|: Awami Tahreek :|

Program of Awami Jamhoori Tahreek

Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (Peoples Democratic Movement) is a broad based platform that has been formed to bring an end to the anti-people, repressive and opportunistic socio-economic and political system and to build a pro-people social order in the country. This platform welcomes all those political forces who consider the ruling junta’s tall claims of progress and development farcical and deceptive, have a will to change the status quo and want to join the struggle to liberate millions of people of different nationalities of the country and to transform them into a positive and effective political force.

The prevailing anti people and anti democratic order is based on the following factors:

Over sixty percent of the country’s total population is under the grip of the feudal system based on big land holdings granted during the British colonial rule and the tribal and Sardari system connected thereto. The landless peasants, sharecroppers and small time cultivators are suffering from abject poverty, backwardness and socio-political subjugation while feudal lords, sardars and waderas are masters of the lives of these downtrodden masses. Private jails, unlawful Jirgas, humiliation of women folks and dehumanization of the working people are crude reflections of this oppressive system. The major political parties of Pakistan directly and indirectly safeguard the interests of the feudal lords, sardars and waderas. The civil and military bureaucracy that has gained government lands is an ally of the said exploitative forces as absentee landlords. This social order is inherently opposed to rule of law, human rights and democratic order. The establishment and the terrorists groups under its patronage have dominated the political process, have usurped the right of free expression of the people and have deprived the nationalities of their natural resources and their historic, economic and political rights. No pro-people and democratic process can be launched unless these vested interests are eliminated.

The Establishment in Pakistan, the dominant part of which is military bureaucracy, has practically ruled the country since 1958 on security paradigm and has now dominated the economy by directly or indirectly holding big slots in the economic structure of the country. It is no more a mere institution of salaried state functionaries. The Armed Forces have developed their own vested interest in this unjust system. They have a strong hold on external and internal policies of Pakistan.

The military establishment has ruled over Pakistan since 1958 directly except a short period of time. The military rulers have rendered the country’s constitution a laughing stock and have crippled it with mutilating effect of Seventeenth and Eighteenth constitutional amendments. They have thus consolidated their hold over the basic socio-economic and political structure of the country. The ruling class in the name of defense of the country consumes the major chunk of the national revenues and the funds received through foreign loans. The defense budget is not presented to or discussed by the people and their elected representatives. In the present national scenario the President who is serving Chief of Army and his military advisors are the sole administrators and arbiters of nation’s internal and external affairs. The constitution, the democratic system, the people’s rights, the federation and the parliament stand all marginalized.

The global capitalism through its institutions such as IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization has a strong economic control across the world especially over the third world countries. It has deep influence not only over Pakistan’s economy but also its administrative and legal structure. Our country’s national budget and tax structure is framed in consultation with these institutions of global capitalism. The privatization of our strategic national establishments and flourishing industrial units is also under the instruction of these institutions. The policy of Privatization has its impact in the field of health and education and the State is withdrawing from its social responsibility to provide these basic facilities to the people.

Globalization, which in fact is a new imperialist formation of the world capitalism in its multidimensional onslaught against third world countries, is draining their natural resources and robbing their people for cheap labour. The laws for the protection of the working class and their trade union rights are being ruthlessly violated. In consequence to these imperialist policies while unemployment is on the rise and Pakistan society is being rendered as a consumer market. The main consumers of the market belong to the upper class and those neo rich who are connected with and are serving the multinationals and promote globalization. The technological development or industrialization of Pakistan is not within the framework of imperialist machinations. People of all nations are up against corporate globalization. We express our solidarity with the global anti-imperialist movement and resolve to support the struggle against different facets of globalization.

We consider that the religious extremism and militancy has grown beyond proportion, and is a new form of fascism. These forces blunt the people’s social consciousness and keep them out of political process that resultantly facilitates exploitative forces to maintain an unjust and oppressive social order. The world imperialist forces have time and again used the religious extremists for their objectives. The ruling establishment in Pakistan has deep relationship with these forces, which have been extensively deployed within and beyond Pakistan by them. This anti people lobby is responsible for promoting aggressive religious sectarianism in the country. and they havoc played on Pakistan society in the name of religion. They are responsible for permanent military infiltration in our constitution and administrative structure. Their collaboration with the military junta has seriously prejudiced national independence and democratic image of the Pakistan state.

Pakistan was formed as a multi-national federal state. This federation could sustain itself only if socio-economic and political rights of its constituent units were respected and protected. Pakistan establishment with military bureaucracy as its strongest component has not recognized the federal democratic system in the country. It has always been thrusting centralism through martial law or its own form of democracy under the patronage of armed forces. The policy to negate federalism and democratic order has been responsible for cessation of Pakistan’s eastern wing that is now a new state of Bangladesh. This policy of centralism is in fact the cause of frustration and alarming commotion amongst the constituent units of this federation today, which is being suppressed through brute military force. Deliberate withdrawal from federalism and democratic order is responsible for disputes over water distribution of common rivers, control over natural resources of the provinces and the building of mega projects. Military rule or its centralism cannot run a democratic order and a federation. Today Pakistan’s parliamentary democratic system is under total command and control of Gen. Pervai Musharaff. The command and control does not end with General Musharaf. It goes up to Washington to which all concerned look for approval. Pakistan’s present economic system and its political structure promote poverty, price hike, backwardness, humiliation of women, lack of safeguards for minorities, and religious and sectarian extremism and nationality contradictions. While the present system prevails, Pakistan cannot become a free, progressive, prosperous and democratic State. The establishment of Awami Jamhoori Tehreek is meant to build a broad based democratic struggle to change the status quo.

