By Shafiq Ahmad
A
new Pashtun movement has erupted in Pakistan, mobilising hundreds of thousands
of people across the country, with tens of thousands attending its public meetings.
The state apparatus and the entire ruling class, including all establishment
political parties, are trembling at the sight of this huge movement, which
originated from the most backward areas of the country – where it was least
expected.
The
Pashtuns were once known as Pathans or Afghans during the British Raj. Over 30
million live in Pakistan and another 14 million over the border in Afghanistan.
The new movement started with the killing
of 28-year-old Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud in Karachi by a notorious police officer,
Rao Anwar, on 13th January. Naqeeb Ullah belonged to the Mehsud
tribe of North Waziristan and was a shopkeeper in Karachi when he was shot dead
by the police under mysterious circumstances. According to his Facebook posts
he seems like a fun-loving boy who liked tribal dance and songs.
On
the other hand, Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar is famous for
land-grabbing and the use of extortion and murder to settle personal disputes.
According to reports, he has killed at least 444 people between 2011 and 2018,
but not a single inquiry has been made against him. Rao Anwar was also involved
in the killing of Murtaza Bhutto in 1996. It is common knowledge that this
brutal police officer works for the secret services of Pakistan and is their
main instrument to get things done. According to reports, he is also close to
Asif Ali Zardari, the former president and leader of the Pakistan People’s
Party, as well as real estate tycoon (meaning land-grabber) Malik Riaz, the
richest man in Pakistan.
For Rao Anwar, this killing was business
as usual but, contrary to his plans, his actions have sparked a huge movement
among Pashtuns in Pakistan. After the murder, initial protests were held in
Karachi in which Pashtuns, mainly from the Mehsud tribe, came out to protest
against this act of brutality. After that, a long march left D I Khan [Frontier Region Dera Ismail
Khan]
near Waziristan on 26th January and reached the capital, Islamabad,
on 1st February, demanding justice for Naqeeb Ullah and capital punishment
for his killers. The long march was led by a 24-year-old, Manzoor Pashteen.
The protesters called this long march the
Mehsud Tahafuz (Protection) Movement, but soon Pashtuns from other tribes
joined and in the next few days it was named the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement
(PTM). When these protesting tribesmen reached Islamabad they got a huge
response and a sit-in was organised, which continued for 10 days. More than
15,000 people came to attend this sit-in, and fiery speeches were made against
the state and its atrocities towards tribal people and Pashtuns in general.
The protesters’ main demands included the
arrest and execution of Rao Anwar and his accomplices; the end of state
repression in all tribal areas of Pakistan and of Pashtuns generally; the removal
of army checkpoints, where ordinary people are humiliated on a daily basis,
waiting for hours in queues to go to their homes; the end of the discriminatory
Watan Card (a special Identity card issued to internally displaced people
because of terrorism) and for clearing all landmines planted by the army in
tribal areas, which have maimed and killed many innocents, including children.
Finally, one of the core demands was to produce 32,000 ‘missing’ persons, who
have actually been abducted by the army on spurious charges of suspicious
activity.
North Waziristan is one of the seven
tribal agencies of Pakistan, which are called FATA (Federally Administered
Tribal Areas). These areas on the border of Afghanistan were used by British
imperialism as a buffer zone against Afghanistan and Russia when they drew the
Durand Line in 1893. After Pakistan’s so-called ‘independence’ in 1947, the
status of these areas did not change and they remain one of the most backward
parts of the country. The laws and constitution of Pakistan are not applicable
and basic facilities are scarce, including schools, hospitals and even water.
When the Americans started an imperialist ‘Dollar Jihad’ against the Soviet
Union in the 1980s, these areas were used as a launching pad to send jihadi
fighters into Afghanistan to undermine the people’s government with the support
of the Pakistani state. Later, in the so-called War on Terror since 2001, these
areas were used as safe havens for the Taliban and other Islamic
fundamentalists, whilst US Imperialism used drones to attack their former
friends.
