Disrupted Mobilities

In the early decades that followed independence, the Pakistani state’s developmental visions crystallized through the guidance of economists, engineers and planners who designed and orchestrated the technical and institutional structures of infrastructure projects to support industrialization. In the specific historical conjuncture of the 1950s and 1960s, development as infrastructure became a potent policy paradigm that gave saliency to the visions of planners, foreign experts and a military leader. Moreover, the normative ideal of infrastructural modernization was emphasized through the ubiquity of infrastructure, in terms of its generally low-cost provision and connectivity with all citizens. This normative ideal undergirded the broader project of Pakistan’s post-independence modernity. Today, in a different conjuncture marked by fiscal crises, structural adjustment programs, and differentiated structures of governance, notably privatization and liberalization, there have been extensive breakdowns in infrastructure in Pakistan. The signs of technological collapse are evident: public electricity is intermittent and costly, roads break down, ports barely function and the state is perceived as absent or disconnected from local-industrial contexts.