Under The Gun : Political Parties and Violence in Pakistan

"Under the Gun displays Niloufer Siddiqui’s meticulous research about a relatively fresh subject of violence as a strategy of political parties in Pakistan. Its three-fold analytical framework includes models of the intra-party infrastructure of violence (MQM), outsourcing to violence specialists (PPP] and forming electoral alliances with militant groups (PML-N), along with a dual model of adopting non-violence in the core area of support and violence in the party’s outpost (ANP). This fantastic study of formal and informal political actors in Pakistan unravels the role of state capacity, ethnicity, party organisation and local strongmen in the context of vote politics."
– Mohammad Waseem, Lahore University of Management Sciences

"Under the Gun breaks new grounds in providing a theoretically informed, methodologically robust and comparatively insightful account of the understudied violence stemming from political parties in Pakistan. A brilliant book and a must-read for all Pakistan and South Asia specialists and young researchers."
– Farhan Siddiqui, Quaid-e-Azam University

"In this impressive and in-depth academic endeavour, Niloufer Siddiqui studies the intersections of violence and democracy. Investigating how parties organise and structure violence in strategic and relational ways, Under the Gun creatively argues for the need to consider the incentives, costs and capacity associated with party violence. Using data gathered through extensive fieldwork and surveys conducted in Pakistan, Siddiqui’s scholarship has made an exciting contribution to our understanding of contemporary Pakistani politics. An important and timely read."
– Zoha Waseem, University of Warwick