Although US imperialism and the Pakistani
state were apparently waging a war against the Taliban and Islamic
fundamentalism, in reality this was a war against the ordinary people of these
areas in which Islamic fundamentalists were accomplices of the Pakistani state
and US imperialism. All these crimes of the Pakistani state and US imperialism
are now coming to the surface through the efforts of the new Pashtun movement.
The leader is Manzoor Pashteen, who has
become a mass figure amongst Pashtuns in just two months. In his speeches and
video messages he simply describes the atrocities of the Pakistani state and
army in so-called operations against Islamic fundamentalism. In one incident
children and women were killed in an aerial bombing by the Pakistan air force,
to which he was an eyewitness. But when he reached a nearby city safely next
day and read the newspapers it was reported that several ‘terrorists’ had been
killed in an air raid. He has also revealed that the homes of ordinary people
were destroyed and/or looted by army personnel. In his speeches he has also
related incidents in which army officers were seen holding meetings with
Taliban leaders that they were supposed to kill or arrest.
He has also described the incidents of
humiliation at army checkpoints in North and South Waziristan and other areas
in FATA, where ordinary people are punished severely if they even speak up. The
plight of families of thousands of ‘missing persons’ is also appalling. They
wait for their loved ones for years but can never find out what happened to
them. No cases are registered on behalf of such people and no government
official knows their whereabouts. Their families don't know whether they have
been killed by the army on fake charges of terrorism or are still alive,
rotting in some undeclared prison.
Manzoor Pashteen has raised serious
questions about army ‘operations’ that have been going on in these areas for
more than a decade now. He says that army officers are in complete
collaboration with the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalists and he is an
eyewitness to many meetings between them,; and that it is common knowledge for
people of these areas that many army officers and Taliban members are good
friends. But ordinary people are suffering because of these operations and
hundreds-of-thousands were displaced from their homes, becoming refugees in
their own country.
All these discussions have encouraged
thousands of other people to come out and raise their voices over these
atrocities, and to share their own stories about the ‘War on Terror’. Inspired
by this movement, huge protests have been organised in the tribal areas of
Bajaur and Landi Kotal, bordering Afghanistan. In Landi Kotal, 17 persons from
a working-class family went ‘missing’ for many months following charges of
terrorism. The women and children of this family were left in destitution and
misery, without anything to eat or drink. Locals protested with MPs and other
officials, demanding their return, but it seemed hopeless. But inspired by this
movement, a huge protest was held in this backward area on the border. The
protest ended when all those ‘missing’ were returned.
A protest against army checkpoints was
also held in Swat, in which around 200 people assembled on the main road. The
first response from the state was the sending of death threats, alongside other
measures, including registering a legal case against those who organised the
protest. This was met with a fierce response in which a much larger protest was
organised. In the end the state had to withdraw all its cases and the
checkpoints were eased for the people of Swat.
Last month, the PTM organised a long march
from D I Khan to Quetta, with public meetings in Zhob, Qila Saifullah, Khano
Zai and finally in Quetta, which is the capital of Balochistan. This got a
marvellous response amongst Pashtun communities. Tens of thousands of people
attended these public meetings, in which similar discussions attacking the
brutal role of the army and the Pakistani state were held. In the small city of
Zhob, the army tried to sabotage the public meeting by arranging a football
match between two local teams, as well as a cultural festival. But the football
teams refused to play the match and, despite all measures taken against it, the
public meeting was attended by thousands of people.
In
Qila Saifullah, a case was registered against the leadership of the PTM but,
because of pressure from the movement, the state authorities were forced to
quash the case on an order of the High Court.
In Quetta, the public meeting attracted
more than 50,000 people from all over Balochistan. Ordinary people from other
oppressed nationalities also attended this meeting, including Balochis and
Hazara. A huge military operation is also underway against Baloch nationalists,
in which hundreds of political workers have been killed and tortured and their
mutilated bodies thrown in the rubbish by the Pakistani state. This operation
is targeted more at ordinary people, including women and children, than at
those waging armed struggle. There is a seething resentment against the
Pakistani state amongst the Baloch masses and they are looking for ways to
carry this struggle forward.
