Contemporary Pakistan Research Articles

A Demon with Ruby Eyes

This essay takes a longitudinal look at how different communities dealt with political and theological difference in the same space. It examines accounts of Uch Sharif, in contemporary Pakistan, from the thirteenth century to the present. It specifically traces a motif of ‘ruby eyes’ in Arabic and Persian historiography in an effort to delineate how difference was represented and assimilated. It argues that until the late colonial period, religious difference was mutually comprehensible, even if incommensurate. The rupture of meaning in recognising difference continued in different ways in the post-colonial state of Pakistan. The study provides a methodological argument for reshaping the ways in which we look at landscape, built environment and community, in contemporary South Asia. By situating the textual production of the past alongside the material remnants of the past, this essay reads simultaneously ethnographic and textual understandings of difference in Uch Sharif.

Bitter Shade: Throwing Light on Politics and Ecology in Contemporary Pakistan

Farmers in the rainfed tracts of Pakistan’s Punjab and Northwest Frontier provinces interpret the on-farm interaction between annual crops and trees in terms of sayah shade. Tree shade is conceived of as an emission, which is thought to have density, temperature, taste, and size (which itself is thought to have length, width, height and duration). Farmers believe that the character of shade and its impact upon their crops varies by tree species and also by season and land type. This complex system of beliefs attests to the commitment of farmers to on-farm tree cultivation and contradicts government foresters’ beliefs that farmers are hostile to the presence of trees on farms. The farmers’ belief system collapses a dichotomy between tree and crop, forest and farm, forest department and farmer, and indeed nature and culture, that it serves the Forest Department to construct. This analysis suggests that the most mundane, quotidian resource practices may have profound political implications, that environmental knowledge is often (if not always) partisan knowledge, and that cultural meaning is not divorced from political-economic dynamics.

Tracing the Pakistan–Terrorism Nexus in Indian Security Perspectives: From 1947 to 26/11

This article investigates how a Pakistan–terrorism nexus originated and then became solidified and embedded into Indian security perspectives. From the First Kashmir War in 1947–1948 to the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks, it has been the repeated behaviour of Pakistan towards India, and the nature of their major national and sub-national conflicts, which has led to this nexus. Central to its formation has been the repeated military strategy of initial infiltrations by irregular troops followed by the use of conventional troops—an approach employed by Pakistan in 1947, 1965 and 1999. Pakistan’s concurrent support of various insurgencies and terrorism against India has compounded this association, and entrenched the contemporary Pakistan–terrorism nexus within India’s (foreign and domestic) security perspectives. Given its persistent resonance within both Pakistani strategic behaviour and Indian elite mindsets, the article finds that the Pakistan–terrorism nexus will remain as a durable and critical lynchpin within South Asian security dynamics.

Educational Horizons of Contemporary Pakistan

When we glance at the intellectual horizons of Pakistan, what appears before our eyes is an intractable melee of inconsistent and often conflicting systems, riven by deep fissures and pervasive discontinuities. This situation, not unlike that in practically any contemporary Muslim society, does not mean that there is any inherent or actual intellectual inferiority in these societies. Pakistan itself can boast a vast treasure of talents, skills, and rigor of intellect. But it does engender a marked fragmentation of the country’s population.

Robert Rozehnal. Islamic Sufism Unbound. Politics and Piety in Twenty-First Century Pakistan

The literature on South Asian Sufism has paid marginal attention to how Sufism is taught, practiced and imagined in the postcolonial era. This book dwells on this topic. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach based on the methods of anthropology and Islamic studies, the author examines a living Sufi tradition. He traces the identity politics and ritual practices of a particular branch of the Cistiyya Ṣābiriyya silsila, which is active in contemporary Pakistan and Malaysia. Drawing on textual ...

Work-family conflict in Pakistan: juggling of activities on personal values and commitments

Work-family conflict has become a buzz word in the contemporary world of international political economy. The intensity of this phenomenon has attracted attention of researchers; consistently, fair amount of scholarship is available in this domain at national as well as international level. In contemporary Pakistan, work-life conflict has become an emerging issue as well and many researches have been conducted. But no research has exclusively focused on work-family conflict faced by married working women and their conflict management style from personal value and commitment perspective. This paper focuses this research gap. The aim of this paper is to explore the ways through which married working women manage this phenomenon of work-family conflict. To meet the targets of this research, qualitative research methodology was employed. Face to face in-depth interviews were conducted to get insight of the respondents on the issue at hand. Thematic analysis was used for research data analysis and personal opinions of the respondents were used for the sake of result validity. Research implications and future research direction will also be given in this paper.

