On the Abyss: Pakistan After the Coup (Contemporary Essays) by Tariq Ali On the enormity of the crisis facing Pakistan. Will Gen. Pervez Musharraf be able to save his country from economic ruin, control corruption, curb the fundamentalists, keep the
army happy and yet make peace with India? As the essayists point out, all that is highly unlikely. But the really frightening prospect for many people in Pakistan is that if Musharraf fails, the alternative is worse - the fundamentalists are waiting to take over. Six of the seven essays in the book are by eminent Pakistanis themselves. They take a critical - and often despairing - look at their own country. Providing the outsider's view in this book are three hard-nosed foreign correspondents in South Asia: Pamela Constable of the Washington Post, Jason Burke of the Observer, London, and Daniel Lak of the BBC.