Hazara in Quetta are also persecuted by
Islamic fundamentalists with complete support from the Pakistani state. In a
city where army checkpoints are present every kilometre, these terrorists kill
Hazaras (a minority Shia Persian-speaking community) on a regular basis without
ever being confronted or arrested.
A Hazara woman also addressed the public
meeting in Quetta, which shows the huge potential for this movement to link
with other oppressed groups in Pakistan. The presence and mobilisation of women
around this movement is a progressive development in this deeply conservative
and backward society. The public meeting was followed by a mass sit-in by
Hazaras in Quetta, following a recent killing of one of their number. It has
now entered its fifth day.
The long march will head to Karachi, which
has undoubtedly the largest Pashtun population of all the cities in Pakistan.
It will doubtless be greeted with enthusiasm and fervour.
This movement has raised alarm bells in
the halls of power, and the ruling classes are trying their best to quell a
rising tide of anger and disgust. This tide is directed towards the barbaric
Pakistani state, which is a stooge of US and other imperialist powers.
Initially, the ruling class tried to stop the movement through its regular
measures of filing cases of sedition and official threats – but they changed
their tactics when they saw that these threats had the effect of throwing oil
on a raging fire. In a recent press conference, the spokesperson of the
Pakistani army, General Asif Ghafoor, called Manzoor Pashteen a "wonderful
boy" and said that the army has held meetings with him and he has
explained all the PTM’s positions. He said that he is ready to have further
meetings. But all these ‘soft’ words have not yet made any effect on the
movement – it is still raging forward. Alongside these amiable press greetings,
venomous propaganda is being unleashed against the movement. It is falsely
alleged that the leadership of the movement is being funded by the Indian
secret service, the Revolutionary
Afghan Women's Association and other enemies of Pakistan. No proof has been
produced for these allegations, but the media is giving full coverage to these
and to press conferences that spew hatred and poison against the leadership of
the movement.
The treacherous role of the media as a
stooge of the ruling class can be clearly seen here. At first, it ignored the
movement and tried to kill it through silence. Most people think the media can
make or break any movement. It is true for bourgeois politicians, who have no
base amongst the masses, and are raised in nurseries of the establishment and
then propped up through the media. But for real movements of the masses the
media is just another enemy to tackle. When the ruling class saw the movement
growing despite being ignored they tried to give it coverage with their own
misleading interpretations. Manzoor Pashteen was also interviewed on various TV
channels in which the anchormen tried to tie him in knots. It was amazing to
see people from opposing political parties taking identical reactionary positions
on this mass movement; asking similar questions and casting doubts on its
leadership.
The most important aspect of this movement
is that it has exposed the rottenness of all political parties in the country
that are united in their chorus of abuse and slander. The parties in parliament
have never spoken a single word against atrocities affecting tribal peoples,
rather they are accomplices in unleashing hell on ordinary people. From left to
right, the whole political spectrum has lost all credibility in the eyes of the
masses. They no longer trust any of these parties. Although there was seething
hatred against these army operations, there was no platform where people could
raise their voice and wage their struggle. In such circumstances, the PTM has
become the voice of the oppressed and this has angered all political parties
with some base amongst the Pashtun masses.
These include the religious parties like
the JUI (Party of the Islamic scholars) and the JI (Islamic Congress), which is
the most notorious of all the Islamic fascist parties with links with all the
other Muslim movements calling for the revival of Caliphate including the
ruling Turkish Justice and Development
Party (AKP), Hamas in Palestine, Al Shabab in Somalia, Boku Haram in Nigeria
and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. They also include the Pashtun nationalists
of the ANP (Peoples National Party) and PkMAP (National People’s Party) that
enjoy warm relations with the Pakistani State. They all see this new mass
movement as a threat to their political fiefdoms and are using every measure to
stop it.
