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The article discusses the political transformation of civil society-state relations in Pakistan. Topics explored include the military and economic power associated with the traditional elites in the country, the working relationship between non-government organizations (NGO) and the state during the administration of former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, and the outlook for civil liberties and equal rights in the country.

Crime and terror groups are key non-state actors in Karachi and employ crime and violence to achieve political and economic gains. They have a different relationship with the state than crime groups in Italy where the state has more resources to share with the crime groups. Instead, much more complex relationships exist between the state and the non-state actors in this difficult environment where crime and terror groups have become a part of diffuse governance of the city, including provision of housing and water. Our analysis differs from others who suggest that crime and terror groups have stepped into a power void. We suggest that the political parties rather than the crime and terror groups are at the forefront of violent and criminalized politics. Therefore, violent non-state actors are not the ultimate arbiters of the political order. Crime and terror groups remain vulnerable as they may lose the state's support and without this they face difficulty surviving in this highly competitive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to evaluate the working conditions for professional journalists in Balochistan. It explores the available opportunities for journalists who perform their duties in conflict zone under life threatening conditions. In Balochistan, religious and ethno-political factors have intensified manifolds in the last ten years and reporting on these issues has claimed lives of many journalists. Since this issue has been raised by a sizeable segment of civil society, in general, and by journalist community, in particular, therefore, learning the root causes of underlying threats to journalist has acquired a particular salience. This paper, on the basis of collected data, seeks to discover the level of professionalism among the journalists as one of the potential causes of problem and develops a number of recommendations to help journalists reduce the element of risk in reporting issues of conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan does not have a marriage law for Hindus. Customary law has been practiced to address issues among the community members. Law is needed to provide necessary documentation, standardization and provision of rights to every individual. Successive efforts for legislating upon Hindu marriages have been marred by intra-community differences on issues like divorce. An enduring change in mindset and recognition of the law among Hindu community asks for a comprehensive intra-community dialogue but mechanism for marriage registration needs to be devised through legislation without further delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a local level examination of the political spaces and opportunities that arise for radical political agents in the aftermath of a climatic disaster. It explores the theoretical argument that disasters break the social contract between the state and disaster-affected communities by opening political space for change. The empirical work is based on a large-scale flooding disaster that affected southern Pakistan in 2010 and 2011 and caused international concern around increased Islamist mobilisation through their disaster relief programmes. The case study investigates the extent to which the climatic disaster opened political space for the radical Islamist group, theJamaat-ud-Dawa, to mobilise. Based on fieldwork conducted in three districts of Sindh in southern Pakistan, this paper demonstrates that climatic disasters are able to impact radical politics. This connection is not linear or causal but rather very complex. It further explains why this type of inquiry is relevant in order to understand climate change and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual basic security is limited in Pakistan as the state is institutionally weak. One way to attain basic security is by joining groups who provide security and services. Consequently, groups not part of the political mainstream, to attract a following, must therefore show that they are sufficiently powerful to obtain concessions from established actors. Thus, by engaging in violence primarily of a sectarian nature, the Pakistani Taliban sustains itself as a unified force while also highlighting that it is a powerful group, which in turn it hopes would enable it to curve a political space and win concessions from the established elite. Using social group identity theory, club goods, and the economics of extremism, the article highlights why the Pakistani Taliban has increasingly attacked minorities and why more must be done to address sectarian violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will examine in detail how conflicts can be prevented in the new provincial set-up of Pakistan. There exists a potential threat of the outbreak of conflict between different ethnic and lingual groups if new provinces are created without taking into account the interests of major stakeholders and the concerns of minority-majority ethnic and lingual groups. The case study of Hazara by focusing on the movement for a separate province will look into the dynamics of conflict formation and prevention in that region of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an understanding of political violence in a major metropolis through the lens of informality in urban planning and land use. Political conflict in Karachi has been examined largely from the lens of ethnic identity. Here it is shown, using census data, how urban planning was implicated in the evolution of the city’s ethnic demography. Election results at the polling station level further confirm the importance of territory in Karachi’s violent political divisions. The literature on informal economic governance, and its insights on non-state contract enforcement and dispute resolution, is used to interpret case studies of three unplanned neighbourhoods. Various migrant cohorts had distinct experiences regarding informal economic governance and the politics of regularisation. These differences gave rise to two alternate modes of informal economic governance, which not only sustained violent political divisions, but also denied coercive monopoly to formal institutions of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A reprint of the article "Lahore, Barcelona," by Nadeem F. Paracha, which appeared within the Pakistani newspaper "Dawn" on March 31, 2013. The article compares the social and political conditions in Barcelona, Spain during the 1930s and Lahore, Pakistan in the early 1970s, with a particular focus on the struggle between democratization and dictatorships in each country. An overview of the 1972 police strike in Lahore, including the anarchic conditions that it putatively caused, is provided.

