Acknowledgements

This book is, in a way, an outcome of my long legal and political practice with workers, peasants, students and marginalized sections of Pakistan. The list of friends is long, ranging from the 1950s peasant leaders Ghulam Nabi Kallu to present day Allah Buksh Baloch in southern Punjab and includes especially, former student activists, Sabir Ali Haider and Mushtaq Chaudry, as well as lawyer Abid Hasan Minto.

Based on my experiences, my quest in Ph.D. was to theoretically understand the limits of liberal legal project and the role of the judiciary for the emancipation of the marginalized. During my years of graduate study, I frequently visited Pakistan, and critically engaged with my prior perceptions. The critical environment of Osgoode Hall School, and York University in the Toronto area was very conducive to my quests. I thank my supervisor Ruth Buchanan and supervisory committee Liora Salter and especially the kind support and encouragement of Dr. Tariq Amin-Khan. They let the project originally grow and kindly nourished it with their insights and also trimmed its excesses. I thank Dr. Kamran Asdar Ali for being the external reader and for debating my views vigorously with me.

I would like to thank my political friends and family who stood with me in the disappointments and joys of producing this piece of literature. I would specially like to thank my loving daughter Sumana Abraham and wife Sara Abraham who sup­ported me throughout these past years as I was doing my research.

Other critical scholars in Toronto are Profs. Raju Das, Obiora Okafor, Peer Zumbensen, Greg Albo, Sam Gindin, Aparna Sundar, Malavika Kasturi, Alok Johri, Kajri Jain, Dhruv Jain, Horace Campbell and Shubhra Gururani, and I thank them for their intellectual engagement with my project. While studying law my political engagement with peoples’ rights in Toronto was possible through a wonderful galaxy of graduate students and friends. Here I thank Steve de Silva running a community newspaper promoting peoples’ journalism, Basics. I thank Noaman, Arsalan and Urooj for running a campaign against drones in Pakistan, Mike and Kabir for organizing black neighbourhood against the police, as well as Laura working with indigenous people. Sukhdev, Navkiran and Punjabi struggles in Brampton offered lessons at a very different level.

After week-long hectic intellectual engagements, my creative writers and poets offered cheerful compounds with soothing effect. Amir Jaffery and Seemi, Khalid Sohail, Rafiq Sultan, Malik Khan, Rasheed Nadeem, Askariand Zehra with their poetry, fiction and songs kept my soul alive and steady for the time I was researching, during those eight years. I was fortunate to have a few graduate stu­dents as my friends and want to thank Qamar, Humayun, Tahir Amin, Paula, as well as Aqeel, Nadeem, Halida and Ahamad.

After completing my research, I was fortunate to move back to Pakistan, Lahore for a job at LUMS University. These past two years I have worked on changing my thesis into this book. I found new empirical evidence to fill some gaps. During this time, my colleagues Dr. Zubair Abbasi, Sadaf Aziz, Dr. Ali Qazilbash, Sikandar Shah, Uzair Kayani, Khyzer, Dean Martin Lau and Vice Chancellor Dr. Sohail Naqvi were very supportive and I want to thank them. Rizwanna, Sadaf Shahjehan, Yumna Arshad and Asad Ullah Khan really worked hard on editing and other support.

Dr. Itty Abraham deserves a special thanks, for he guided me in a very special way at every stage of my work.

Finally, the staff of Sheikh Ahmed School of Law (SAHSOL) Shah Nawaz, Imran, Khalid and Iftikhar have kept things working smoothly around teaching and dealing with students. I thank them for making such a peaceful environment.