The
leadership of the ANP has openly announced that it is against this movement and
has ordered its members not to attend meetings of the PTM, otherwise strict
action will be taken against them. These nationalists, who are mostly former
social-democrats, abandoned their secular and anti-regime traditions long ago
and have become an integral part of the ruthless Pakistani state. They also sit
in governments at federal and provincial level, and have indulged in plunder
and corruption like all the others.
This has left genuine proletarians in
these parties and ordinary people looking for an alternative avenue for
expressing their feelings. In fact, there is no difference amongst these
parties and Islamic parties on the right. The brutal murder of Mashal Khan, a
student at Mardan University, last year on false allegations of blasphemy was
an example of their treachery. He was opposing the corruption of university
management, which is controlled by the nationalists of the ANP. These
nationalists then planned his murder with the goons of IJT (an Islamic
fundamentalist organisation), who carried out the deed on 13th April
last year. All this had the complete backing of the Pakistani state, which has
helped to get almost all the accused released through the courts. Many other
examples of such betrayals can be cited, including a shameful agreement between
the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalists and the ANP when it was in power in the
Pashtun region of Pashtoonkhwa.
Similarly, PkMAP is in a coalition with
the right-wing PML(N), the Pakistan Muslim League of former premier Nawaz
Sharif, an enemy of the working-class whom the PkMAP leaders hailed as a
national hero.
The betrayal of the Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) is the biggest crime of all. This is the party founded by Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto, the former premier hanged by military dictator Zia ul Haq in 1979.
It started as a social democratic party similar to PASOK in Greece but it no
longer represents the workers and peasants of Pakistan; rather it has become a
tool in the hands of one faction of the state. The PPP has organised protests
against the PTM in some areas but could only attract around a dozen people.
Other such efforts have also met with the
hatred of the masses. The JUI(F) – an Islamic fundamentalist party and a
staunch supporter of the Pakistani state and US imperialism – has also called a
public meeting in Peshawar to try to counter the mass meeting of the PTM but
this will not be able to sabotage the movement, which is spreading like
wildfire.
The reactionary ruling parties of
Pushtoonkhwa, the Pakistan Justice Movement and the Islamic Congress first
banned public meetings in the city. They then proclaimed a state of emergency
to counter the PTM's public meeting but mass protests forced them to end it.
They will use administrative measures such as creating artificial traffic jams,
road blockades and police checkpoints in the name of security to sabotage the
public meeting in the provincial capital of Peshawar, but to little effect.
All these measure show that this movement
is gaining popularity amongst the masses and has become a real expression of
anger and disgust against not only fake army operations and killings, but also
poverty, hunger, unemployment, disease and illiteracy, which are a result of
imperialist policies. Manzoor Pashteen has said that these brutal army
operations have mostly affected the poor, whilst all those who had the means to
escape to safety were less affected; and that the army and Taliban both target
the poor and helpless, whilst wealthy and influential people were mostly
unharmed. This shows that class plays a significant role even in suffering.
The huge response of the masses has given
enormous strength to this movement on the one hand but has posed important
challenges on the other. The movement has so far spread to some of the most
backward regions of the country, including the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan and the huge province of
Balochistan. Now it is heading towards urban proletarian centres such as
Peshawar and Karachi. It has attracted political workers from nationalist
parties, students from various universities and ordinary people affected by
fake army operations and Islamic fundamentalism. Many of these are from
backward layers of society, which were at one time the bastion of reaction and
areas of support for Islamic fundamentalism. The Pakistani state has relied on
some of these elements in the past to wage wars in Kashmir and for imperialist
intervention in Afghanistan, but now the tide has turned.
This shows another important dialectical
contradiction where the most backward layers have waged a war against the
establishment with advanced slogans, exposing the real character of the brutal
state. Meanwhile the so-called educated sections of society support the
reactionary, right-wing parties of the ruling class.