This movement has been launched to accomplish in particular the objectives stated hereunder:

1. In order to build a true federal parliamentary democracy the country’s constitution has to be reshaped. The federal powers should be restricted to defense, currency and foreign affairs. All federating units should enjoy equal status among themselves. The issues of water and natural resources should be settled in consultation with all units according to established international and democratic norms. The guiding principles stated by of Qaide Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah stated in his speech of 11th August 1947 were neither recognized nor put into practice by the rulers of Pakistan. (The contents of the historic speech were deliberately not made public and thus the rulers negated the objectives for which this country was formed).

2. In order to restore parliamentary democracy in the country the electoral laws should be appropriately amended so that election process remains transparent and free from corruption, abuse of authority and high handedness of ruling class. The right of adult franchise should be unqualified. The Election Commission should enjoy financial and administrative independence and should be free from its dependence on the government. There should be no obligation to appoint a High or Supreme Court Judge as the Election Commissioner. Election should be held forthwith.

3. In order to maintain independence of judiciary a Judicial Commission Consisting of members of the Judiciary, the Bar, the government and the opposition should be constituted for the appointment of judges of the superior courts. The tenure of office of the judges should be seventy years. They should not be given any other office during service or after retirement.

4. There should be complete ban over appointment of serving or retired members of the armed forces for any civil post.

5. The overthrowing of elected government may that be on the basis of law of Necessity or any other such hypothesis should be declared a crime under Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

6. Genuine and effective land reforms be made so that feudal system is brought to an end. Maximum agricultural unit per family should be fixed at 50 acres. And the rest of the land including available State land should be distributed amongst the landless cultivators, tenants and haris. The jirga system, sardari system and tribal system should be totally abolished.

7. Instead of making Pakistan a mere consumer society it should be industrially developed.

8. Instead of privatizing state institutions the State should play its role in developing basic and public utility industry. Workers be associated with the running of State enterprises.

9. The rights of the working class should be safeguarded according to laws and recommendations made by the International Labour Organisation. The right of strike and right to form a trade union should be legally safeguarded. The minimum wage should be fixed at Rs.8000/- per month and the amount should relate to price hike and rate of inflation. Industrial Relations Ordinance of 2002 should be immediately scrapped down. All labour laws should be reframed according to the principles laid down by ILO and with the consultation of the representatives of the labour.

10. All discriminatory laws against women and minorities including Hudood Laws be repealed.

11. The budget relating to defense should be presented before the elected members of the parliament for debate. The defense budget should be cut and such funds should be used for social welfare and development.

12. Pakistan is strategically located at the crossroad of Middle East and South Asia areas simmering with conflicts and in order to develop it as a peace region steps be taken to end arms race including nuclear weapons.

13. With the objective of developing national economy relations be developed on broader perspective with the Middle East, South Asia and Central Asia. In order to have safeguard from the imperialist designs of globalization, steps should be taken for regional cooperation and a common struggle. Implementation of new liberal agenda should be stopped forthwith.

14. The state should be responsible to guarantee basic educational and health facilities to the citizens. There should be uniform curricula for education based on modern science and free from religious bias.

15. The right to profess and practice religion, faith and creed is an in alienable right of every citizen. Discrimination and sectarian divide present in the constitution and the state affairs should be eliminated.

16. All regional languages should be recognized as national languages.

This document has been agreed and signed by the following National Leaders of the Progressive Parties of the Pakistan:

Rasool Bux Palijo - Awami Tahreek
Farooq Tariq - Labour Party Pakistan
Abid Hassan Minto - National Workers Party
Afzal Khamosh - Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party
Tufail Abbas - Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz
Mehraj Mohammad Khan - a progressive leader
Taj Murree - Inqalabi Workers Committee (Pakistan)

Media Coverage of AJT

Six-party alliance to work for true democracy

By Staff Reporter - Daily DAWN

KARACHI, April 21: Six political parties and groups with left orientation have announced formation of Awami Jamhoori Tehreek to launch a movement against politics of status quo and lay the foundation for a true federal, parliamentary and democratic order in the country.

This decision was announced on Friday by Pakistan Mazdoor Kisan Party chief Afzal Khamosh at Karachi Press Club. The representatives of five other component of the AJT were also present. They were Abid Hasan Minto of National Workers Party, Rasool Bux Palejo of Awami Tehreek, Farooq Tariq of Labour Party Pakistan, Tufail Abbas of Pakistan Mazdoor Mohaz, Taj Maree of Inqilabi Jamhoori Workers Committee and veteran progressive leader Mairaj Mohammad Khan.

Mr Minto explained the aims and objectives of the AJT, saying the feudal, chieftains, Waderas and tribal system were the fundamental forces which had blocked all roads to progress and prosperity.

They had acquired such a dominant role in politics and assemblies that no political party could function without them. The establishment and the army had joined hands with them as absentee landlords by acquiring government lands.

He said during last 50 years it was establishment and the army bureaucracy which had been ruling the country with full control over internal, external and economic policies to safeguard their interests. Through 8th and 17th amendments the constitution had been reduced to an ineffective document which was neither federal nor parliamentary.

“Today the situation is that the president in uniform and his army advisors have assumed all powers of internal and external affairs to the extent that constitution, democracy, rights of people, federation and parliament find themselves helpless before the establishment.

Mr Minto said the world capitalist system through IMF, World Bank and WTO agreements had taken the entire world, the third world countries in particular, in its grip which had deep impact over economy, administrative and legal framework so much so that our budget and taxes system were framed with their consultation.

