Tuu Karrai Spi: Deconstructing Aman Committees and Life in South Waziristan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores the post-9/11 ramifications of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) in South Waziristan, Pakistan. It discusses how the post-colonial state has undermined state and tribal political relations which constituted political order first during the British colonial era and later in Pakistan. Furthermore, it explores how the post-colonial state has shared de facto sovereignty in the region with a “good” Taliban in the shape of a peace committee. To understand the Pakistan post-colonial state’s engagement with South Waziristan, it is necessary to make sense of the ongoing GWOT and the resulting necropolitics of life and death in South Waziristan. The paper explores how residents have confronted different scenarios when they encounter the new powerholders. It details the everyday experiences, life stories, and socio-political existence of the people of South Waziristan as an alternative narrative to how mainstream media and academic sources have discussed this area.