Pakistan: Left Parties Form United Front

Congratulations to your efforts in this comrade Farooq Tariq and good luck to you all from Facts For Working People.  This is a brave move in the face of what can be at times violent opposition. 

Left United Front will be formed in Pakistan; Left parties meeting decided today

We invited 13 political parties for the proposed left alliance. 10 of them turned up from up and down of the countries. They agreed to develop a united front to counter the growing threats of extremism, imperialism and capitalism.

They agreed in principle to form a united left front. The name and details of the front would be discussed in the next meeting.

A committee of 8 activists was formed to finalise the details. A press conference was held afterwards at LAHORE press Club

The committee comprised Akhtar Hussain, Taimur Rehman, Amanullah Sheikh, Imdad Qazi, Shaukat Chaudhary, Awais Qarni, Nisar Shah and Khaliq Junejo. The parties that attended the meeting are: Awami Workers Party, Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party, Awami Jamhoori Party, Jaey Sindh Mahaz, JK Peoples's National Party, Balochistan National Movement, Pakistan Trade Unions Defence Campaign, Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz, JK Awami Workers Party, and Communist Party of Pakistan.

The meeting hosted by Awami Workers Party that deliberated upon the current economic and political situation and it was agreed that the mainstream political parties of the ruling class have miserably failed to present the solution of growing economic and political crisis of the country. They don't have any solution except preferring only to indulge in accusing each other for their corruption.

The meeting demanded that all missing persons be brought to the surface and a due process be adopted if they have committed any "crime". The innocent minority girls be protected from the onslaught of hooligans in the name of converting their religion.

The sugar mills mafia be regulated to compensate the growers according to law. In KP, the tenancy rights to till the forest protected lands be restored.

The unjust criminal cases against farmers of Hashnagar and Okara military farms be withdrawn and their land rights be restored after releasing them. The student unions be restored as the democratic right of the students. The election reforms passed by the parliament are rejected and it is demanded that these may be reframed according to the petition filed by AWP in the Supreme Court.

"In our view, corruption is an integral part of bourgeois system which needs to be replaced by an alternative system. And that alternative is socialism", said the communique issued at the end of the meeting.

The vast majority of Pakistani population is still living under the yoke of feudalism, the left leaders claimed. The ruling classes are deliberately using religion to camouflage their exploitation and to suppress the narrative of the social forces striving for a real socio-economic change. This practice is exacerbating trends of fundamentalism, extremism and intolerance in the country. "Therefore we resolve hereby to launch a concerted struggle against the flowing anti-people trends in the country", the parties announced.

It is pledged:
1. To lodge a campaign against feudalism, fanaticism, extremism, and in support of the workers, farmers and tenants;
2. To work for the supremacy of the parliament and against the paradigm of a security state;
3. To establish Pakistan as a multi-cultural according to the concept given in the Lahore Resolution of 1940 so that every nationality may have full access and control over their resources;
4. To ensure gender equality and just treatment with minorities;
5. To reconstitute a state on the principle of separation of state from religion;
6. To establish a socialist economy with no distinction of class in the education system that should be founded on scientific lines, free and fair access of all citizens with constitutional guarantee to shelter, employment, education and healthcare system;
7. To ensure a positive and non-aligned foreign policy, friendly economic and political relations with all neighbouring countries based on the principle of noninterference.

Onwards to struggle!
Farooq Tariq
Spokesperson
Awami Workers Party