KASHMOR E has become notorious across Sindh, and increasingly across the country, for all the wrong reasons. People are murdered in broad daylight, in city streets, sometimes within sight of police stations.

Tribal feuds drag on for years over disputes as trivial as water rights or road accidents, often escalatinginto so-called honour killings. In a district where the most basic right the right to life is not secure, how can citizens even begin to raise concerns about thefts, corruption, or the absence of schools and hospitals? Last year, people of Kandhl(ot-Kashmore travelled all the way to Islamabad to protest against these unliveable conditions. Local representatives, visibly uncomfortable with the national attention the protest gained, moved quickly to send the protesters home with promises that were never kept because that was never the intention.

Till 1843, tribal land in the region used to be collectively shared. The British reshaped that system, elevating feudal lords to the status of judicial magistrates with private jails and personal estates. All this, of course, was in exchange for loyalty.

That arrangement never disappeared after independence. It simply changed hands. Today`s power-holders still rely on tribal strongmen to secure votes and silence opposition. The people of Kashmore are not asking for charity. They are asl(ing for peace, functioning institutions, and the rights that every citizen of Pakistan has.

Mujeeb Khoso Kandhkot