Current Projects

Ordered Disorder: Thinking through Karachi’s State of Permanent Warfare

Press Release Political patronage of tactical alliances comprising criminal, ethnic and commercial interests, as well as extremely poor governance have all combined to sink Karachi in administrative chaos and political violence. Those supposed to fix problems are themselves part of the problems, thus transforming Karachi into a battlefield of multiple interests. Encapsulating his experience of Karachi as an outside observer, Laurent Gayer, a French political scientist, said a lot insecurity and misgovernance is rooted in the threats that the MQM perceives to its hegemony of nearly three decades. In his lecture on ¿Ordered Disorder: Thinking through Karachi's State of Permanent Warfare– at Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Islamabad on February 20, 2013, Mr Gayer likened Karachi to Beirut– due to the fragility of law and order situation and patchy governance in the mega city. He observed that Karachi today has drifted into administrative and political chaos because political parties running it themselves to benefit from the privatization of service delivery. His research is based on to see what is next to this permanent ordered disorder in his forthcoming book on Karachi. Historically, the role of illicit trade, the criminalization of Karachi is essential elements of the growth of this city, he said. In this regard he compared Karachi with Mumbai which has similarity with Karachi in the sense of social leadership. According to him violence in Karachi is not existential but it is instrumental. What makes Karachi different from Mumbai is the kind of violence which escalated in Karachi with the arms influx after Afghan war, i.e. modern weapons which are used for violence. He also talked about the transformation of conflict after the rise of religious parties in Karachi. Islami Jamiat Talaba is now much stronger militarily than the student faction of Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The thing which also makes Karachi different from Mumbai is the scale of...

Ordered Disorder: Thinking through Karachi's State of Permanent Warfare

Press Release Political patronage of tactical alliances comprising criminal, ethnic and commercial interests, as well as extremely poor governance have all combined to sink Karachi in administrative chaos and political violence. Those supposed to fix problems are themselves part of the problems, thus transforming Karachi into a battlefield of multiple interests. Encapsulating his experience of Karachi as an outside observer, Laurent Gayer, a French political scientist, said a lot insecurity and misgovernance is rooted in the threats that the MQM perceives to its hegemony of nearly three decades. In his lecture on ¿Ordered Disorder: Thinking through Karachi's State of Permanent Warfare– at Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Islamabad on February 20, 2013, Mr Gayer likened Karachi to Beirut– due to the fragility of law and order situation and patchy governance in the mega city. He observed that Karachi today has drifted into administrative and political chaos because political parties running it themselves to benefit from the privatization of service delivery. His research is based on to see what is next to this permanent ordered disorder in his forthcoming book on Karachi. Historically, the role of illicit trade, the criminalization of Karachi is essential elements of the growth of this city, he said. In this regard he compared Karachi with Mumbai which has similarity with Karachi in the sense of social leadership. According to him violence in Karachi is not existential but it is instrumental. What makes Karachi different from Mumbai is the kind of violence which escalated in Karachi with the arms influx after Afghan war, i.e. modern weapons which are used for violence. He also talked about the transformation of conflict after the rise of religious parties in Karachi. Islami Jamiat Talaba is now much stronger militarily than the student faction of Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The thing which also makes Karachi different from Mumbai is the scale of...

American Consul General in Peshawar, Robert Reed and his delegation at CRSS on Feb 20th

American Consul General in Peshawar, Robert Reed and his delegation at CRSS on Feb 20th to discuss issues of mutual interest.

Consultative Workshop on Social Cohesion and factors that divide or connect the society

Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Ahsan Iqbal, Daniyal Aziz, former chairman of National Reconstruction Bureau and others at the consultative workshop (Feb 19) on Social Cohesion and factors that divide or connect the society.The workshop was part of the UNICEF-CRSS nationwide conflict analysis.

