Inside the Pakistan Army

Contents: Acknowledgements. 1. The question of the Pakistan Army. 2. The place of the army in Pakistan. 3. How the Pakistan Army got to be where it is today. 4. Fauji life. 5. Inside the ISI. 6. General Musharraf. 7. Tackling the militants. 8. The war goes on. 9. The death of Faisal Alavi. 10. Conclusion. Appendices. Index.

On 2 May 2011 Pakistani General Ashfaq Kayani, the Chief of Army Staff, stood exposed before the world as either incompetent or complicit in harbouring a mass murderer. US Navy seals had undertaken a major covert operation on Pakistan soil, killing Osama bin Laden under the noses of the Pakistan Army. Incredibly, bin Laden's compound was on the doorstep of the prestigious Pakistan Military Academy, yet the first the Pakistanis knew of it was when the Americans picked up the phone some hours later.

So is the Pakistan Army a reliable ally in the war on terror?

No other writer - Pakistani or foreign - can answer this critical question more clearly than Carey Schofield. No other writer knows these men better. For five years she travelled everywhere with them, witnessing operations, eating in the mess halls and speaking to everyone from President Pervez Musharraf down to the youngest soldier.

Inside the Pakistan Army tells the story of this vital institution and is a telling insight into the heart of the war on terror. (jacket)