In Pakistan Salman Hussain the Graduate Center, City University of New York
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Graduate Center 2-2018 Together Without Consensus: Class, Emotions and the Politics of the Rule of Law in the Lawyers’ Movement (2007-09) in Pakistan Salman Hussain The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Follow this and additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Hussain, Salman, "Together Without Consensus: Class, Emotions and the Politics of the Rule of Law in the Lawyers’ Movement (2007-09) in Pakistan" (2018). CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2489 This Dissertation is brought to you by CUNY Academic Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of CUNY Academic Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TOGETHER WITHOUT CONSENSUS: CLASS, EMOTIONS AND THE POLITICS OF THE RULE OF LAW IN THE LAWYERS’ MOVEMENT (2007-09) IN PAKISTAN by SALMAN HUSSAIN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, City University of New York. 2018 © 2018 Salman Hussain All Rights Reserved ii Together Without Consensus: Class, Emotions and the Politics of the Rule of Law in the Lawyers’ Movement (2007-09) in Pakistan by Salman Hussain This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _________________ __________________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee _________________ __________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Supervisory Committee Avram Bornstein Vincent Crapanzano Katherine Verdery External Reader David Gilmartin THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Together Without Consensus: Class, Emotions and the Politics of the Rule of Law in the Lawyers’ Movement (2007-09) in Pakistan By Salman Hussain Advisor: Avram Bornstein This dissertation is an ethnographic examination of how political emotions, historical memory and notion(s) of the rule of law are mobilized in postcolonial Pakistan. Specifically, it examines how liberal legality (the rule of law, judiciary and courts) and discourses of rights have become popular hegemonic languages for mobilizing political protests and legal claims. In particular, the dissertation studies a protest movement, the Lawyers’ Movement for the Restoration of Judiciary and Democracy (2007-09), that was led by the lawyers and their allied educated and professional middle-classes, and investigates how the lawyers successfully galvanized Pakistanis against the then prevalent military rule by formulating appeals to the rule of law and constitutionalism and led their historic bloc to restore the higher judiciary. Famously defined as the societies in which colonial law exercised only domination and never hegemony, this dissertation further examines how liberal legality and rights discourses have, in fact, become hegemonic and while managing populations and emotions, they have also enabled new sites of popular mobilization, protest and agitation in postcolonial South Asia. Furthermore, what this dissertation reveals is that beneath the shared language, there are different ideas. Unlike more common understandings, whereby the hegemony of a historic bloc emerges from shared beliefs, the Lawyers’ Movement and related cases reflect more of a convergence than a consensus. The dissertation is divided into three sections: the first part lays out the events of the Lawyers’ Movement and examines how their images and narratives mobilized emotions and protests; part iv two looks at how various classes both converged and diverged on the notion of the rule of law within the historic bloc that the lawyers had successfully mobilized; and the last section lays out the judicial terrain on which the courts became the site of a war of position against the state and contested claims regarding what the rule of law ought to do about uneven legal development in postcolonial Pakistan. All three sections are based on eighteen months of fieldwork and archival research that I conducted in Pakistan. Collectively, they illustrate the contradictions in the appeal and the exercise of the rule of law, and the various ways in which the rule of law tends to be simultaneously imagined as a form of popular empowerment and resistance as well as a mode of discipline and governance. v Sab Mil Ke Jab Khuda Ko Bana Chuke Tau Firaq Pukaar Utthe Keh Khuda Ne Hamain Banaya Hai Firaq Gorakhpuri vi Acknowledgements I have incurred many debts, of my family, friends and partners, in the making of this dissertation. The journey has been long and, at times, tiring, and so without care, love and patience of the people around me, this project would have never been completed. The teachers who taught me are to be thanked first. It was always a treat to sit down with Vincent Crapanzano to converse, and was always exciting to keep up with his dynamic and challenging thoughts. Katherine Verdery’s in-depth comments and structured suggestions helped to reorient my work and writing. I am most grateful to Avram Bornstein. His support, passion and dedication is unmatched. Also, I am in debt to many others in the Anthropology Department at The Graduate Center who, over the years, both inside as well as outside the classroom, imparted their knowledge to students like me. Without Gerald Creed and Ellen DeRiso’s support and open doors, the PhD journey would have been impossible to complete. Our department’s collegiality owed much to Gerald’s generous support of students and Ellen’s hard work. I owe special debt to the friends in New York city. Evenings after heavy doses of theory and heated discussions were spent with them, around the corner from the GC. Rocio, Anders and Neil were the warmest of the fellow travelers. Thank you. The generous financial support of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada (SSHRC) and International Dissertation Research Fellowship-Social Sciences Research Council (IDRF-SSRC) made possible conducting long-term fieldwork in Pakistan. Dissertation writing was supported by the Mellon Committee on Globalization and Social Change and by the Graduate Center’s Pollis Dissertation Fellowship in Human Rights. I also want to thank Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC) and the Anthropology Department of The Graduate Center, CUNY for providing financial support. Lastly, I want to thank Law and Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology which provided the space and support for finally completing this dissertation. vii For eighteen months, I was an annoying presence in the offices, homes and neighborhoods of my interlocutors in Pakistan. I want to thank them all for their generosity – for giving me their time and attention, stories and narratives. For safety reasons, I can’t name or locate them here, but many humbled me by sharing their hopes, pain, aspirations and disappointments. Thank you! I owe special debt to Rehana, Ijaz, Noman, Yaser, Anoosha and Aamna to be there for me, for providing a warm corner for me to retreat to, to return to. Malcolm Blincow and David Gilmartin are owed thanks for their reading of the drafts and generously giving their time to me. I am grateful that my partner and love (and part-time editor!), Nurjehan, accompanied me towards the end of this journey, but at the start of others, which begin from the completion of this dissertation. viii Abbreviations ABD Asian Development Bank AC Assistant Commissioner APS Army Public School ATC Anti-Terrorism Court AWP Awami Workers Party CDA Capital Development Authority CIA Central Intelligence Agency CJP Chief Justice of Pakistan COS Chief of Staff COAS Chief of Army Staff CKMP Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party CP Constitutional Petition CPP Communist Party Pakistan CrlA Criminal Appeal DC Deputy Commissioner DHRP Defence of Human Rights Pakistan DIG Deputy Inspector General DSF Democratic Students Federation FATA Federally Administered Areas FIA Federal Investigations Agency FIR First Investigation Report GHQ General Head Quarters GT Grand Trunk HRC Human Rights Complaint HRCP Human Rights Commission Pakistan IB Intelligence Bureau IJT Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba ISI Inter-Service Intelligence ISPR Inter-Services Public Relations JI Jamaat-i-Islami JUI Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam KPK Khyber Pakhtunkhwa LHC Lahore High Court LUMS Lahore University of Management Sciences MI Military Intelligence MPA Member of Provincial Assembly MNA Member of National Assembly MOD Ministry of Defense MQM Muttahida Qaumi Movement MRD Movement to Restore Democracy NADRA National Database and Registration Authority NSF National Students Federation NWFP North West Frontier Province PATA Provincially Administered Areas PBC Punjab Bar Council PCO Provincial Constitutional Order PEMRA Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority PHC Peshawar High Court PIL Public Interest Litigation ix PLD Pakistan Law Digest PML-N Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz PNA Pakistan National Alliance PPA Pakistan Protection Act PPP Pakistan People’s Party PRM People’s Rights Movement Q-League Quaid-e-Azam League QU Quaid-e-Azam University SAC Students Action Committee SC Supreme Court SCBA Supreme Court Bar Association SHC Sindh High Court SMC Suo Moto Case VBMP Voice