Educational Horizons of Contemporary Pakistan

When we glance at the intellectual horizons of Pakistan, what appears before our eyes is an intractable mAalA©e of inconsistent and often conflicting systems, riven by deep fissures and pervasive discontinuities. This situation, not unlike that in practically any contemporary Muslim society, does not mean that there is any inherent or actual intellectual inferiority in these societies. Pakistan itself can boast a vast treasure of talents, skills, and rigor of intellect. But it does engender a marked fragmentation of the country’s population.

Between secularism/s: Islam and the institutionalisation of modern higher education in mid-nineteenth century British India

This paper problematises clean distinctions between secular and religious by tracing the history of modern higher education of Muslims in British colonial India. Grounded in the interpretive research tradition and with an empirical focus on the formative mid-nineteenth century, the article argues that relational notions between singular secularism and multiple secularisms best capture this historical trajectory. The institutional imaginary of colonialism constituted a significant milieu that, on the one hand, resulted in British policies in India that were at a tangent to similar developments in England at the time and, on the other, informed Muslim agency in its own institutionalisation of higher education. Muslim educational philosophy, politics and even theology were shaped in a concrete, historical, power-laden context. One of the consequences of this was a peculiar construction of ‘secularism’ in relation to Islam – again, related but at a tangent to the same notion in Europe. With a view on contemporary Pakistan, it is argued that such relational histories must be accounted for if policy and academic discourse is to move beyond largely stale and unhelpful binaries of Islam vs. Western modernity in religious education.

Competitiveness and Pakistan: A Dangerous, Distorting, and Dead-End Obsession?

Competitiveness has become a mantra and organizing framework for much government policymaking in Pakistan and beyond. Rarely does anyone question the concept and use of the competitiveness paradigm itself. Krugman (1994) argues that this ”obsession with competitiveness is both wrong and dangerous.” This article draws from Krugman’s work and examines the use (or abuse) of the concept of competitiveness in the context of contemporary Pakistan. We focus on three recent and influential reports on competitiveness in Pakistan by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Competitiveness Support Fund, and agree with Krugman’s negative view.

The Pakistan-US conundrum: jihadists, the military, and the people: the struggle for control

Yunas Samad's trenchant analysis of contemporary Pakistan features five main players: the people, the army, the Islamists, the politicians and the Americans. His book explains how a series of alliances borne of political and strategic expediency between the US and the military, between these parties and the Afghan mujahidin, and between various Pakistani politicians and some or all of the above - have continually undermined the state to the extent that its very existence is now in jeopardy. Much of the country is now under the de facto control of an indigenous, 'Pakistani', Taliban, whose writ is extending to Swat, Punjab and Sind along with its traditional bastion in the North West Frontier. Yet even in this parlous situation Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus continue to be obsessed with waging a proxy war against India, whether in Kashmir or Afghanistan, at the expense of their own state's stability, while some elements now, paradoxically, see American influence in Afghanistan as a greater threat to Pakistan than the traditional foe across its eastern border. These high stakes contests for strategic and political power have also harmed Pakistan's economy, argues Samad, impoverishing many of its people while the military 'state within a state elite' benefits from American largesse and a tiny business elite enjoys the rich pickings of the of neo-liberal policies enacted at the behest of the World Bank and other international agencies. In conclusion Samad returns to his key themes: explaining how ordinary Pakistanis have been ignored by the country's military and civilian rulers, how their material circumstances have steadily deteriorated over the last twenty or more years and how grand strategic designs fashioned in Islamabad and Washington continue to undermine political life and have ushered in forms of Islamist and sectarian politics that were largely unknown in Pakistan.

The honor code: how moral revolutions happen

Long neglected as an engine of reform, strikingly emerges at the center of our modern world in Kwame Anthony Appiah's The Honor Code. Over the last few centuries, new democratic movements have led to the emancipation of women, slaves, and the oppressed. But what drove these modern changes, Appiah argues, was not imposing legislation from above, but harnessing the ancient power of from within. In gripping detail, he explores the end of the duel in aristocratic England, the tumultuous struggles over footbinding in nineteenth-century China, and the uprising of ordinary people against Atlantic slavery. Finally, he confronts the horrors of honor killing in contemporary Pakistan, where rape victims are murdered by their relatives. He argues that honor, used to justify the practice, can also be the most effective weapon against it. Intertwining philosophy and historical narrative, Appiah has created a remarkably dramatic work, which demonstrates that is the driving force in the struggle against man's inhumanity to man.

