The Diplomat’s Shah Meer Baloch interviewed Declan Walsh about his latest book, Pakistan, regional politics, media freedom, and more. His work is also graphic, earthy, and filled with a cheeky and subversive humor that is true to the best work on Pakistan. Walsh has reported from sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, the United States and across the Middle East.

We learn from the book that there was a plot to kill veteran activist Asma Jahangir when she opened up against human rights abuses in Balochistan. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. Just as a cat is perceived to have “nine lives,” escaping from one situation after another, Pakistan continues to plug along, avoiding its oft-predicted demise. By the end of The Nine Lives of Pakistan, it seems almost unbelievable that the author himself has survived the experience. The demise of Pakistan - a country with a reputation for volatility, brutality and radical Islam - is regularly predicted.

Blessed with a flair for words and an unerring eye for detail, he recently published The Nine Lives of Pakistan (Bloomsbury), an arresting take on the tumultuous times in the history of our neighbouring nation. With experience, it is easy to spot them, with th

Walsh urges his readers to understand Pakistan with subtlety rather than painting it with a broad brush and over-generalizations. Declan describes his travels through the country and the larger than life characters that he comes across, as well as the reach of the Pakistani intelligence service and Pakistan's fraught relationship with India from Partitian to the present day. But then Pakistan never behaves as one expects it to, as renowned journalist Declan Walsh knows well, having covered the country for over a decade. For example, Pakistanis have spun elaborate tales regarding the alleged “assassination” of Pakistan’s leader General Zia al Haq in a 1988 airplane crash. View image in fullscreen A man cleans portrait of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in Karachi.But they have, for expedient political and financial reasons, forced many of these groups underground for now. Equally, later in the book, Walsh notes how new redrafted Indian textbooks have a ‘Hindu first’ approach (pg 281) and Jinnah’s South Court home on Malabar Hill is considered ‘enemy property’ by new Indian leaders (pg 282). The Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and the American Pakistan Foundation host a conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning author and playwright Ayad Akhtar and Atlantic Council Distinguished Fellow Shuja Nawaz on Akhtar’s new book, Homeland Elegies. Through these “nine lives” he describes a country on the brink—a place of creeping extremism and political chaos, but also personal bravery and dogged idealism that defy easy stereotypes.

Marshall, T (2015) Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics.He reveals the hall of mirrors that is modern Pakistan through the lives of nine individuals from many walks of life. It says a lot about Pakistan’s bloody history that only one of the nine subjects is still alive by the end of the book. The reader is immersed in a series of colorful stories that encapsulate the contradictory facets of Pakistan.

These themes are also seen in fictional novels set in countries in this region such as works by Khaled Hosseini like The Kite Runner (2003) or A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) which have the geopolitical history of Afghanistan as their backdrop.At the close of the book, there are elements of resolution for him, however, Walsh still misses a country that he spent over a decade reporting from. This is the third and final in a series of book talks hosted by the South Asia Center and the American Pakistan Foundation with distinguished, award-winning authors.