Cover Story
People's Law in Pakistan
by | Asad Farooq
The noise, the drum, the poem, the song, the
film, the word – these are the methods by which the
World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), held in Istanbul in June 2005,
came to be and began investigating the truth. Indictments
and testimony were presented, recalling and articulating crimes,
lies and deceit. In its course, the tribunal uncovered imperial
machinations where states of exception and permanent war become
the norm; where collective punishment becomes the means of
policing; and where mercenaries of torture and pain are invoked
as ‘extraordinary renditions’.
The WTI produced judgements aimed at addressing
the gap created by the failure of international institutions
to protect Iraq. The final session of the WTI collated this
testimony and produced a verdict (drafted by a ‘jury
of conscience’ whose spokesperson was Arundhati Roy)
that can be read as a veritable manifesto for the new anti-war
movement.
The tribunal process embodied a deeply symbolic recognition
of the failures of international law in Iraq, a process that
has largely interrupted the ‘myth of law,’ based
on the values of the enlightenment.
The WTI was a retort to Empire's Law. If the
tribunal is seen in terms of its potential for law-making
and law-doing – its declaratory, deliberative authority
derived almost exclusively from those millions who marched
on the streets – then it can be seen to be enacting
some of the still-unfinished business of decolonisation: dealing
with the law itself, thinking the law anew (see book review,
pp 102). In so doing, it represents a deep shift towards an
idea of People's Law - an assertion of the right to judgement
of ordinary people in the world. As academic Jayan Nayar argued
persuasively at the WTI, by wresting the “capability
of judgement, authorship, control and action” away from
national and international authorities, we reinvent the very
stuff of political practice. It is here that the WTI coincides
with the many grassroots struggles and imaginations that animate
resistance movements and ‘rebellious consciousnesses’
across the globe, including the Subcontinent.
Lok Sath
One particular moment of People's Law is symbolised by the
Lok Sath movement in the Chashma Canal region of Punjab in
Pakistan. Although the debate in Pakistan on the decolonisation
of law has revolved around secular-versus-religious law regimes,
this is clearly a false dichotomy, for both operate within
state law. Indeed, the perspectives and needs of those in
struggle present radical departures in form and content from
the essence of dominant law and politics.
The Lok Sath started in August 2003 during
the debate over the implications of the construction by Islamabad
of the 274 km-long Chashma Canal. With much of the funding
for the USD 254 million project provided by the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), the canal shattered the livelihoods of the local
communities through illegal land appropriations, the destruction
of a traditional irrigation method (the rowed kohee), extensive
flooding, and the subsequent destruction of homes, crops and
lives. As with all large-scale water projects, the net effect
was to grant the state a monopoly over water – to “hand
over destiny itself,” in the words of the Lok Sath.
Affected individuals appealed first to the
state and later to the ADB for redress. While neither avenue
offered much hope, in the process of voicing their demands,
affected communities came to the decision to stake claim to
the idea of law itself. Doing so resulted in an inevitable
disengagement from the state and ADB processes, reflecting
a quiet moment of ‘decolonisation’. By organising
a series of Lok Sath meetings, relying upon and reinventing
historical processes of engagement, communities came together
to evolve new ways of approaching negotiation. They recorded
the destruction and suffering, and outlined a loss of local
control. Although passing judgement on those responsible,
activists were not making demands of those groups; rather,
they were demanding action from the communities themselves
of non-violently re-inscribing the people's collective will
and “taking back power of one's destiny”.
Roy at WTI |
Long march
As with the WTI, the Lok Sath has been challenged on the grounds
of legitimacy, and with the fear of a looming anarchy that
comes with people ‘performing’ law. The Lok Sath’s
simple recognition of its own existence, coupled with the
very real anarchy that the state-maintained irrigation system
has brought, has yielded its own retort. That response arrives
at a new political practice emphasising non-violent resistance.
During the March 2005 Lok Sath, a Chashma Lok Sangh pilgrimage
was declared, which was held the following July. Using the
ingrained cultural memory of walking long distances to express
devotion and commitment, the Lok Sangh marched 170 km over
eight days – holding meetings along the way, uniting
communities, and deciding on specific actions. Some of those
new approaches included refusing to pay irrigation taxes,
committing to breach the canal when it threatened lives, and
pledging an indefinite hunger strike outside the ADB office
in Islamabad.
For these communities, a future within the
Lok Sath framework includes the possibility of re-inventing
traditional irrigation forms, with all of their concomitant
social and political-economic ramifications. Doing so would
challenge the state irrigation systems, which have long been
the single most effective way of establishing state control
over lands and peoples. As such, a challenge of this type
could redefine the very terms of state power – a process
that is urgently needed throughout Pakistan. The effort towards
such a redefinition is currently being spearheaded by Sindhoo
Bachao Taralla, an emerging confederation of movements struggling
on water-based issues along the Indus river.
If the enlightenment project of law has failed,
it is People's Law that should represent the new site for
decolonisation. Rethinking law involves a challenge not just
to the state (and its concomitant internationalism), but more
so to political practice itself. It is with this lens that
the WTI, the Lok Sath, and the many resistance moments across
Southasia need to be viewed.
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