Pervez Hoodboy's Whither Pakistan: A Five-Year Forecast

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Born on July 11, 1950 Pervez Hoodbhoy attended Karachi Grammar School for primary education and later went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his masters in Solid-State Physics. He is currently teaching as a professor of nuclear and high-energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. Hoodbhoy is a well renowned writer, essayist and critic who is often called upon to present the increasingly limited liberal views in Pakistan. His articles like “Negotiate with TTP?” and “Why they killed Arif Shahid” advocate anti-extremist views and discourage compromising with fanatics. He was amongst the first few to take a stand against militancy and fundamentalism of Islam and supports the Armed Forces in their effort to suppress Islamic extremism. The article: “Whither Pakistan? A five-year forecast”, published on June 3, 2009 is a future prediction of Pakistan by Pervez Hoodbhoy. It was published in the magazine “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” at a time when Pakistani Army was fighting against Taliban in the northern areas of the country. The subject revolves around the possible future of the state and addresses the concern of masses at present. In this article, Hoodbhoy firmly states his prediction at the start of the passage by stating that in spite of the presence of imminent sectarian violence, Pakistan will not break up, nuclear war heads will remain under state possession and the notorious Taliban will not be successful in imposing Sharia Law. Hoodbhoy’s well-structured and perfectly sequenced flow of ideas, use of transitional sentences and rhetorical questions, literary devices like idioms, satire and irony and credible information helps in successfully conveying the message to the audience; However his use of arro...

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