The comparison between recent sit-ins in
Islamabad by the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) and the PTI (a right-wing
opposition party led by former cricketer Imran Khan) also reveals this
situation. The PTI sit-ins mostly consisted of people paid to be there, whilst
the speeches merely slandered rivals, lacking a political programme.
Participants of these sit-ins were mostly interested in the accompanying music
and dance, the speeches were merely a boring interlude. These sit-ins received
extensive media coverage and enjoyed the full support of the state, police and
Islamists, who never thought of sending a suicide bomber to interrupt ‘un-Islamic’
music and dance.
On the other hand, the sit-in by PTM,
which continued in Islamabad from 1st–10th February, was all about real issues
and a political programme to resolve them. No one paid the participants to
attend; nor were they getting any cash handouts from a general for travel
expenses or daily meals, as had occurred at a staged sit-in a few weeks ago by
followers of the TLY, a Muslim fundamentalist movement sponsored by the
Pakistani army that wants to establish Islamic Sharia law throughout the
country.
All participants of the PTM sit-in made
sacrifices to stay there and were interested in the speeches made from the
stage, as well as in devising further
strategies for their struggle. One of the most enthusiastic responses from the
audience was to the speech delivered by Comrade Umer Riaz, who not only
supported the demands of the PTM but also exposed the class character of state.
This speech was met with rousing applause and all the participants in the
sit-in (especially the youth) greeted the speech passionately. The media
completely ignored this sit-in and there were threats of a police crackdown or
a terrorist attack, both of which would have had state backing.
But later on, the sit-in was occupied by
reactionary elements and leaders of reactionary political parties, who were
allowed to speak from the stage. These leaders were coming to calm down the
movement and direct it towards legal, parliamentary or other such futile
methods. But all these approaches have so far failed and the movement is
advancing past them.
This has also posed important questions
for the leadership, concerning how the movement should proceed. At the moment
there are all kinds of currents in the movement (both left- and right-wing) and
it has no clear, ideological base. Because of the presence of many political
workers from nationalist parties from Pashtun areas where the PTM movement
began, nationalist ideas are dominating. Some of the leaders are former social
democrats. They now represent the right-wing of the movement, who put forward a
narrow, nationalist line that will isolate the movement and could lead to its
downfall. The main leadership has so-far discouraged such tendencies but they
are still present.
In the public meeting in Zhob, a small
city in Balochistan, when one of the speakers said that we are waging a battle
against Lahore, referring to the imperialist role of Punjab, Manzoor Pashteen
said that our battle is not against Lahore but against GHQ ( the General Head
Quarters of the Army), referring to the role of the generals. The presence of
Balochis and Hazaras at the public meeting in Quetta also shows that this
movement has the ability to unite all the oppressed nationalities of Pakistan.
In the PTM protests and sit-ins in
Karachi, Sindhis, Mohajirs (Refugees) and people of other oppressed
nationalities have come to the stage and expressed their feelings against state
oppression. This shows a way forwards that can unite oppressed people from
Karachi to Giglit-Baltistan on the same platform and wage a united struggle
against the imperialist state, dominated by a Punjabi ruling elite.
Another weak aspect of the movement is
that it invites all political parties to attend their meetings, even though
they are trying to sabotage it. These political parties do not represent the
real aspirations of the masses and are rotten to the core. These parties are an
important tool of the state to keep the masses oppressed and subjugated. Rather
than seeking the friendship of these corrupt leaders and their parties, it is
important to look towards movements of the workers and peasants spread around
the country.
Even in Pushtoonkhwa and Balochistan,
thousands of workers from the public and private sectors are raising demands
almost every day. Recently, there have been huge movements of school teachers,
young doctors, hospital workers, nurses, factory workers, Public Works
Department workers, civil servants and many others in Pushtoonkhwa and
Balochistan. There are similar movements in Punjab, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Huge movements of peasants and small farmers in Punjab have also risen to the
surface recently. All these movements are natural allies of the PTM and will
give it strength by supporting its demands. But for that, it is important to
get rid of all reactionary political parties and ban their organised
participation in the public meetings. It is also important to support these
movements of workers and peasants in various sectors and extend our solidarity
to them.
