Pakistan: Workers Party mourns death of Asma Jehanghir

Asma Jehanghir 27 Jan. 1952 – 11 Feb 2018

A towering progressive icon in Pakistan and the rest of the world

AWP mourns death of Asma Jehanghir

The leadership and workers of the Awami Workers Party are shocked and grieved at the devastating news of the demise of Asma Jahangir, who passed away from cardiac arrest on Sunday morning. It is hard to put into words the tragedy that her loss represents.

Asma Jahangir was a towering progressive icon in Pakistan and the rest of the world, a peerless champion of human rights, an untiring campaigner for women’s liberation, and a friend to the oppressed and downtrodden everywhere. She stood up to three military dictatorships, held accountable several civilian governments, fiercely opposed the Taliban and other violent extremist groups when others would cow before them in fear and braved years of state repression and arrests for her fierce criticism of the state’s national security and foreign policies; yet despite innumerable challenges and risks, she never stopped
fighting for what she believed in.

Apart from her countless services rendered for people’s rights across Pakistan and the world, Asma Jahangir was also a friend to the Awami Workers Party and provided pro-bono legal assistance for the party’s various struggles, from supporting Gilgit-Baltistan’s prisoner of conscience comrade Baba Jan, to fighting for the rights of Bhatta mazdoors, to raising her voice for victims of enforced disappearances, to assisting the struggle for land rights by the peasants of Okara, among much more

Her loss represents something incalculable, a loss for all oppressed peoples and nations in Pakistan and the rest of humanity, whose rights she dedicated her life to. We mourn her as a friend, ally and comrade in struggle.

AWP vows to continue Asma Jahangir’s legacy of democratization, fundamental rights, and progressive values in its struggle for a democratic and socialist Pakistan. We pledge to fight against the same forces of dictatorship, fanaticism, patriarchy and economic injustice that Asma ji dedicated her life to fighting. Her ideology will live on in the hearts and actions of the millions that she inspired with her example.

Asma Jahangir ko Surkh Salam.

A joint statement of
Abid Hassan Minto
Fanoos Gujjar (president)
Akhtar Hussain (General secretary)
Ismat Shahjehan (Deputy general secretary)
Farooq Tariq (Spokesperson)
Awami Workers Party