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Instead of criminalizing slums, the global discourse on slums and urban poor is changing towards integration, rehabilitation, and internationalizing cities. As pleasant as it may look, it is important to critically reflect and evaluate the policies of upgradation and rehabilitation, especially in the global south. Is the change from criminalization to rehabilitation and integration true to its spirit or is it just another policy gimmick? This article uses critical discourse analysis to analyze an affidavit produced in an official report on the upgradation and rehabilitation of katchi abadis (slums) in Islamabad. The report describes the affidavit as the most important part of the process through which the urban poor become eligible for applying to the intended benefits of the development interventions, that is, the legalization of their housing. The affidavit is to be reproduced by the urban poor on a notarized stamped paper to be attested to by a magistrate of the first class (a Civil Judge). The discursive analysis of the affidavit shows that the text attempts to naturalize inequalities, criminalization, and essentialization of the urban poor. Further, having constructed their deviant status, the text shows that the urban poor must surrender some of their rights to access their right to housing in Islamabad.

This article challenges the traditional understanding of the role of landownership in rural Punjab in the context of recent socio-economic restructuring of Pakistani society. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork of contemporary practices of gift exchange ( vartan bhanji) in a village, we argue that the Kammi biraderis, once considered lower class, now assert their elevated socio-economic status through vartan bhanji on important social occasions like marriages. Zamindars now see themselves in competition both with Kammi biraderis and each other for social prestige and superior status, as new claims made by different biraderis challenge traditional hierarchies created through historically structured socio-economic inequalities.

This study examined the households’ risk perceptions of water contamination available in the surroundings of the Lai sewer in Rawalpindi city of Pakistan. Through purposefully structured questionnaire, 134 households were interviewed from three randomly selected areas adjacent to the main sewer bed of the Lai sewer. The data were collected from both the ethnography of three neighborhoods named Mohinpura, Dhok Ratta, and Dhok Naju adjacent to the Lai sewer and questionnaire survey to assess the households’ perceptions of groundwater and supplied water contamination as principal sources of drinking water. Supplementing ethnographic research, the data collected through the questionnaire was analyzed using the ordered probit model. The findings showed that households’ education level, income, health effects, proximity to the Lai sewer, knowledge, and awareness of water contamination, and attitude toward health risks had significant effects on households’ risk perceptions. This study will be an important addition to the existing water pollution–related research and will particularly help to sensitize the households and communities about water contamination and health-related risks. The recommendations of the study will further guide the relevant state institutions based on the perspectives of the research participants and neighboring residents of the Lai sewer of Rawalpindi city.