Volume IV, Issue II (April 2006) - Columbus School of Law

founders -- the local elite -- at a disadvantage. 106 These moves, which diminished the socioeconomicpower of the local elite in contrast to the colonial powers, were resisted by Muslimlegal activists constantly struggling with the new state. 107 But, somewhat ironically, even afterthe end of the British Raj, the emergent Islamic states themselves continued tight control ofIslamic charities.V. THE ROLE OF THE WAQF VIS-À-VIS THE STATE IN PAKISTANA. Brief Overview of Civil Society in PakistanCivil society in Pakistan is an area which is only recently being studied in any meaningfulmanner. While philanthropic and charitable activities have a long tradition in the region,primarily through the creation of trusts for providing public services as an ancillary to the state, 108even the term ‘civil society’ has been in vogue in Pakistan only since the 1990’s and there is noequivalent term in any of the country’s many vernacular languages. 109 It is generally recognizedthat philanthropy, volunteerism, and self-help activities enjoy a rich tradition in the Indus Valleydating back as much as 5,000 years -- building on religious traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism,Islam, Christianity, and Sikhism. 110 Yet, there are those today who see civil society in Pakistan asdisintegrating, the victim of ‘unresolved questions of identity, ideology and ethnicity furthercompounded by a monolithic state structure.’ 111 Still others are more optimistic and view civilsociety in Pakistan as ‘emerging from an abysmal state and redefining itself.’ 112 This moreoptimistic view relies on a perception that exposure of government corruption, a stronger andmore critical judiciary, and the discomfort of the populous with the ‘existing oligarchic tripolarrelationship between the bureaucracy, the military and politicians which smacks of age-olddynastic elitism’ 113 is leading to a resurgence of civil society organizations in Pakistan in the faceof an uneasy state.Whether optimist or pessimist, most scholars appear to concur that civil society in Pakistan isstruggling due to its somewhat ‘symbiotic relationship’ with a powerful state, in which a weakcivil society remains in many ways merely another branch of the monopolistic and interventioniststate structure. 114 Civil society in Pakistan struggles to define itself, define its place in theemerging sociopolitical order, and obtain some independence from the authoritarian strictures ofa state that often displays mixed and ambiguous attitudes toward civil society, embracing itspublic service delivery yet often viewing it in competition and often as a direct threat to theinterests of the state. Moreover, this struggle is further complicated by the virtual absence of theoverall societal attributes that would provide a fertile ground from which civil society couldflourish. As even one of the self-proclaimed optimists readily admits, ‘[a]ccountability, a decenteducational system, egalitarian economic policies to help the have-nots and minorities, a non-106 Bremer, above n 37, 14.107 Ibid.108 Muhammad Asif Iqbal, Hina Kahn, and Surkhab Javed, ‘Nonprofit Sector in Pakistan: HistoricalBackground’ (2004) (Social Policy and Development Centre Working Paper No. 4, in collaboration withthe Aga Khan Foundation (Pakistan) and the Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University) 4.109 Adnan Sattar Rabia Baig, ‘Civil Society in Pakistan: A Preliminary Report on the CIVICUS Index onCivil Society Project in Pakistan’ (2001) 1(11) CIVICUS Index on Civil Society Occasional Paper Series 1.110 Muhammad Asif Iqbal, Hina Kahn, and Surkhab Javed, above n 108, 5.111 Iftikhar H. Malik, State and Civil Society in Pakistan (1997) 9.112 Ibid.113 Ibid.114 Ibid 12, 115.22