He said that under the garb of globalization the world capitalist system through multi-national companies had been exploiting resources and cheap labour of the third world countries to its advantage, trade union rights were being trampled which had resulted in increasing unemployment and turning our country into a consumer market.

The AJT was formed to highlight these issues and break the silence and unconcern attitude form the level of masses and give a new direction to the politics in the country.

Rasool Bux Palejo said that formation of AJT was a timely decision which had provided a forum to all progressive people to unite under its banner to launch a movement for resolution of problems.

He said those who used to give the impression that the capitalist system had now come to stay should not forget Iraq and Afghanistan where class war and national war were going on. Miraj Mohammad Khan said today’s Pakistan was standing on crutches of IMF, World Bank and WTO because of the total grip of feudal over entire system which had been tailored to serve establishment, bureaucracy and feudal lords. They were in fact obstacle in the way of industrial revolution, progress and defence of the country. He said our basic purpose was to launch struggle against prevailing social order and lay the foundation for an egalitarian system.

Warning against use of force to crush people striving for their rights, he said the government could not run the federation through use of force.

“Pakistan is heading towards a grave anarchy which could only be avoided by holding dialogues,” he said and pleaded for devolution of power from centre to the provinces without which he warned the country could dismember.

Tufail Abbas said the dream of true democracy in the country could not be materialised without revolutionary struggle and unity of peasants and workers.

Farooq Tariq announced solidarity with the kiln workers, who were on strike and demanded release of arrested workers of Punjab Mazare (peasants) Association.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/04/22/local4.htm

Pakistan - Left groups unite

Peter Boyle

Six Pakistani left parties and groups have united to form Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (AJT - the People’s Democratic Movement), which has the potential to become the fifth-largest political group in Pakistan. The AJT aims to contest the 2007 elections.

The parties in the AJT are the National Workers Party (NWP), the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), Awami Tehreek (AT - People’s Movement), Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party (PMKP), Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz (PMM - Workers Front) and Meraj Mohammed Khan Group (MMKG).

A 12-member convening committee has been formed with two members from each group. Abid Hassan Minton from the NWP will be the national convener and Afzal Khamoosh from the PMKP will be secretary of the convening committee. The LPP will organise the AJT secretariat in Lahore.

The AJT has announced a campaign against growing militarisation and the grip of imperialism and religious fundamentalism in Pakistan. On March 18, a rally was held in Lahore to mark the third year of the occupation of Iraq.

The AJT will hold a public meeting on April 21 in Karachi to oppose the military action in Baluchistan, and has called a nationwide mass workers’ rally for May 1 in Karachi.

According to LPP general secretary Farooq Tariq, this new left unity project will strengthen the organisation of workers and peasants.

“The draft program of the AJT is mainly an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist and anti-feudal program”, he told Green Left Weekly, adding that the program calls for “the abolition of all discriminatory laws against women and minorities”.

The NWP, Tariq explained, is a well-known left party in Pakistan. It came out of a merger between the Awami Jamhoori Party, Pakistan Socialist Party and Pakistan National Party in the early 1990s.

It has some important personalities of the left and has respectable weight in the trade union movement. We have been working together in the Anti-war Committee Pakistan, Anti-privatisation Alliance and Pakistan Peasants Coordinating Committee.

The PMKP is an ex-Maoist party - mainly based in the North-West Frontier Province - which led a peasant struggle in the ’70s and still has a significant base there, and to some extent in Punjab. The PMM is mainly based in Karachi and has a base in the unions.

AT is the largest party in the AJT. It was considered a radical nationalist party but has moved left in recent times, Tariq told GLW. “It mobilised more than 125,000 in Bhit Shah Sindh on March 5 for its national convention”, which LPP representatives attended.

The AT “has led a successful movement against building a controversial dam recently and is part of several alliances on the issue of water in Sind. It has a mass base among women in Sind.”

Tariq explained that the MMKG is led by a well-known left personality, Meraj Mohamed Khan. “He was one of the main student leaders in the ’60s and has led the youth movement against the military dictatorship of Ayub Khan. He was a founder of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

“Meraj Khan became a minister under Bhutto, but he resigned when the PPP fired at a workers’ strike, killing many in early 1972. He was jailed for the next four years by Bhutto.” According to Tariq, Khan then formed a small party, “but later merged with Imran Khan, the Pakistani cricket hero, to form the Pakistan Justice Movement. He became secretary of the party but then left his party due to the feudal attitude of Imran Khan.”

Tariq described the AJT as a joint activity-oriented forum at this stage. “We need to give the room for the groups to work together in activities and see the possibilities in future and also to bring more left groups into it. All parties in the AJT will work independently but also together as the AJT.”

From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.

http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/article.php3?id_article=1027

Minto slams Democracy Accord, announces to join elections

Staff Reporter – Pakistan Observer

Lahore—Awami Jamhori Tehrik (AJT), an alliance of seven left wing political parties, convenor Abid Hassan Minto has announced to participate upcoming general elections and declared that the Democracy Accord was not representing a real democratic ideology.

Addressing a press conference here at Lahore Press Club on Friday, he said that democracy accord was an incomplete agreement because there was no participation of masses in that accord while it did not vowed to end feudalism in the country.

He said that if both of these political parties really want to get rid of the auspices of Pakistan Army then it would be possible for his organisation to join hands with them in future.

Minto said that Pakistan was facing three basic problems including the supremacy of the military on civil institutes, feudalism and influence of radical religious groups in the region.

