There is so much to read, and I feel so guilty about how much of it is languishing in my inbox, that I’ve resolved to kill two birds with one stone by reading at least one backlogged article per day and posting a short blog entry about each article about which I have something to say.

I won’t send out an email to the mailing list each time, but you can subscribe on this page to be notified by auto-email every time I post a new entry here. I think I’ll send out an email once a week, and/or whenever I post installments adapted from the notes and audio recordings for the new book I’m writing.

Today’s Pakistan-related article of the day is “Pakistan Dodges a Bullet,” columnist David Ignatius’s April 16 rundown in the Washington Post of the events around the historic March 15-16 “short Long March” from Lahore, which resulted in the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the renewed ascendancy of the Sharif brothers. There are no startling revelations in the piece, but it’s useful as a summary of events and an instance of how the US establishment views events in Pakistan and presents them to the US reading public.

Pete Sabo and I arrived in Lahore on March 20; we missed witnessing the dramatic events of March 15-16 by just a few days – alas! But we were in India at the time, which was interesting in itself. To me it certainly seemed plausible, even likely, that there would be a coup in Pakistan – and the big news is that there wasn’t one. I think the significance of March 16, 2009 will both grow and come into focus as time passes, and it will have a presence in my new book.

A related incident was the March 3 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, and something an Indian commentator said that day has stuck with me. About Zardari’s imposition of Governor’s Rule in Punjab province, K.C. Singh, former secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, suggested on Times Now that the attack might not have happened if Shahbaz Sharif had been Chief Minister (and hence in control of security and the police in Lahore), and told anchor Arnab Goswami: “It’s a very, very dangerous vacuum that’s been created at the center of Pakstani life. I think America needs to stop supporting President Zardari, and stop pushing the Sharif brothers into a corner.”

I think the wisdom of K.C. Singh’s remarks was borne out on March 16. The Sharif brothers are too important, particularly in Punjab but also nationally, to be pushed into a corner, and the result of March 16 – salutary, at least for now – is that they are now back where they belong.