Water is an important input to irrigated agriculture. In Pakistan unfortunately, it is fast becoming a diminishing resource due to many reasons including global warming. To meet present and future requirements, water should be conserved in the country at as many places as possible. However, politics of water is not allowing it to happen.

Hydro-Politics in Indus River Basin by Iqtidar H. Siddiqui is a comprehensive commentary on the management and utilization of Indus River system waters both internationally and domestically and describes the Hydro-Political forces, which do not permit advancement in water sector in the country.

The book infect gives a ‘wake-up call’ to the country in view of diminishing water resources, expected ‘water disaster’ due to climate change and hydro-political forces in the country.

General Musharraf was not as disliked in Pakistan in 1999, when he seized power, as he was in 2008 when he lost it. Before we bur him in history as vet another autocratic ruler, it is important to go back and see what he did right together with much that he did wrong. In some ways he was go 0(1 for Pakistan within the dictatorial paradigm of Pakistan because he was a ‘liberal’ ruler after a decade of General Zia ul Haq’s ‘religious’ rule. Pakistan has buried Zia in its archives of ‘dismissed’ dictators but remains conscious of the fact that much of what he imposed as Islamisation has been internalized by Pakistani society. Should this also be true of General Musharraf? Have we internalized some of the liberalisation that lie imposed on us This book makes a fair assessment of his foreign policy which was, by and large, successful, and his tolerance of women and the minorities, without sparing him for failing in some of the liberal reforms lie had undertaken, and his weakness vis-à-vis the jihadi organizations and the army he headed.

Just in time for the elections, Arundhati Roy offers us this lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means when it talks about compassionate conservativism and the war on terror. Roy has characteristic fun in these essays, skewering the hypocrisy of the more-democratic-than-thou clan. But above all, she aims to remind us that we hold the essence of power and the foundation of genuine democracy-the power of the people to counter their self-appointed leaders’ tyranny.

First delivered as fiery speeches to sold-out crowds, together these essays are a call to arms against the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire. Focusing on the disastrous US occupation of Iraq, Roy urges us to recognize-and apply-the scope of our power, exhorting US dockworkers to refuse to load materials war-bound, reservists to reject their call-ups, activists to organize boycotts of Halliburton, and citizens of other nations to collectively resist being deputized as janitor-soldiers to clear away the detritus of the US invasion.

Roy’s Guide to Empire also offers us sharp theoretical tools for understanding the New American Empire-a dangerous paradigm, Roy argues here, that is entirely distinct from the imperialism of the British or even the New World Order of George Bush, the elder. She examines how resistance movements build power, using examples of nonviolent organizing in South Africa, India, and the United States. Deftly drawing the thread through ostensibly disconnected issues and arenas, Roy pays particular attention to the parallels between globalization in India, the devastation in Iraq, and the deplorable conditions many African Americans, in particular, must still confront.

With Roy as our guide, we may not be able to relax from the Sisyphean task of stopping the U.S. juggernaut, but at least we are assured that the struggle for global justice is fortified by Roy’s hard-edged brilliance.

Uniquely representing all sides in the conflict over Kashmir, this innovative new book provides a forum for discussion not only of existing proposals for ending the conflict, but also of possible new paths toward settlement. Contributors from India, Pakistan, and Kashmir explore the national and sub national dimensions of the ongoing hostilities, the role of the international community, and future prospects. The result is an informed overview of the present state of affairs—and a realistic examination of the potential for peaceful resolution.

The picturesque Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, for centuries a model of harmony and coexistence, has been ravaged by conflict for sixty years, caught in a tug-of-war between historical rivals India and Pakistan. Now that both nations are nuclear powers, some see the Kashmir issue as a flash point for what could become a nuclear war.

In My Kashmir, Wajahat Habibullah lays out the intricate web of issues at the root of the conflict: ethnicity, religion, national identity, friction between national and local government, and territory. In an account that is equal parts history and memoir, he examines the complicating factors: the Indian government’s missteps, the greed of the entrenched Kashmir middle-class elites, and the religious politics and their all-too-familiar polarizing consequences.

Unlike many other who have written on the subject, Habibullah gives even-handed treatment to both Indian and Pakistani perspectives, though he rightly keeps the Kashmiri people themselves at center stage, for their needs and desires will be pivotal to any real solution. Now, he says, despite the history of bloodshed and betrayals, the possibility for lasting peace is greater than ever before.