Stanley B. Sprague - Pakistan Since Independence: A History, 1947 to Today

When I was 24 years old, I spent a month traveling solo around India, and then spent a few days in Pakistan waiting for a flight home. This experience sparked my curiosity of faraway countries, and I began a life-long study of foreign countries. My readings took me to the Afghan-Soviet War, and they revealed how important Pakistan had been in expelling Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

As I began reading books on Pakistan, I noticed how many books had been written on Pakistan, but how few recent books covered its key events in chronological order. It was then that I decided to write a book to fill this void.

Pakistan is an important country with a fascinating history. It is located in the center of a volatile region of the world and borders Russia, China, India and Afghanistan. It is inhabited by more than 200 million people. It is also a dangerous country, since a number of Islamist terrorist groups are based there, it possesses nuclear weapons, and it has fought four wars with its neighbor India. It was Osama bin Ladens home when his al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked airliners which destroyed New York Citys World Trade Center. Bin Laden was living there when he was killed ten years later.

I had several objectives in writing this book. First, I wanted to offer a chronological history of Pakistans political events, foreign affairs, military operations, and terrorist activities. I have made extensive use of endnotes to make the book valuable as a research tool for use in libraries.

My second objective has been to make this book as objective as possible. I have tried to simply describe the key events in Pakistans history as accurately as possible using the most credible sources available. I have described both the strengths and weaknesses of each of Pakistans key leaders. Any errors of fact or interpretation are mine alone.

My third objective has been to make this history relatively easy to understand, and this has been a challenging task since Pakistans history is quite complicated. The country has had three constitutions, and has alternated between civilian and military rule. During civilian rule, it has operated under presidential and parliamentary systems of governments. Also, Pakistan has been home to more than 30 political parties and 20+ Islamist extremist groups.

To simplify things, I have included an Introduction to Pakistan which offers a quick overview of Pakistans geography, government, armed forces and religions. To further simplify the book, political parties and Islamist extremist groups are usually referred to by abbreviations, such as PPP and PML (a list is provided). Following the list of abbreviations are a chronology and a glossary. To further simplify the book, I have referred to the head of Pakistans army as simply the Army Chief instead of that officials changing official titles. A list of Pakistans army chiefs is included as an appendix, along with their official titles.

I wish to acknowledge several persons who have helped me with this book. I want to thank my family for their help. My daughter Katherine offered to read some of my early chapters. She was an excellent editor. My daughter Allison offered to help with the maps, and I thank her for her talent and infinite patience in developing the two maps. I thank my wife Celine for putting up with me with minimum complaint for the last 15 years as I researched and wrote this book. In addition, I want to thank my friend Tom Gratzek for his helpful suggestions on improving the manuscript. I also thank Steve Pearsall for the many hours he spent modifying the end notes for the manuscript. I also want to thank Professor Jeff Jones at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for his encouraging me to keep writing and for recommending that I contact McFarland. Finally, I want to thank Layla Milholen and the staff at McFarland for their support and for their suggestions on improving my manuscript.