Meanings of Residential Security: A Perspective from Karachi

1. Meanings of Residential Security: A Perspective from Karachi Haris Gazdar Collective for Social Science Research

2. Grades of citizenship • Citizens versus non-citizens • Unequal citizens • Effectively unequal citizens • Overlap between categories in case of marginalized irregular migrants, particularly non-citizens and effectively unequal citizens

3. Grades in state and society

4. Existing approaches to residential security • Legal: right to adequate housing • Administrative: focus on fixed abode • Economic: secure property and tenancy rights • Social: societal arrangements for access to land and housing – networks, patriarchy

5. Karachi context • 13 million people, largest city of Pakistan, very ethnically diverse • Rapid growth since 1850s (pop 60,000) due to migration • Conflict-related displacement from outside: 1947, 1971, 1980s • Conflict-related displacement within: 1980s

6. Quantitative versus qualitative understanding of “security” • Over two-thirds of families in Karachi report “owning” their homes • No clear estimates but at least half of these do not have individual title • Right of possession versus ownership and possession asserted politically • Half of city irregular or post hoc regularization – legacy of migration

7. Vantage point • Analysis of statistical data • Research on range of localities across city, which started life as irregular settlements • Qualitative tools: oral histories, community histories, conflict and migration narratives • Community profiles: land, housing, amenities, interaction with state agencies, collective action

8. Insights from qualitative research - 1 • Wide range of outcome in “irregular” settlements • Security of possession seen as key issue • Security from state – freedom from vulnerability to eviction • Security of contract – ability to transfer property rights • Both forms of security closely linked

9. Insights from qualitative research - 2 • Informal provisioning dominates • Close link between informal and formal – city authorities and public utilities networked with informal providers • Non-state contract enforcement – legitimized violence • Importance of social and political networks in mobilization

10. Perspective on residential security - 1 • Legal perspective – active where migrants or residentially vulnerable people are seen as political assets, or are socially connected. E.g property owning Muslim DPs from India, Afghan DPs in 1980s • Administrative perspective – two way relationship between residential security and other entitlements – KEY INSIGHT

11. Perspective on residential security - 2 • Economic – frequency of transactions leads to security, but market is hierarchical, the most socially marginalized live in most insecure conditions, and often remain insecure • Social arrangements – these dominate, and ultimately citizenship rights are also endogenous

12. Case 1: Natha Khan • Original indigenous Sindhis displaced and compensated by military in 1940s • Dominant group till 1960s when migrant Pashtuns with military connections arrived in large numbers • Violent conflict and tables turned • Pashtun segment regularized Sindhi segment still non-regularized

13. Case 2: Lines Area • Military barracks turned over to 1947 migrant govt employees from India, other migrants settled in camps around • Frequent govt evictions from camps • Populist govt in 1970s declared amnesty • Militant ethnic group in 1980s carried out ethnic cleansing

14. Case 3: Kausar Niazi Colony • Pashtun migrant set up camp on unused govt land, invited networks of Pashtun and Afghan nomadic families • Became local political activist linked to a party – and began marking and selling possession rights to plots • Regularization as a result of electoral promise