He said that amalgamation of 17th amendment in the constitution has confused it while MMA was responsible for that as they always played as supporting role for military dictators.

He further said that today Pakistan Army has neglected its duty to defend the nation and now they have become contractors in all civil sectors including industrial zones, construction works and property.

Mentioning the special role of army in Defence Housing Authorities (DHAs) and Pakistan Railway, he stated that Army grabs lands from simple civilians at very low cost and sell these plots at very high rates by declaring them a DHA area.

He claimed that President General Pervaiz Musharaf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Salman Shah and other government high-ups were representatives of multinational companies and they were developing “a neo middle class” in the country, which consisted on the servants of those multinationals.

On the occasion, Abid Hassan Minto also announced AJT committee for Punjab, which included Amir Hussaini as convenor, General Secretary Dr Amin. Muzamal Mukhtar, Ch Ishaq, Asif Ali Shaikh, Ch Imtiaz, Rana Azam, Khalid Mehmood and Shadab Jaffery were also named as members of AJT committee.

http://pakobserver.net/200605/21/news/lahore02.asp

Privatisation to give rise to financial scams: Minto

By Our Reporter

ISLAMABAD, June 3: President of the National Workers Party (NWP) Abid Hassan Minto warned that the country could witness more financial scams in the near future if the privatisation process was not stopped immediately.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, Mr Minto reiterated the principle stand of his party that sought an end to unbridled privatisation of vital national assets.

He said privatisation of national assets like Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) at throwaway prices had given rise to financial scams and was tantamount to the Enron issue.

Enron has become a household word synonymous with treachery, deceit and outright theft. Enron Corporation is an energy company based in Houston, Texas. Prior to its bankruptcy in late 2001, Enron employed around 21,000 people with claimed revenues of $101 billion in 2000. Enron became famous at the end of 2001, when it was revealed that it was sustained mostly by institutionalised, systematic and well-planned accounting fraud. Its European operations filed for bankruptcy on November 30, 2001, and it sought Chapter 11 protection in the US two days later, on December 2. At the time, it was the biggest bankruptcy in US history, and it cost 4,000 employees their jobs.

Mr Minto, who is also the convener of Awami Jamhoori Tehreek, said privatisation of PSM and PTCL was part of the structural adjustment programme of International Monitory Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). The programme only served the interests of international investors and multinational companies and was part of global capitalism that thrived on the poor and downtrodden of the third world.

Details of the PTCL and PSM published in various national dailies and presented before the Supreme Court had revealed that the privatisation process was never transparent and that national assets were sold to favourite parties at throwaway prices.

He said the process was against Article-3 and 2-A of the 1973 Constitution which ensured equal rights to all citizens and pledged their economic and social emancipation.

Mr Minto said privatisation was against the very concept of social welfare and deprived the poor of their jobs and livelihood which enabled few individuals to increase their wealth further.

He said Pakistan Steel Mills was a profitable organisation and the government had no justification to sell it to its favourite parties. “From the beginning we were against the privatisation process and are still sticking to our principle stand,” Mr Minto added.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/04/nat1.htm

People's Democratic Movement launched for joint struggle

Urdu Times(News) Six left-wing parties and groups have formed an alliance to wage struggle from a joint platform for the 'socio-economic and democratic rights of people, provincial autonomy and to get rid of present rulers.'

The alliance, which has been named Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (People's Democratic Movement), comprises National Workers Party, Pakistan Mazdoor Itehad, Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party, Labour Party Pakistan, Awami Tehreek and Meraj Mohammad Khan Group.

Addressing a joint news conference at Lahore Press Club on Sunday, the leaders of the alliance said they would wage a joint struggle from the newly-formed platform for the just cause of the people of Pakistan and endeavour to make Pakistan a true democratic country as conceived by the Founder of the Nation.

Speaking on the occasion, National Workers' Party Chairman Abid Hassan Minto said all the said six parties and groups had also constituted a convening committee under his headship, which comprises Yousuf Masti Khan, Shaukat Chaudhry, Qazi Ahmed Naeem Qureshi, Afzal Khamosh, Abdullah Kamoka, Farooq Tariq, Nisar Ahmed Shah, Rasool Bakhsh Palejo, Jami Chandio, Meraj Mohammad Khan, Azhar Jamil and Afzal Khamosh.

Abid Minto further said that all the claims of government for development of the country were false, and as a matter of fact, all endeavors of the government in that regard were aimed at making Pakistan a 'consumer society.' The rulers were out to make the people of Pakistan as slaves of multinational companies while poverty level was on rampant rise.

The country is faced with problems such as religious extremism, terrorism and law and order problems, he pointed out. "So Keeping in view all such problems, we have resolved to form an alliance of the left wing parties to jointly work for the wellbeing of people and liberate them from the clutches of tyrannical forces through bringing an 'alternate system' in the country," he added.

He said the alliance would present its detailed programme before media and people of Pakistan on 21st April. He said on 18th March, the alliance would also hold meetings and protest rallies against the US occupation on Iraq and Balochistan situation, in Karachi and Lahore. A meeting will also be held at Karachi Press Club on 18th March. The alliance will also hold public rallies on the eve of May Day at Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Multan and Quetta, he said.

Abid Hassan Minto on this occasion also invited all like minded and progressive forces of the country to join hands with them for this just and common goal.

Rasool Bakhsh Palejo said those six parties and groups would jointly work from that joint forum and muster public opinion on all issues of national importance, including Kala Bagh Dam. To a question, he said if Sindh, which was faced with multiple problems such as law and order problem and distribution of irrigation of water, was not given justice then no body would be able to stop creation of 'Sindhu Desh'.

