Social Network Legitimacy and Property Right Loopholes: Evidences from an Infrastructural Water Project in Pakistan

Abstract

Little attention has been devoted to the role of social networks and property rights in infrastructural projects. We use the Chotiari water reservoir project data from Pakistan, to explore the social network of actors on land use and property right violation, which create a dissimilar power distribution and significant land use conflicts. Results indicate that public officials with their alien stakeholders have pressurised the local population to displace, where institutional inconsistency towards justice has led them to mistrust and project opposition. In Pakistan, the non-existence of a national resettlement policy is germinating land use conflicts and human and property rights violations since five decades. Therefore, attention to such conflicts, their resolution and prevention are important for research and policy development.