South Asia Citizens Web

Royal Bengal tigers in India Photograph: David Yarrow Photography
(The Guardian 8 November 2013)
see also: David Yarrow face to face with nature – in pictures

Mr Abid Hasan Minto, president of the Awami Workers’ Party, has done well to go before the Supreme Court to challenge the 1990 judgement of the Federal Shariat Court’s appellate bench declaring land reforms to be un-Islamic. After that judgement it became fashionable to pronounce the demise of feudalism in Pakistan. Some economists of repute challenged leftist views on the subject. It was widely propagated that Pakistan is no more an agrarian economy. It was also said that the country was urbanising fast and the rural-urban divide was not sharply delineated any more.

The state acquires its legitimacy from the social contract it enjoys with its subjects. It is obligated to function as the protector of the citizens’ rights. This is the basis for the monopoly it enjoys over the use of force, and the allied apparatuses of repression and control, including surveillance. But what recourse does the citizen have to protect herself from the state when it abuses its monopolistic command over these resources and technologies?

A news report by BBC detailing the campaign by women of Neelam valley in Pakistan Administered Kashmir against militants and border crossings is a reflection of two things. One of the inevitable vulnerability of the people sandwiched between the two armies on the two sides of the Line of Control and the unpredictability of situation with the added woes of non state actors wielding the gun. Second, is their unmistakable quest for peace which does not come easily their way and if it does, it comes without the sustainability factor. People living on the borders, unwilling participants in the eyeball to eyeball tensions that often turn into violent hostilities, bear the worst brunt of the border confrontations and would naturally have a great deal of vested interest in ensuring peace.

Should we read Malala’s book for what it is or to look at our people’s stated and unstated problems with it?