On Wednesday 8th March 2023 the CJC will be hosting a book launch to celebrate one of our members Dr. Zoha Waseem and her publication 'Insecure Guardians: Enforcement, Encounters and Everyday Policing in Postcolonial Karachi'.

The discussants for this event will be: Prof. Ana Aliverti, University of Warwick and Dr.Sobia Ahmed Kaker, University of Essex.

The police force is one of the most distrusted institutions in Pakistan, notorious for its corruption and brutality. In both colonial and postcolonial contexts, directives to confront security threats have empowered law enforcement agents, while the lack of adequate reform has upheld institutional weaknesses. This exploration of policing in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and financial capital, reveals many colonial continuities. Both civilian and military regimes continue to ensure the suppression of the policed via this institution, itself established to militarily subjugate and exploit in the interests of the ruling class. However, contemporary policing practice is not a simple product of its colonial heritage: it has also evolved to confront new challenges and political realities. Based on extensive fieldwork and around 200 interviews, this ethnographic study reveals a distinctly ‘postcolonial condition of policing’. Mutually reinforcing phenomena of militarisation and informality have been exacerbated by an insecure state that routinely conflates combatting crime, maintaining public order and ensuring national security. This is evident not only in spectacular displays of violence and malpractice, but also in police officers’ routine work. Caught in the middle of the country’s armed conflicts, their encounters with both state and society are a story of insecurity and uncertainty.
Further information: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/insecure-guardians/

This will be a hybrid event and we do hope that you can join us.

The event will be held in Room S2.09 and will include a wine reception from 5:30 p.m.

For those of you joining us virtually Click here to join the meeting. Link opens in a new window