The latest - and possibly the last - period of military rule in Pakistan ended in 2008, when elections were held under the thendictator General Pervez Musharraf. The voting sprouted a coalition government headed by the Pakistan Peoples Party that ruled (or rather riled) the country for five excruciating years. The ever-erring ruling group included the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz, one of the many breakaway wings of the country's founding political movement. The country has suffered ever since the Soviets invaded neighboring Afghanistan, leading the United States and its allies to fund the "mujahideen," the tribal-based loosely organized Muslim fighters from all over the world. After 9/11, President George W. Bush's attack on Afghanistan and hot pursuit of targets inside Pakistan, not to mention the military dictator Musharraf's wholesale willingness to support the United States in all of its decisions, has led to high levels of violence and instability. The Pakistani political establishment has little to show for its efforts. However, another development took root seventeen years ago. Imran Khan, the internationally respected and loved sports heroturned- philanthropist, realizing that acts of kindness alone would not heal the country's malaise, launched his own political party in a quest for justice and equality in a society firmly controlled by the feudal landed class created by the British to rule the Subcontinent. After ignoring him for some fifteen years, despite his many sacrifices, the nation finally heard him. But while his popularity boomed in 2011, his attempt to empower the masses by bringing in "fresh blood," namely, young educated people, women, and even the poor into the assemblies failed. The voters were, as many Pakistanis believe, deprived of their choice, and thus the same exploitative feudal class was returned to power. Khan has not fared too well, but at least he has planted the seeds of inclusive participation. Whether he can sustain it, however, remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the suggestion made by a small group of U.S. congressmen in 2012 that the U.S. should support the creation of the state of Balochistan in Southern Pakistan as an alternative to pursuing relationships with the allegedly corrupt Pakistani government. Topics include the Baloch nationalist movement's belief that ethnic identity is more significant than religious identity, the history of the Baloch people in the Pakistan region and their repeated insurgencies against the Pakistani government, and the potential economic and political benefits that Balochistan's independence could provide to the U.S.

Balochistan is in the grip of two distinct and mutually exclusive ethnonational and religious movements that straddle important swathes of its rugged and mountainous territory. From Quetta up in the north to the coast of Makran in the south, Balochistan is being shaped by the twin forces of local nationalism and jihadist organizations. Domestically, the issue of Balochistan has remained an Achilles heel for Pakistan's policy makers culminating in five separate insurgencies in the post-colonial era. All such insurgencies had to do with the imperative of a centralizing elite and the recalcitrance of a local elite resisting assimilationist pressures. On the religious front, since 2009 Balochistan has come under increased scrutiny, with the Americans alleging that Quetta and its environs are a safe haven for the Taliban leadership, including Mullah Omar. Coincidentally, Quetta has also seen rising sectarian conflict, and the Shia-Sunni divide in the city continues to assume importance in the War on Terror. In light of the rising tide of Baloch nationalism and jihadist activism, including sectarian killings, the paper puts forth a critically oriented analysis of the twin dynamics of religious activism and ethnic conflict in Balochistan and its attendant ramifications for domestic, regional, and global security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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El artículo discurre sobre las condiciones sociales experimentadas por los afganos desplazados viviendo en Pakistán. La autora comenta sobre los actos violentos y las vulnerabilidades dirigidas a los afganos en el país. También se considera el rol del gobierno pakistaní en la promoción de políticas de protección para los afganos.

In this article, the author reflects his thoughts over the poor performance of science and research in Pakistan. He mentions that poor performance is a reflection of the discipline's traditionally low political standing. He suggests that the of Nawaz Sharif led government needs to appoint a leader to deliver on objective of a research and development.