Women artists and male artisans in South Asia

This essay tracks the challenging and provocative collaboration of a woman artist – Naiza H. Khan – with male artisans in contemporary Pakistan. British-born writer of Pakistani heritage, Irna Qureshi, who herself has extensive experience of collaborating with a male photographer, critically examines Naiza H. Khan's ouvre of metal artworks made with artisans in Karachi's crowded marketplaces. What are the complexities, contradictions, and revelatory possibilities inherent in such collaborations? How does such collaboration between a female artist and a male artisan from very different social backgrounds challenge political and personal gendered spaces? What is the language and code a female ‘instigator’ must adopt, in order to communicate her sensual and stimulating concept to a male artisan with a ‘traditional’ worldview? The essay provides a unique insight into the ‘unwritten rules of engagement’ in such collaborations.

Women, Peace and Security in Contemporary Pakistan: Meeting the Challenge of Security Council Resolution 1325?

The adoption in 2000 of Security Council Resolution 1325 has rightly been described as a watershed moment. Not only does this resolution recognise women as potentially vulnerable in times of conflict, it specifically, and importantly, recognises women as political actors, as agents in peace processes and as key stakeholders in peace-building. More than a decade after its adoption, however, questions remain as to whether 'gender security' is an elusive goal in conflict and post-conflict situations. There is little to suggest that Resolution 1325 has heralded the kind of transformative change that was hoped for by many, and the challenges of effective implementation continue to arise. There is also the question of compromise in the negotiation of peace agreements and in post-conflict reconstruction. Nationalist sentiment, frequently reinforced by religious and cultural claims, all too often turns on questions relating to sexuality, gendered identities, roles and status. In times of crisis, in fragile states, women and girls become the repository of tradition, and gender identities become the markers of national and group identities, often presumed central to a process of nation-building. In the context of ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the challenges in ensuring that peace processes meet the requirements of Security Council Resolution 1325 are particularly acute. Over the last year, the possibility of 'talking to the Taliban' has repeatedly been raised. For women and girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the stakes are particularly high in any such negotiations. This article explores the position of women in Pakistan and the role that militant religious forces have played in limiting the potential of democratic transitions since the foundation of the state. This article is based on a presentation to the annual conference of the Committee for International Affairs, entitled 'Governance for a more ethical world', which took place at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 19 November 2010. Author's e-mail: s.mullally@ucc.ie Irish Studies in International Affairs , Vol. 22 (201 1), 53-66. doi: 10.3318/ISIA.201 1.22.53 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.210 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 05:37:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 54 Irish Studies in International Affairs

Women, Peace and Security in Contemporary Pakistan: Meeting the Challenge of Security Council Resolution 1325?

Women, Peace and Security in Contemporary Pakistan: Meeting the Challenge of Security Council Resolution 1325?

Islamic Revivalism and Politics in Contemporary Pakistan

The article tries to examine the rise of Islamism in Pakistan and argues that much of Islamic revivalism in Muslim countries like Pakistan is strongly related to power politics and personal gains of politicians and how political leaders use religion to suit their own needs to consolidate their own power base, especially when it lacks political legitimacy. The more democratic the regime, the less politicians feel the need to incorporate Islamist groups in their own power base and vice versa. We see this process of using Islamist groups to further one’s own needs happening since the creation of Pakistan and it reaches a peak during the times of General Zia-ul-Haque in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The article is especially interested in the role of the Jamaat-i-Islami and its interactions with different political leaders from independence till Musharraf. Although the article acknowledges that Islamism is multidimensional and that there are many factors associated with its rise but because much of it is inextricably linked with power politics and personal gains of both political and religious leaders and both groups benefiting from this symbiotic relationship, the problem of Islamism could be solved to some degree by making the government more accountable to the people by responding to demands coming from below and the need for stronger democratizing tendencies. The article makes use of a range of both primary and secondary sources to substantiate its key arguments.

The 2006 Anti-‘Danish Cartoons’ Riot in Lahore: Outrage and the Emotional Landscape of Pakistani Politics

How can a long-distance outrage provoke social protest, even riots? The street demonstration against the ‘Danish cartoons’ that took place in Lahore on 14th February 2006 was primarily an expressive protest, publicly voicing its anger and moral discontent. As such, it offers a fruitful micropolitical site to understand how emotions contribute to shape the culture of dissent in contemporary Pakistan. Based on interviews with protestors, this article elaborates, first, on the linkages between anger, honour, the cognitively framed belief of being ‘provoked’, and biographical emotional repertoires. Second, it looks at the conflicting emotions displayed in the public arena: a desire of communitas yet destruction, an expression of compulsory feeling but subversive emotions as well. Finally, it argues that this protest has to be replaced in the larger framework of the state’s singular politics of emotion that informs public debates in Pakistan, and particularly so in Punjab. Hence, the article focuses on a dimension often neglected in the literature on emotions and social movements: the emotional-institutional context.