Meraj Mohammad Khan said because of wrong policies of the rulers Pakistan was moving towards chaos. According to him, the present rulers had also endangered the Federation. He said at present over 40 per cent people were living below poverty line while the government had totally isolated itself from the problems of the common man. The root-cause of all such evils was the military dictatorship. He also supported the demand of big political parties for formation of an interim setup and an independent election commission to hold free and fair elections in the country.

Farooq Tariq of Labour Party Pakistan and Afzal Khamosh of Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party were also present on the occasion.

http://www.urdutimes.com/englishnews/2006/03/13/en9/

Pakistan global security state after 9/11: Minto

By Our Reporter

LAHORE, March 2: Supreme Court Bar Association’s former president Abid Hassan Minto has said that Pakistan has become an international security state after the 9/11 incident as it has more concern for international than internal security.

He was speaking at a meeting of the Lahore Press Club’s literary society held for launching a book on poet late Habib Jalib compiled by his younger brother Saeed Parvaiz here on Thursday with Pakistan Socialist Party president C.R Aslam in the chair.

PPP leader and MNA Aitzaz Ahsan, columnist and former MPA Ayaz Amir, PPP leader Aslam Gurdaspuri, playwright Munnoo Bhai, columnist and writer Ataul Haq Qasmi and others addressed the meeting and paid rich tributes to Jalib for revolutionary poetry of resistance.

Elaborating his point of Pakistan assuming the role of an international security state, Abid Minto said that long before the former Soviet Union’s invasion in December 1989 the military intelligence and establishment of Pakistan in collusion with religious elements had started interfering in Afghan affairs.

It was the occasion when the people of Afghanistan had changed their government that had started brining drastic land reforms like abolition of big land holdings in possession of jagirdars and warlords, distribution of their lands to landless peasants, progressive educational and social reforms like women’s emancipation and empowerment and withdrawal of all restrictions on their liberty.

He said that after the 9/11 incident Pakistan had become an active international security state when it started conducting raids and attacking places in search of persons accusing them of terrorists and belonging to Al-Qaeda.

Internally, he said, the military had a virtual control over most of the economic and political channels. The army generals, whether in uniform or retired, were in big businesses like the real estate, banking, and industrial concerns. They purchased expensive lands in housing schemes at throw-away price of thousands of rupees per kanal and sold the same at highly expensive rates of million of rupees per kanal.

No political party dared to check them, he said and added that the nation needed a poet like Habib Jalib with courage to question them. He recalled his reminiscences of his contacts with the poet.

PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan was of the view that Pakistan has become a national security state and not a people’s welfare state as visualised by the Quaid-i-Azam as was evident from his speech on Aug 11, 1947, at the inauguration of Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly.

In a welfare state, he said, the government took care of the people while in national security state the military. He said the character of Pakistan as a state had been changed during the past 50 years.

He said the civil society had started losing its hold over the state from the day Gen Ayub Khan was made defence minister and a cabinet member back in 1954 and the military establishment had come in directly when Ayub Khan had declared Martial Law in 1958. Since then Pakistan had been made a national security on the plea that Pakistan’s security was in danger because of conspiracies of its enemies.

The military had no political, moral, legal and social justification to govern the country. It was deplorable that some political parties and religious elements supported the army to perpetuate its rule on the excuse of national security.

Mr Ahsan said the concept of national security was so much trumpeted that the people started believing that Pakistan was facing real danger.

He said the state never stabilised or fortified on the strength of its army. Had it been so the Soviet Union which had much bigger army equipped with even nuclear weapons would have not fallen apart and divided into 14 small states.

The concept of national security state had failed not only in Soviet Union but all over the world, even in Latin American states which had been ruled by the military in the past.

He said that after 1989 when Afghan war had started the concept of national security had been strengthened in Pakistan and the civil society subjugated. This was not acceptable to the PPP and the ARD and we wanted Pakistan to be a people’s welfare state and civil society to rule over the country.

Ayaz Amir said that Habib Jalib’s poetry was the poetry of resistance. Jalib had never compromised with the establishment, civil or military. He was the poet of the people as he always highlighted their woeful plight and the tyranny of rulers and their supporters.

He said the concept of state had undergone a great change in Pakistan which had started its journey with the western political principles. Now those principles were being discarded and the thought and mind-set of rulers had changed.

The new concept of state, he said, was not confined to Pakistan but it had overtaken the entire Muslim world. Expediency and not truth was the hallmark of new political concept. To challenge the expediency, the nation needed the rebellious and revolutionary poets like Habib Jalib, he asserted.

In his presidential remarks, C.R Aslam asked the people, particularly the younger generation, to study Habib Jalib who had made service of the down-trodden people, students, peasants and workers as his mission.

Despite lack of resources and poverty, he said Jalib had boldly resisted the tyranny of rulers and never compromised on his principles. He did not know expediency.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/03/03/nat9.htm

Privatisation to give rise to financial scams: Minto

By Our Reporter

http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/04/nat1.htm

The Americanization of Globalization:
Reflections of a Third World Intellectual

By Lisette Poole

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

As long as the United States continues putting profits over people, siphoning precious resources and trampling the rights and sovereignty of nations along the way, the world will witness more resentment, rage, violence and paranoia.

