This is a different situation from the ones you're thinking of in western countries, where everything is clearly defined by law and people accept the jurisdiction of the same courts to judge that law.
Pakistan's borders are artificial, and something like half the country is actually part of Afghanistan (but then, Afghanistan has a part of what used to be Persia...). Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, has had an active separatist movement for a long time, and has occasionally risen up in mass revolt.
Much of Pakistan was never really incorporated into the country to begin with. The tribal lands had a long history of independence and rule by tribal councils, and when the British drew a boundary around them and a bunch of Indians said "you're in our country now" they basically said "huh? what? who're you?" The basic agreement that worked out with most of these tribal areas is that they ceded control of the international border to the Pakistani government, and the Pakistani government agreed to leave them alone otherwise. Of course that's no way to run a modern country, so decades later the government started trying to actually govern these provinces, a process that moves in fits and starts. Part of the problem of defining the state of separation is that it keeps changing, and the status quo isn't satisfying everyone.
This particular incident, however, happened in the Punjab, which is the most authentically "Pakistani" of Pakistan's parts. In the Punjab, Pakistan is not seen as a foreign country (the way it is in much of Sindh, Balochistan, and NWFP), and it is generally accepted that the national government's entities have authority over the locals. But the actual excercise of that authority isn't well developed in rural areas.
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Date: 2006-11-06 06:55 pm (UTC)Pakistan's borders are artificial, and something like half the country is actually part of Afghanistan (but then, Afghanistan has a part of what used to be Persia...). Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, has had an active separatist movement for a long time, and has occasionally risen up in mass revolt.
Much of Pakistan was never really incorporated into the country to begin with. The tribal lands had a long history of independence and rule by tribal councils, and when the British drew a boundary around them and a bunch of Indians said "you're in our country now" they basically said "huh? what? who're you?" The basic agreement that worked out with most of these tribal areas is that they ceded control of the international border to the Pakistani government, and the Pakistani government agreed to leave them alone otherwise. Of course that's no way to run a modern country, so decades later the government started trying to actually govern these provinces, a process that moves in fits and starts. Part of the problem of defining the state of separation is that it keeps changing, and the status quo isn't satisfying everyone.
This particular incident, however, happened in the Punjab, which is the most authentically "Pakistani" of Pakistan's parts. In the Punjab, Pakistan is not seen as a foreign country (the way it is in much of Sindh, Balochistan, and NWFP), and it is generally accepted that the national government's entities have authority over the locals. But the actual excercise of that authority isn't well developed in rural areas.