Weekly Data Sheet – February 8-14, 2013

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – February 8-14, 2013

The raging wave of violence remained steady across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, surged significantly during the week, wherein 58 persons (28 were in the last week) perished. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies-continued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 182 persons lost their lives as a result of 83 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent clashes also left 110 people injured. Like in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted foralmost 62 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 113 civilians lost their lives and 58 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 51 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strike was also reported during the week, killing eight suspected militants in North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants blew up three public schools and a cellular tower in KP. Meanwhile, 12 sectarian attacksleft 11 dead in Karachi and one in KP, this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings increased by 17 percent, (33 percent of the total dead against last week 16 percent) during the current week. Overall, 64 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 53 incidents of target killings; 79 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 43...

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Monthly Report – January 2013

The raging wave of violence soared significantly during January across Pakistan. Ethno-political violence in Karachi, religio-terrorism in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and nationalist-separatist violence in Balochistan, meanwhile continued to eat up people. The deadly wave of target killing in Karachi, started in the last week of March 2102, continued to mount death toll during current year, as well. The deadly wave left almost 128 persons dead (due to target killing) during the current month. In total 156 persons perished in Karachi during January in different circumstances. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, suggests that some 749 people lost their lives in 292 incidents of violence across the country (for details see data sheet). The violent clashes also left 696 people injured in January. Concise look into the casualty figures underlines that the civilians remained the major target of violent actors, with the civilians accounting for major loss of lives as a result of various acts of violence and terror in Pakistan. As noted in pie chart I below, civilians were 64 percent of the total dead in January. The share of the civilian deaths is slightly higher than the previous month, wherein 60 percent of the dead were innocent civilians. As a whole 481 civilians were killed in different circumstances during the month. Moreover, the data suggests that the militants fighting against the state remained the second major target i.e. 28 percent (210) of the total dead. Clashes also left 58 security forces– personnel (8 percent of total deaths) dead and these were mostly recorded in insurgency infested areas of FATA, Karachi and Balochistan. Furthermore, during January, seven CIA operated drone strike were reported in different areas of FATA, leaving as many as 42 suspected militants dead. Meanwhile, continuing their sabotage campaign to demolish state infrastructure, militants blew up...

New Politics and Civil Society in Asia: A Pakistani Perspective

A general overview of what happening around the developing world: what is new politics in democracies craving for change or those in democratic transition? And what are the evolving challenges to traditional governance and political structures i.e. dissatisfaction with the status-quo? This was the objective of the paper read by Imtiaz Gul at the symposium, organized by the Japan Foundation and International House of Japan, on February 6, 2013. Various stake-holders at the lower rung i.e. people and groups at large through a rights-based approach i.e. are challenging the inefficient governments through advocacy and debate on public forum for rights and justice. The facilitators are media and the civil society at large. Electronic and social media in particular and is acting as a multiplier of socio-political messaging. The question arises why are these challenges emerging? a) Failure by the elites to deliver on governance/justice and economic fronts, and b) More openness and ever increasing access to information It means that state failures and shortcomings create space for non-state entities i.e. civil society, business groups, technocrats, professionals and academicians. While governments in as diverse political cultures as India and China, or Pakistan and Egypt, or Bangladesh, continue to represent the upper echelons of the society i.e. the ruling elite trying to preserve and consolidate its hold on power, while the middle and lower tiers of the society appear to be striving for breaking out of the clutches of the status quo. In retrospect, this struggle between the forces of status-quo and those striving for change looks and sounds so familiar because the ruling classes keep preserving their hold on power ´sometime in the name of public interest, sometime in the name of national security and at times, invoking arguments that hardly favour the common man. As far back as 1760s, French Enlightenment writer, historian Voltaire...

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – February 01-07, 2013

The raging wave of violence de-escalated slightly across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also subsided during the week, wherein 28 persons (49 were in the last week) were perished. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies-continued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 183 persons lost their lives as a result of 68 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 111 people injured. Like in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted foralmost 54 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 100 civilians lost their lives and 89 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 60 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strike was also reported during the week, killing 6 suspected militants in North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants blew up 8 shops in KP and torched 6 vehicles in FATA. Meanwhile, 6 sectarian attacksleft 37 dead, including 2 Shia men in Karachi and 30 in KP, this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 5 percent, (16 percent of the total dead against last week 21 percent) during the current week. Overall, 41 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 28 incidents of target killings; 46 percent took place in Karachi alone,...