The solution is a burgeoning people-to-people movement that will lift nations out of misery and into economic self-reliance, peace, cooperation and regional development, said Abid Hassan Minto, a noted intellectual from Pakistan. According to Minto, 74, who teamed up with former South African President Nelson Mandela when they were elected vice president and president respectively of the International Lawyers’ Association (1990-1995), the world is caught up in a vicious circle: American hegemony is leading to militant resistance and has set the Muslim world on a collision course with the West. Billions spent on military expansion rightfully belong to the people for the development of schools, hospitals, roads and bridges.

In a wide-ranging, exclusive, interview with the Washington Report, Minto pointed out rapidly multiplying dangers and offered an alternative to the current U.S.-provoked worldwide militancy. He urged Americans to question their government’s policies that are leading to a global crisis.

“The United States is advancing its corporate interests all over the world,” he stated. “The grand design is to maintain itself as the sole, unchallenged power in the world. Over the past two decades the U.S. went into Latin America, it went after Venezuela, it toppled governments, installed its own stooges. What did it want? Resources! Now it claims it is going after so-called Muslim fundamentalists. Iraqi President Saddam Hussain was not a fundamentalist. Yet they sent their troops, invaded a sovereign nation, and the whole world knows it is about oil!

“People everywhere must rise up against corporate globalization that allows development to occur in one part of the world using the resources of the rest of the world,” he said during his visit to the San Francisco Bay area. “The West has failed to solve problems on the ground, political ones such as the 50-year old conflicts in Palestine and Kashmir as well as developmental problems such as the lack of technology transfer between the rich and poor nations. The result is disillusionment and anger.

“Why is it a surprise that people are challenging the authority of the U.S. to do what it is doing?” Minto asked. “At the moment fundamentalists all over the world are after the U.S. hegemony. That is their main issue. For sure, one deplores their methods. But they do have a plausible argument: their countries, their nations, their people, are suffering on account of what they see as the U.S. hegemony around the world. The proof is that it is mostly the countries that have sided with the United States—Spain and England—that are the victims of terrorism, not others. The same is true for Egypt and Saudi Arabia. “The continuing military and corporate expansion of the United States invites militancy,” he pointed out. “And it so happens at the moment that the militants are Muslims.”

What is the solution? Minto believes the world community, especially the American people, must strive to uphold international law and sovereign equality among nations, as well as promote regional cooperation for economic development and conflict resolution. He was essentially referring to the growing demand for a set of rules and procedures, commonly labeled as the “Universal Jurisdiction” of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which would criminalize military adventurism by any state.

He welcomed the political rapprochement between India and Pakistan as an indication that change is occurring at the grassroots level, and said the recently announced gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan to India—over the objections of the U.S.—“should be extended to China. “Why not go all the way?” he asked. “We can increase regional development while helping avert a showdown between China and the U.S. over resources. It will lead to peace and stability in the Asian subcontinent.

“There was a time,” he noted, “when the entire Pakistani nation had one single point of view with regard to India: India was the enemy. It is five times larger than Pakistan, it has weapons and we have to defend ourselves. Security was to be built and the only way to build it was to support the armed forces. We were victims of this. The armed forces were built at the cost of democratic institutions…these are our experiences of how a state creates a paranoia mindset for its people. “Fortunately, people in Pakistan have started changing their mindsets, as indicated by their desire to befriend India on all levels. That is a good sign. That is where we pin our hopes for a new movement,” he said. “It is already happening by the force of circumstance. There is political consciousness. Millions around the world took to the streets [in 2003] to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq.”

Speaking of the Middle East, Minto argued that “the establishment of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of 150,000 U.S. troops from Iraq would deflate the raging anger around the Muslim world and allow the people of the Middle East region also to run their own affairs in peace.”

Terrorism will stop, he said, when use of brute force is replaced by rules, procedures, negotiations, mutual-accommodation, and resource sharing.

He foresees a growing movement as part of the World Social Forum, recalling the 1960s, when the non-aligned movement championed by India, Egypt and Indonesia provided an effective bulwark against neocolonial onslaught. “We must find an alternate way,” Minto insisted. “We must fight poverty and hunger…There are immense resources available to the developed countries, technological developments, they have the economies of the world in their hands. Let us now decide how to use these democratically for the benefit of the entire humanity, rather than corporations. Not doing that is neocolonialism.”

Reflecting on his third visit to the United States, Minto, a professor of constitutional law in Pakistan, criticized the U.S. for betraying its ideals of democracy. “How can governments around the world implement democratic reforms,” he asked, “when the very notions of free speech and due process are being denied in America, the role model? “The world is not receptive to the U.S. image of democracy, not at all! There is growing disillusionment with the U.S.,” Minto emphasized. “In Pakistan and other countries of the East and Third World we admire that original civilization that preached democracy, but we are dismayed with the PATRIOT Act, torturing of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Abu-Ghraib, and profiling of religious and ethnic minorities.

“People have come to realize that the democratic society within the U.S. is also shrinking to suit the interest of those who constitute the establishment, including corporate America,” he said. “Voices are being raised against this,” Minto acknowledged, “but I think that voices have to be raised in a more organized fashion, not only by the immigrants or Muslims alone, but also by the mainstream. “The shrinking civic space in the U.S. is actually demolishing the image of democracy outside and causing disillusionment of its own people,” he said.

Minto offered to defend Lynne F. Stewart, the American civil rights attorney who faces up to 30 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorist activity by smuggling messages from her imprisoned client, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, to his followers. She is to be sentenced in September.