A huge movement against the privatisation
of public sector departments is also going on in important departments such as
WAPDA (the electricity department), PIA (Pakistan International Airlines),
railways, steel mills and elsewhere. Solidarity with these movements will also
strengthen the class character of the PTM and will make it a movement of the
Pakistani proletariat. Only the working class can ensure the complete freedom
of the oppressed nationalities from the imperialist state and has the potential
to wage a decisive battle for freedom, not only from national oppression, but
also class exploitation and wage slavery.
The next stage will inevitably open these
ideological discussions inside the movement and the battle of ideas will begin.
Our comrades have intervened in this struggle from the very beginning and are
explaining their positions to the masses everywhere. They were present in all
PTM meetings thus far and are making preparations for the public meetings in
the future. Comrades in Peshawar University have organised several student
bodies on one platform and are preparing a joint delegation of students to
attend public meetings. They have unconditionally supported the demands of PTM
but have also asked to add their own demands. One of the main student demands
is that checkpoints and the presence of the army, the paramilitary Pakistani
Rangers and the police should end in all education institutes.
They further demand that the ban on
students unions should immediately be lifted, and elections be held in all
universities and colleges. Managing the security of these institutes should be
undertaken by elected representatives of students, because the army and other
state institutions have failed to protect students from terrorists time and
time again. The incident at the Army Public School and many others are proof of
this incompetence, and of collaboration between the state and terrorists. These
students also demand that education should be free for everyone in the country
and that private educational institutes should be nationalised.
Comrades representing workers’
organisations are also participating in these public meetings and have
highlighted the importance of linking the movement with the working class. The
next May Day is an important occasion when the PTM can extend solidarity to
workers of the country and announce a joint struggle against this rotten state.
At this point, it is important to
understand the class structure of the state. So far, the leadership of the PTM
has said that they want to wage their struggle through legal and constitutional
means – but the demands raised by PTM are not feasible under the current state
apparatus. The present state of Pakistan represents the interests of the
Pakistani ruling class, along with those of the USA and other imperialist
powers. Within the confines of this state and its laws and constitution, it is
impossible to bring peace and prosperity to the masses.
The crisis of the capitalist system at an
international and local level is deepening the crisis in the economy and
destabilising the status quo. The war between various imperialist powers across
the region is bringing more destruction and misery down upon ordinary people.
The issues faced by the masses of FATA and other Pashtun areas of the country
are the inevitable result of this crisis. This crisis has also provoked the
Pakistani ruling class to start a spiteful and vicious campaign against Afghan
refugees living in Pakistan. The state not only ravaged their country through
imperialist intervention but also used refugees as a tool to beg for financial
aid from the rest of the world. Whilst the coffers of the state were filled
with ‘aid’ from international donors, the refugees were living a miserable life
in destitution and poverty. Now a malicious campaign has started in which
Afghans are being humiliated and arrested just for being Afghans.
The Durand Line drawn by the British
imperialists, dividing the Pashtuns, is also being strengthened by the state,
which is enacting more measures to divide families. The Pashtun nationalists
have abandoned their rhetoric of ‘Pashtun unity’ across the divide and are
enriching themselves across the border. Pashtun unity is not possible under
capitalism.
The only way out of the current morass of
drone attacks, fake army operations, nationalist oppression, poverty, misery
and unemployment is to wage a struggle against all the forces of reaction on
class lines. It is important to identify the enemies and friends of this
movement, and to draw clear battle lines between them. All sections of the
ruling class, Pakistani state and political parties are enemies of the movement
in one way or another. Neither the judiciary, bureaucracy nor any other
department of the state can offer any solution.
