INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND ANCESTRAL LAND RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF LAWS AND POLICIES

Abstract

This paper has critically looked at the legal and policy framework of Indigenous peoples and ancestral land rights in Pakistan. It asserts that the Pakistan is simply providing partial and scattered security to the communities, which have their identity, culture and means of livelihood attached to the ancestral territories. Despite the significant guarantees entailed in the Constitution of Pakistan, on property and culture as well as minority protection, Indigenous peoples are not identified as a distinct legal category and are not offered a complete framework of collective rights to territory. The given paper discloses that this gap is justified with references to the fact that, still existing laws of the colonial period, namely, the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the Forest Act, 1927, concern state power, the official registration and administrative administration of the customary possession and communal tenure. Its significance to recent judicial authorities in Balochistan, where customary tribal possession has received increased acknowledgement, and where domestic law can be therefore regarded as moving towards a more rights-sensitive direction, is also highlighted in the discussion. We use the example of the Kalash people to see how there is a disjuncture between enshrinement and lived practice of dispossession, insecurity and cultural vulnerability. The paper also makes comparisons of the Pakistani situation with other international standards, especially the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and finds that the country is not completely compliant with the current standards on the collective land righting, participation, and consent. The paper will conclude that the existing constitutional and legal framework within Pakistani territory might possess some protective factors but it is still inadequate to an extent that should acknowledge and protect the historical land rights. Significant changes would need legal acknowledgment of indigenous and other disadvantaged groups, against colonial land laws, and reformation of the colonial land rules as well as introduction of consultation as well as consent processes in land management.