ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the law in Pakistan as a double-edged sword, addressing its role in the violent imposition of state power, despite constitutional provisions that seek to enforce individuals' fundamental rights and hold state governing bodies accountable. It reviews existing laws, legal practices, court decisions, debates and discourses around land acquisition, displacement and compensation and describes acts of violence imposed on affected communities. It observes how legal processes and state actions create differentiated populations to facilitate development projects which justify forced displacement under the guise of “public purpose” and “national importance”. In examining historic precedents from the Lyari Expressway project and the more recent Karachi Circular Railway project, the chapter highlights the increased frequency and intensity of eviction drives in the city and the ways in which various participants strategize resistance, through legal avenues and other forms of mobilization, to these evictions. The chapter demonstrates that, while the narrative of legal empowerment is complicated, Pakistani law not only reinforces existing power dynamics but further perpetuates them.
