Sarah Ansari, Royal Holloway University of London
Children, citizenship and the state in 1950s Pakistan

This paper explores the position of children in 1950s Pakistan at the time when the new state was still in the process of working out its citizenship rules and responsibilities. It considers the evolution of Pakistan’s citizenship laws in the early 1950s; individual cases in the mid-1950s when the state intervened in children’s lives thanks to ambiguities concerning their status as Pakistani citizens; and the general uncertainty that existed during this period with respect to the state as ‘protector’ of children’s well-being and rights.

Back to conference page