The twenty-first century ushered in a new era in social movements globally, with anti-authoritarian and anti-austerity movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street taking centre-stage. The rise of new media technologies helped these movements to mobilise in the online realm when they met with on-ground opposition, and garner support on an international level. Yet, in Pakistan—a country with a turbulent relationship with freedom of expression and movement, where resistance has historically been stifled, and surveillance has been the norm—the rise of large-scale social movements has been slow, albeit steady. The first decade of the twenty-first century featured multiple forms of contentious politics: (i) the lawyers’ movement for the restoration of the judiciary which culminated in a broad political movement against Pervez Musharraf’s military dictatorship; (ii) the nation-wide campaigns against privatisation of public utilities (Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited); (iii) the region- and city-specific peasant and labour mobilisations for agrarian land rights and improved wages; (iv) the struggles of public-sector employees for better service structures, and (v) the ethno-nationalist uprisings in peripheral regions away from central Punjab districts. By and large, these social movements took place in isolation, without a broadbased network among activists and mobilisers which could synthesise the

The right to freedom of peaceful assembly allows a democratic society to function smoothly by giving every citizen the chance to express their beliefs, convey their grievances and pursue change collectively. This right also facilitates a participatory form of government and is simultaneously dependent on other rights, such as the right to freedom of expression, movement and association. People’s freedom to assemble peacefully is enshrined in Article 16 of Pakistan’s constitution as follows: Every citizen shall have the right to assemble peacefully and without arms, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of public order. This right is also preserved by international law, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of which Pakistan is one of the founding signatories. The UDHR, together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), form the ‘International Bill of Human Rights’ and together enumerate a series of rights, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, that call upon state parties to protect, respect and fulfil these rights. Pakistan ratified the ICESCR in 2008 and the ICCPR in 2010, hence undertaking an obligation to bring