Historian Ayesha Jalal says Pakistan must learn from its partnership in the past with the US and vis-a-vis its relationship with China, it should look for a partnership and not dependency.

The great thing about Pakistan is that it has survived the hard times though it’s also a fact that state institutions could not be built in the country according to the needs of the postcolonial world.

She was replying to questions by William Dalrymple in an LLF session called, “Pakistan at 70”.

“Democracy is not a magic wand that you wave around the election time to get things done, it all depends on institutions and institutions have not been built in Pakistan and civil-military balance is missing.”

Ms Jalal said there was something missing in Pakistani educational system, i.e., critical thinking and it affects all institutions. She said the madressa system was an issue but the percentage of madressas as compared to schools was not that significant.

“Pakistan has been in the eye of the storm since its birth. Besides, there is confusion at the state level and basic things had not been decided like how the Partition happened and whether Pakistan should be a democracy or a totalitarian state.”

She was not hopeful about a thaw in Pakistan-India relations in the near future with the current government (in India).

MOHSIN HAMID: Mohsin Hamid’s new novel, Exit West, was launched at the LLF. During a talk with Dwight Garner, he spoke at length about his writing process as well as the new novel.

“There was another title of the Exit West. At one point I thought of calling it, All Migrants through Time, but my US publisher did not like it which led to a mad search for the title. My wife kept on bringing up new titles almost on a daily basis and perhaps the credit for the title, Exit West, goes to her,” he said.

“I am always writing stuff and typing things, after that there can be 10, 20 or 30 pages that I collect and try to make something out of them,” Hamid said while replying to a question.

Talking about the writing routine, he said he had written Moth Smoke between midnight and 6am, adding that now due to his growing kids, he often wrote when they are in school from 8am to 1pm.

“I have certain weaknesses, one of which is while sitting in front of computer for writing, I waste time doing search. Such a day might be spent in writing nothing.”

Mohsin said he did show his manuscript for comments. “First person is my wife Zara, friends, editor and my agent.” He said he had written his first three novels having a superstructure that created a theoretical reader and then wrote for that reader. But Exit West did not have that superstructure.

“Many things that I have not explained in my previous novels, I have explained in Exit West and that gives it a sort of new writing style,” he said.

TEJU COLE/MOHSIN: In a session, titled, Who Belongs Where, Nigerian novelist Teju Cole said that white western world was obsessed with the term identity.

“If you go in a library in West, you would find 95pc books by white people and almost 90pc of them would be by men. Identity is necessary to the extent that it makes white people uncomfortable, otherwise it has no use. I got the idea of being black after he went to the US.”

Teju said Obama was a flawed president as he extended American imperialism and hegemony and American project continued to disturb our lives with the addition of Trump.

“American dream was a challenge and difficult task from the start. There were a lot of bugs in it but there was hope and some positive points like freedom of religion and speech. When I moved to America, there was some hope but now there is a crazy guy (as the president) who is not known to be humane.”

He also talked of similarities between Lagos and Lahore. Teju was having a dialogue with Mohsin Hamid.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2017