Labour Perspective on the Bhutto Years

This book, based on a significant Ph.D work in an area where academic work is sparse, has been brought to our attention through its belated publication by the Pakistani Branch of the Oxford University Press. Despite the fact that it deals with events which took place 35 years ago, it is not cast as an exercise in social history (more on this later). Importantly, it provides a labour perspective on the Bhutto years in Pakistan, surely the period that can be classified as representing the only significant populist phase of rule in that country’s history. The Bhutto Government’s approach to the problems it faced when confronted by militant workers’ struggles can be effectively analysed through this prism, as could the Indira Gandhi Government’s real proclivities be gauged by its handling of the 1974 Railway Strike.