The mass movement began as a protest
against the killing of 28-year-old Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud in Karachi by Senior
Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar, on 13th January.
Rao
Anwar’s princely reception at the Supreme Court and the treatment of his case
show the real intentions and character of the state. He is an important tool of
the state, which will try its utmost to protect him. Even if he is removed
under the pressure of the movement, hundreds of similar police officers are
waiting to fill his place. In this country, every police station has an officer
like Rao Anwar, willing to protect the interests of the ruling class by
terrorising common people. To get rid of these elements it is necessary to get
rid of the state and the capitalist system.
The imperialist powers are also enemies of
the Pakistani masses and there should be no illusions in any of them. Some
people will say that we should not offend everybody at the same time and take
one step after another. But this will harm the movement, as we have seen in
many other cases in which nationalist movements have become proxies in the
hands of Imperialist powers that use them for their own interests. It is
important to condemn all kinds of imperialist intervention that support this
brutal state and have propped it up from the beginning for the imperialists’
strategic needs in the region. US imperialism in fact started and sponsored
this menace of Islamic fundamentalism and later paid the Pakistani state to
carry out its fake army operations. Now they are fighting over their own
interests but can never be friends to the oppressed, nor can they ever bring
peace or prosperity. The merest glance at Afghanistan reveals that US
imperialism has failed miserably there, economically, strategically and
militarily.
The real friends of this movement are the
working classes of Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries of the region. If
the leadership of this movement fails to acknowledge these ideological lines it
will stumble into a quagmire of deceit and betrayal. Hopefully, this will
ultimately pave way for more radical and advanced movements, and a leadership with
a clearer approach towards these questions.
At the moment, many activists in the
movement are trying to organise on city and district levels – but organisation
is always based on the goals and ideology of the movement. If the PTM’s
objectives are not clarified, it will remain loose and confused. In the coming
days there will be attacks on the movement from within and without, which is
why it is important to get organised on clear ideological lines to defend the
movement against these attacks.
The PTM must draw clear class lines and
reach out to the workers.
Participation in upcoming general
elections is also an important tactical question and should be addressed with
care. Many opportunists would like to use this platform for their political
careers and will emphasise participation for personal gain. Such careerists are
dangerous for the movement and might try to sell it out. But to use parliament
as a means to achieve the aims of the movement is a different question. For
that, a clear understanding of the state and parliament in class society is
necessary. In this system, reforms are not possible through constitutional
amendments nor by passing resolutions in parliament. It is important to
overthrow this whole rotten system and class society, even to achieve the
smallest reforms for the masses. Elections and parliament can be used to spread
one’s voice to wider layers of society, but to create illusions in these
methods would be criminal.
The movement faces many challenges. Its
response to these will determine its future.
How the movement addresses these questions
will determine its future. But whatever happens, it is certain that the mighty
Pakistan military and Taliban alliance is challenged, the status quo has been
shaken and revolutionary politics are reborn in the country. This is a huge
step forwards and will lead to the re-emergence of radical ideas on a much
wider scale. The vacuum opened by the rotten political parties of the status
quo will be filled by a new, ideological battle between the left and right. The
Marxists-Leninists will intervene in this battle with full force and will try
to reach wider layers of the working class. Meanwhile, we will also strengthen
our ranks on the basis of our revolutionary socialist ideas. We will highlight
every strength of the movement against the state and use all our forces to
defend it, but will also point out its weaknesses to avoid any mistakes.
Furthermore, we will try to link with the other movements of the working class.
In this way, we will build our forces to deliver a decisive war against this
outdated capitalist system and blood-soaked state through a socialist
revolution.
The capitalist system in Pakistan and
across the world has reached a blind alley and is destroying the lives of
millions of people. Only through revolution it can be laid in its grave, the
masses liberated from state brutality, terrorism, poverty, hunger, misery,
illiteracy and disease. Only then can the people breathe a sigh of relief and
live in peace and prosperity.
