ABSTRACT
The Urdu word qabza provides a conceptual map to comprehend the strategic logic of political violence in Pakistan. Starting from the mid-1980s political violence became an important dynamic in shaping Pakistani politics. This chapter discusses the forces that shaped Mohajir political identity in the mid-1980s and how it led to what Laurent Gayer has termed 'ordered disorder' in the largest metropolis in Pakistan. Rasool Bux Palijo, a Sindhi nationalist leader compared the Mohajir in Sindh to White settlers in Africa. The twenty-something Mohajir men both celebrated the claim that only their group stood for a united Pakistani identity but also warned their elders that a claim to territory is essential for the survival of the group. Rather than viewing violence as an 'extraordinary' means for achieving political goals, the Pakistani case forces to pay attention to the interplay between legality and criminality, violence and peace, ballots and bullets.
