tariq Ali. Asian Affairs 15, no. 1 (February 1984): 87-8.

In the following review, Crawley outlines Ali's major thematic concerns in Can Pakistan Survive?

Theorists of the left have been few in number in Pakistan and very limited in their influence. [In Can Pakistan Survive?] Tariq Ali writes from the position of one who though well known internationally is an outsider in his country's politics. He is equivocal about the validity and viability of Pakistan as a state. He dissects the political solutions and experiments which have been tried over the past thirty-five years, from the “military-bureaucratic” partnership culminating in President Ayub Khan's regime, through the “populism” of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to the “martial law with an Islamic face” practised by President Zia ul Haq. He pays particular attention to the Pakistani left, whose weakness and ineffectiveness he traces back to...
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