Book Review: The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches From a Precarious State

An Alarming Picture of a Mysterious Country

Before reading The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches From a Precarious State by Declan Walsh I had only a cursory understanding of Pakistan. There was the death and destruction that occurred when Pakistan was created in 1947; the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1972; the CIA’s funneling of arms through Pakistan to the mujahedeen in their fight against the Russians in Afghanistan during the 1980s; and the Navy Seals’ killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011.

But I knew nothing about modern day Pakistan or the issues that affect the day-to-day life of its citizens. And I knew that I was not alone. Pakistan is a country shrouded in mystery. In Nine Lives, Walsh unravels the mystery that is Pakistan.

Walsh was the Guardian’s correspondent and then the New York Times’ bureau chief in Pakistan from 2004 through 2013. In Nine Lives he does not present a narrative describing life in Pakistan. Neither does he provide a chronological story of how life in Pakistan has evolved in the years since the Great Partition. Instead, he depicts life in Pakistan through a series of fascinating vignettes describing several Pakistanis, most of whom he met and interviewed during his time in Pakistan.

Walsh’s subjects include the “Father of Pakistan”, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, two former Prime Ministers, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, a cleric from Islamabad, a politician from the Pashtun region, a politician from the Punjab region, a female civil rights attorney, a Karachi policeman, a clan leader in Balochistan and an army operative. His vignettes consist of short backgrounds of each of his subjects and discussions of their roles in, and their views on, Pakistani society.

Through this series of vignettes the reader gains an overall picture of modern day Pakistan. And that picture is not pretty. All of Walsh’s subjects are either famous or infamous members of Pakistani society. And all have their supporters and their enemies. It is, therefore, not that surprising that by the time that Nine Lives was written all of Walsh’s subjects had died, three by natural causes and the rest at the hands of the Army or Islamic terrorists.

By the time I finished Nine Lives I was exhausted from all the violence. I now have the impression that Pakistan is a chaotic country that is buffeted by the following competing forces: secular citizens who wish to have a freely elected secular government; the Army that continually steps in to replace the secular government; the Islamists who want to see an Islamist state; and the separatists who are from regions that would rather not be ruled at all by a central government. These forces have probably been at work since Pakistan was first created as a sanctuary for the Muslim residents of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. And Walsh does not provide much hope that the Pakistanis will ever be able to deal with them.

Declan Walsh is an engaging person who managed to establish amiable relationships with many people in a foreign culture, the members of whom have every reason not to trust Westerners. These relationships enabled him to develop the very insightful stories that are so integral to Nine Lives. Even though this book deals with complex issues and unfamiliar names and places I found it to be very informative and readable. It is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested in learning more about Southeast Asia. I give it 5 stars.