About the Author: Lisette B. Poole, a free-lance writer in the San Francisco Bay area, also lectures at California State University EastBay, Hayward.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/analysis/2005/09specialreport.htm

Leftist parties, HRCP reject KBD, Balochistan action

Issues be resolved under Constitution

Staff Reporter

Lahore—In a joint protest rally, four leftist political parties and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has rejected unanimously the construction of Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) as well as they urged the government to stop army operation in Balochistan.

The progressive political parties including Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP), National Workers Party (NWP), Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) and Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz (PMM) staged a protest rally around the Lahore Press Club here on Saturday.

A veteran politician and NWP President Abid Hassan Minto, a senior journalist and HRCP Director I. A. Rehman, LPP General Secretary Farooq Tariq, Afzal Saroya, Arshad Baloch, Ms Azra Jahan and other leaders participated the rally.

The participants raised the slogans against KBD, Balochistan army operation and government. The protestors also carried banners and placards against the proposed project of the dam and army operation in Balochistan.

It is also pertinent to mention here that when the protesters started their rally, Abid Hassan Minto, Farooq Tariq and women participants were man handled by the police but after a clash the protesters succeeded to held the rally.

While addressing the rally participants, Abid Hassan Minto accentuated the government to solve the issue under the light of constitution of Pakistan and to form a “Council of Common Interest” at national level who decide the future of the Dam.

Addressing the rally, I.A.Rehman said that out of four, three provinces of the country were against the KBD so it was not a good idea to construct it and if the government would insist on it, the integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan would come once again in danger after 1971. About an army operation in Balochistan, he suggested the government to solve the issue politically.

Farooq Tariq, in his address, asked the army regime to avoid by taking an unpopular decision of the construction of Kala Bagh Dam. He suggested the government to construct Bhasha Dam.

http://pakobserver.net/200601/01/news/topstories08.asp

AJT Punjab leadership announced

21 May 2006

Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (Peoples Democratic Movement) elected its Punjab leadership on Friday 19th May. The meeting of all seven component parties of AJT, the left alliance formed in March this year, met on Friday to discuss the organization in Punjab. Abid Hassan Minto, national convener of AJT, chaired the meeting.

The meeting unanimously elected Amir Hussaini of Labour Party Pakistan as convener of AJT in Punjab and Dr. Amin from Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz as secretary. The meeting also elected a 20 member organizing committee, with 10 as full members and 10 as alternate members.

Amir Hussaini is a leading LPP activists and one of co founder of Jeddojuhd Inqilabi Tehrik, the fore runner organization of LPP. At present, he is LPP Khanewal district organizer. He has written and translated extensively on various aspect of Marxism for Weekly Mazdoor Jeddojuhd (Workers Struggle www.jeddojuhd.com) and the newspapers printed in Multan area.

Amir Hussaini is also one of the co founders of youth organization Progressive Youth Front (PYF).

On Friday after noon, after the meeting, Abid Hassan Minto alongside with all the national leaders of AJT announced the decisions of the meeting at a press conference at Lahore Press Club. After the press conference, over 250 left wing activists from all over Punjab heard the newly elected young leadership of AJT Punjab about their plan of action and future strategies. They vowed to build a left wing movement in Punjab shoulder to shoulder with the trade unions, youth organizations, radical social organizations and peasantry.

With the elections of the Punjab AJT, the process to build an alternative left wing movement in Pakistan has gone forward. The enthusiasm at the meeting showed the potential that can pave the way for building a strong movement in Punjab on class lines.

The over 250 activists, many of them were not active before, has been traveling long hours to reach Lahore to hear the new leadership. Several told us that we are going to be active again and will help develop the movement. There also many young and women at meeting who were happy to see the old generation of left wing activists getting together.

The next meeting of AJT Punjab will be held on 28th May at National Workers Party office at McLeod Road Lahore to finalize the district organizations plan and activities that they are going to organize during the year.

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/article.php3?id_article=2277

Globalization: America Advances Its Corporate Capitalism All Over The World

According to Minto, 74, who teamed up with former South African President Nelson Mandela when they were elected vice president and president respectively of the International Lawyers' Association (1990-1995), the world is caught up in a vicious circle.

American hegemony is leading to militant resistance and has set the Muslim world on a collision course with the West. Billions spent on military expansion rightfully belong to the people for the development of schools, hospitals, roads and bridges.

"The United States is advancing its corporate interests all over the world," he stated. "The grand design is to maintain itself as the sole, unchallenged power in the world. Over the past two decades the U.S. went into Latin America, it went after Venezuela, it toppled governments, installed its own stooges.

"What did it want? Resources! Now it claims it is going after so-called Muslim fundamentalists. Iraqi President Saddam Hussain was not a fundamentalist. Yet they sent their troops, invaded a sovereign nation, and the whole world knows it is about oil!

"People everywhere must rise up against corporate globalization that allows development to occur in one part of the world using the resources of the rest of the world," he said during his visit to the San Francisco Bay area.

"The West has failed to solve problems on the ground, political ones such as the 50-year old conflicts in Palestine and Kashmir as well as developmental problems such as the lack of technology transfer between the rich and poor nations. The result is disillusionment and anger.

"Why is it a surprise that people are challenging the authority of the U.S. to do what it is doing?" Minto asked.

"At the moment fundamentalists all over the world are after the U.S. hegemony. That is their main issue. For sure, one deplores their methods. But they do have a plausible argument: their countries, their nations, their people, are suffering on account of what they see as the U.S. hegemony around the world.

"The proof is that it is mostly the countries that have sided with the United States -- Spain and England -- that are the victims of terrorism, not others. The same is true for Egypt and Saudi Arabia. "The continuing military and corporate expansion of the United States invites militancy," he pointed out. "And it so happens at the moment that the militants are Muslims."

