Yesterday’s announcement that Zardari has made a deal with the TNSM and installed “Islamic government” in Swat is all over the news. I talked, briefly, with Jerome McDonald of Worldview today. My main point was that there exists a history – 1994, 1999, 2007 – of efforts to install a Shari-Nizam-e-Adl (Islamic Order of Justice) in Swat region. You can check my previous post on Swat to get a sense of this history, Akond of Swat.
More importantly, an absolutely must-read is historian Sultan-i-Rome’s paper, Swat: A Critical Analysis [pdf], IPCS Research Paper, January 2009. The paper provides a succinct historical and political overview and also introduces some of the key players. Must read.
Sultan-i-Rome is one of the major, if not the, historian of Swat valley. His monograph, Swat State, 1915-1969: From Genesis to Merger: An Analysis of Political, Administrative, Socio-Political, and Economic Development is key to building a historical overview of the crisis facing the state of Pakistan. I had thought of writing a proper review of the latter, but time slipped away. I will try and do it.
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Sepoy, Thanks for the Sultan-i-Rome’s paper. It helps a great deal to be able to know a bit of context.
Being so far away from Pakistan, it is very difficult to know what’s actually going on there, what to believe and what not to believe. Reading Pakistani and American editorials, sometimes it feels like the sky is falling :-(
Juan cole’s latest post about Pakistan. He did a post earlier on about taking a deep breath on Pakistan. I hope Prof. Cole’s confidence is not ill-placed.
http://www.juancole.com/2009/04/readers-have-written-me-asking-what-i.html