Abstract
Western press and the media generally have not been fair to Pakistan in the portrayal of what the country has gone through since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. There is a readership there in Europe and America which has grown used to reading things against this country, particularly its army. As a result, political writers have discovered they can sell if the subject of their critique is Pakistan. Aqil Shah‘s The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan, belongs to this category. Apparently he is examining the factors that have contributed to the rise of Pakistan‘s military as the foremost power elite of the country. But in matter of fact what he seems to be doing is the lining up of facile arguments to paint the Pakistan Army as the villain of the piece in undermining the country‘s democratic prospects.