He was essentially referring to the growing demand for a set of rules and procedures, commonly labeled as the "Universal Jurisdiction" of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which would criminalize military adventurism by any state.

"Why not go all the way?" he asked. "We can increase regional development while helping avert a showdown between China and the U.S. over resources. It will lead to peace and stability in the Asian subcontinent.

"There was a time," he noted, "when the entire Pakistani nation had one single point of view with regard to India: India was the enemy. It is five times larger than Pakistan, it has weapons and we have to defend ourselves. Security was to be built and the only way to build it was to support the armed forces.

We were victims of this. The armed forces were built at the cost of democratic institutions...these are our experiences of how a state creates a paranoia mindset for its people.

"Fortunately, people in Pakistan have started changing their mindsets, as indicated by their desire to befriend India on all levels. That is a good sign. That is where we pin our hopes for a new movement," he said.

"It is already happening by the force of circumstance. There is political consciousness. Millions around the world took to the streets [in 2003] to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq."

Speaking of the Middle East, Minto argued that "the establishment of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of 150,000 U.S. troops from Iraq would deflate the raging anger around the Muslim world and allow the people of the Middle East region also to run their own affairs in peace."

Terrorism will stop, he said, when use of brute force is replaced by rules, procedures, negotiations, mutual-accommodation, and resource sharing.

"We must find an alternate way," Minto insisted. "We must fight poverty and hunger...There are immense resources available to the developed countries, technological developments, they have the economies of the world in their hands.

"Let us now decide how to use these democratically for the benefit of the entire humanity, rather than corporations. Not doing that is neocolonialism."

Reflecting on his third visit to the United States, Minto, a professor of constitutional law in Pakistan, criticized the U.S. for betraying its ideals of democracy.

"How can governments around the world implement democratic reforms," he asked, "when the very notions of free speech and due process are being denied in America, the role model? "The world is not receptive to the U.S. image of democracy, not at all! There is growing disillusionment with the U.S.," Minto emphasized.

"In Pakistan and other countries of the East and Third World we admire that original civilization that preached democracy, but we are dismayed with the PATRIOT Act, torturing of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Abu-Ghraib, and profiling of religious and ethnic minorities.

"People have come to realize that the democratic society within the U.S. is also shrinking to suit the interest of those who constitute the establishment, including corporate America," he said.

"Voices are being raised against this," Minto acknowledged, "but I think that voices have to be raised in a more organized fashion, not only by the immigrants or Muslims alone, but also by the mainstream.

"The shrinking civic space in the U.S. is actually demolishing the image of democracy outside and causing disillusionment of its own people," he said.

http://edstrong.blog-city.com/globalization_americas_corporate_capitalism.htm

Call to end military operations in Balochistan

16.01.2006

ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: A group of eminent intellectuals and political activists has called for a halt to military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan, and revitalizing the parliament’s sovereign role to resolve the problems politically. Renowned poet Ahmad Faraz, National Workers Party president Abid Hasan Minto, writer and former diplomat Masood Mufti and former vice-chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University Dr Kaneez Yusuf said in a joint statement issued at a press conference here on Sunday that in the medium term the role of the army should be curtailed to its basic and constitutional obligations of defending the borders of Pakistan.

They said the governance of the country should be handed over to the people through fair and free elections and the 1973 Constitution should be restored in its original form.

In the long term, they said, the Sardari system in Balochistan should be gradually replaced by a direct and democratic role of the people in that province.

They said the use of military force, instead of a political process, in Balochistan and Waziristan had resulted in loss of innocent lives.

That was alienating the patriotic population and making it resentful.

“The real issues are being confused in an unreal environment of violence, eliminating all chances of objective resolution of conflicts.

The existing credibility gap between the government and the people was widening to the level of open confrontation,” the intellectuals said.

They found a growing perception that the nation was not being properly informed of the real gravity of the situation. There was a general apprehension that a crisis like 1971 was fast developing, when obstinate mishandling of the situation had pushed the country to civil war and break-up.

They appealed to other writers, intellectuals, artists and the masses to raise their voice and register strong protests with the decision-makers against the current policies in Balochistan and Waziristan which, they said, were endangering the future of the federation and the country.

Ahmad Faraz rejected the government’s claims that it was providing good governance and said the government had failed to ensure peace in the country and provide justice to the masses. He lamented that while the government was seeking assistance for relief and reconstruction in the earthquake stricken areas, a colossal amount was being spent to purchase two VVIP planes for the prime minister.

Faraz accused President Gen Pervez Musharraf of violating his oath of defending the constitution and recalled that another general had dismissed the constitution as a mere bunch of papers.

Eminent constitutional expert and NWP chief Abid Hasan Minto described the situation as dangerous and said basic problems cannot be resolved through use of military might. He denounced the government for handing over Pakistani nationals to the United States without any judicial process.

Referring to the US air strikes on three houses in Bajaur, he said it was not for the first time that American missiles had landed in Pakistan.

“It is nothing but an assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan,” he asserted.

Even after the insertion of the 17th amendment, he said, the constitution was not operational.

Masood Mufti said the situation obtaining in Balochistan and Waziristan looked same as that he witnessed in Dhaka in 1971. The mindset of the rulers seemed to have not changed.

Dr Kaniz Yusuf called upon the people to struggle to secure their democratic rights. She criticized the government for relying on external powers for support, reminding that history bears testimony that they never helped Pakistan.

http://www.balochunity.org/index.php?news+&did=2325