Making up with Painful History. The Partition of India in Bapsi Sidhwa's Work: Bapsi Sidhwa interviewed by Isabella Bruschi

The interview engages Bapsi Sidhwa in a discussion on Partition, a central issue in her novel Ice-Candy-Man , which also recurs in her other works. The author's interest in the historical event, beside having auto-biographical origins, demonstrates the tremendous impact it had on ordinary people's lives, the way it shaped their identities and the trauma it caused, which is not yet healed in contemporary India and Pakistan. According to Sidhwa, literature can dig into painful memory and try to make sense of it more successfully than history can. Her adoption (unprecedented in the context of Partition literature) of a marginal point of view — that of a Parsi girl who looks at reality with the immediacy and absence of prejudice typical of childhood — has enabled Sidhwa to tell her story with greater impartiality and to treat the problematic question of women's rape and abduction from a gendered perspective. The interview also explores the relationship between Sidhwa and film director Deepa Mehta, and between novel writing and filmmaking in connection with both Ice-Candy-Man/ Earth and Water.

Religious Discourse and the Public Sphere in Contemporary Pakistan

Cet article traite des lettrés religieux musulmans formés traditionnellement, les oulémas, au Pakistan. Il examine comment ils ont produit leurs propres conceptions de la tradition lettrée islamique et il compare leurs discours avec ceux qui leur font concurrence et qui sont produits par d’autres types d’intellectuels religieux. L’article analyse l’incommensurabilité du style et du discours des oulémas avec ceux de leurs critiques modernistes, à travers les débats pakistanais sur l’interdiction coranique de l’usure (riba) et son application aux formes modernes d’intérêt financier. Les efforts de rapprochements n’ont pas eu de résultats concluants, ce qui permet de mettre en lumière la façon dont les oulémas continuent de défendre leur autorité dans la sphère publique au Pakistan et comment leurs concurrents modernistes ont dû y faire face.

Shari'a, Custom, and Statutory Law: Comparing State Approaches to Islamic Jurisprudence, Tribal Autonomy, and Legal Development in Afghanistan and Pakistan

This paper is limited to a comparative study of law and legal systems in contemporary Pakistan and Afghanistan, with an emphasis on how these states approach the complex relationships between Islamic law, tribal customary law, and statutory legal codes. Afghanistan and Pakistan provide valuable comparisons because both states are Muslim-majority countries that are extremely heterogeneous, yet bear the marks of increasingly centralized governments seeking to homogenize national judicial systems amidst rapidly-increasing economic and legal globalization. What is the nature of interaction between Islamic law, local customary/tribal law, and official state-sponsored law in these two countries? Is interaction between these three broad categories of law characteristic of an irreconcilable clash, harmonious fusion, or a series of overlapping jurisdictions? In an age of increasing statutory codification is there a dwindling role for local social customs in the production of Islamic law? How do Afghanistan and Pakistan govern conflicts between Islamic law and local sociocultural norms in tribally-governed areas, or between these bodies of law and international human rights law? By raising the above issues for discussion it is hoped this study will promote more constructive dialogues between international development organizations and local sociolegal actors in heterogeneous societies like Afghanistan and Pakistan, with potential lessons for additional contexts of legal pluralism.

Dealing with Danger: Spatial and Mechanical Manipulations in Gilgit, Pakistan

This article provides a spatial and technologically-oriented analysis of sexual imperialism in contemporary northern Pakistan. I interrogate Western women development workers’ experiences of sexual vulnerability in Gilgit, and argue that their representational practices and spatial negotiations are ambivalently organized by a discourse of racialized sexuality that lingers from the colonial era. This discourse evokes a vague moral panic about ‘lascivious’ indigenous men who lust after white women. Western women cope with sexual threat by regulating social interaction with men and avoiding sexualized public space. But when this is not possible, women prefer to negotiate that space in vehicles, which serve as protective barriers between themselves and Gilgiti men. I draw on Bruno Latour’s actor network theory to explain how jeeps are transformed into social actors as they are employed by Western women to manage gendered, racial, sexual and spatial relations. Once mechanized social actors are implicated in these hierarchical and exclusionary imperial relations, they help perpetuate and solidify them through time and across space. Eroticist and racist discourses about Other men, which are circulated through this effort to cope with sexual danger, reinforce established social, sexual, and spatial boundaries that keep imperial hierarchies between Gilgiti men and Western women intact.