INTRODUCTION

“South Asia remains a region divided — divided between the hopes of the rich and the despair of the poor. A region where the richest one-fifth earn almost 40 per cent of the income, and the poorest one-fifth make do with less than 10 per cent” (Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre 1999, p. 2).

Pakistan society, like other countries in the subcontinent, has serious internal divisions. These divisions are not limited to economic disparities, but are prevalent at various levels in society. National policies clash with provincial interests, and enmities between ethnic and tribal groups or religious sects often erupt into violence. Factional rivalry in regional communities also imposes a tense atmosphere on social life. This chapter begins by addressing the divisions in the society under which nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are supposed to undertake their activities.

Since the latter half of the 1980s political corruption, the economic slump, and a rapid increase in population have all combined to broaden the economic space for NGO activities in Pakistan. At around that time the government, at the prodding of aid donors, began to advocate collaboration with NGOs, a move that promised to ensure political space for NGO activities. However, compared with other South Asian countries, NGO activities in Pakistan are generally seen as low-key. In fact, though the terms and discourses being created in the transnational world of development abound in the English publications of NGOs, they do not easily permeate through to local residents, who have various regional languages and dialects as their mother tongues. On the other hand, NGOs that rely solely on ethnic or sectarian values have to remain very narrowly focused in terms of their scope of activities. Where and how to place NGO activities in this divided social situation is discussed in the second section of this chapter.