Pakistan : The Barren Years : The Viewpoint Editorials and Columns of Mazhar Ali Khan 1975-1992. 1998, viii, 757 p., $42. ISBN 0-19-579004-9.
Contents: Introduction. I. About Viewpoint: 1. Our Viewpoint. II. National day comments: 2. Independence Day and Pakistan day comments. III. Years of travail: 3. The road to 5 July (1975-77). 4. Unabated crisis (1977-79). 5. The Bhutto case. 6. The Barren years (1979-85). 7. Changeless change (1985-88). 8. A new beginning (1988-92). IV. Political parties and personalities: 9. Pakistan People's Party. 10. NAP and its offspring. 11. Men of Mansoora. 12. Pakistan's Muslim Leagues. V. Press freedom and abuse: 13. Government-Press relations. 14. Nonsense advise. VI. Personalia and miscellany: 15. Departure lounge. 16. Let the truth spread. Index.
"The independent weekly Viewpoint was launched on Pakistan's independence Day in 1975, with the intention of filling a void in the English-language press. The advent of the country's third martial law less than two years later, thrust upon it an unexpected role. With much of the remainder of the media either collaborating with the military rulers or coerced into submission, Viewpoint evolved into a focus for pro-democracy dissent--and, amazingly, succeeded in conveying rational opinions even during the phase of rigorous press censorship. The authorities were considerably less subtle in making clear their displeasure, and at one point virtually the entire senior staff found themselves behind bars, with the inhospitable environs of Lahore's Central Jail serving as an unusual setting for the editorial conferences that Mazhar Ali Khan occasionally was able to convene. His reasoned editorials and relatively more adventurous 'Between the Lines' columns were Viewpoint's bedrock, and an extensive selection from them is offered in this volume. They will provide scholars, students and historians with an invaluable contemporary commentary on a period of history that continues to determine the course of Pakistan's journey towards the next century." (jacket)