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Paper short abstract:

The legitimacy of the Pakistani state is shaken not only through mistrust of the international community, but also of its own citizens. Discussing the relation of poor Christians with the State, reasons and social consequences of citizens´ mistrust are analyzed and the concept further systematized.

Paper long abstract:

The Pakistani state, despite its efforts to portray itself as a "state that cares" suffers from wide mistrust from its own citizens, especially from the religious minorities. The major reasons for the citizens´ distrust are corruption and favoritism. Besides a media driven image of "corrupt government", mistrust grounds in everyday experiences with the state. In the case of poor Christian citizens, additional mistrust stems from a (self-) subjectivation as "Second class citizens" - a concept of self that both, reflects in and frames their everyday experiences and practices.

Based on my fieldwork in urban Pakistan, reasons and social consequences of mis_trust towards the state are discussed: How mistrust towards the state is related to the flourishing of "informal" social security systems, patronage and brokerage in Christian urban communities; how it might be linked to mistrust in democracy and trust in military leadership?

Further the agency of minority citizens is highlighted: how they cope down mistrust and subvert the untrustworthy state when with state i.e. by building networks of trust within the state.

The paper takes everyday practices and subjectivations as starting points to further systematize mistrust: to distinguish forms and degrees and to explore the relation of mistrust and trust (here marked as "mis_trust").

If, for example, a poor women hides her religion at workplace, never approached the state for help, but carefully keeps a leaflet of a government welfare scheme and waits the luck to knock on her door - what does that tell us about mis_trust towards the state?