My research examines the three interrelated concepts of crisis; new imperialisms, spatial-temporal fix and accumulation by dispossession (ABD) stemming from the work of David Harvey as a way to understand the contested history of the Pakistan Railways. For the first thirty odd years after Pakistan's inception in 1947, the railways, a state-owned institution, was the primary mode of transport for the public, cargo, and workers. Alongside basic infrastructure, the railways had a vast network of hospitals, schools, workers' colonies and an array of physical infrastructure connected to production, operations and other aspects of the economy. The systematic ransack and decline of the Pakistan Railways reached its peak in 2010. Despite several attempts throughout the 1990s by successive democratic and military-led governments backed by the IMF/World Bank in 2015, it was announced that Pakistan railways would be revived under the banner of the 46 billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as part of the changing geopolitical context of growing regional connectivity and new Chinese imperialism. By examining the processes that underlie ABD, such as spatial-temporal fix, the following research shows that these processes not only reflect a shift of resources away from the public domain, but in Pakistan also entailed the transformation of the railways from a utilitarian welfare organization to an entity that facilitates looting, unbundling, and dispossession of shared resources and infrastructure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1707365 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Khan, Sher Ali |
| Contributors | Wolverton, Steve, Akhter, Majed, Oppong, Joseph |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | iv, 62 pages, Text |
| Coverage | Pakistan |
| Rights | Public, Khan, Sher Ali, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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