A Workers’ International Network Meeting – Sunday 15th May 2022
For a clear insight into these questions, we welcome from Islamabad the experienced political activist –Asif Rashid, trade union organiser, and regular contributor to the monthly Urdu Marxist magazine THE STRUGGLE (Tabqati jeddojhad)…
With the entire Indian sub-continent in turmoil – recurrent general strikes of up to 250 million workers in India, and in Sri Lanka the collapse of the government, a mass uprising and an indefinite general strike – Pakistan too is once again rocked by political crisis.
Ruled intermittently ever since its foundation in 1947 by a succession of weak civilian governments alternating with brutal but unstable military dictatorships, all equally corrupt, the latest government to fall is that of the playboy and former superstar cricketer Imran Khan. Having been elected to power four years ago with the covert support of the military and the ISI deep state, boasting that he was already “too rich to be corrupt”, Khan had shamelessly deployed repression, chauvinism and sheer fundamentalist bigotry to shore up his populist base. Pakistan’s economy is devastated by accumulated deficits and debts further aggravated by Khan’s devaluation of the currency.
Can the coming elections do anything to alleviate the growing problems in Pakistani society? Will the monster of communal violence ever be curbed? How can the continuing struggles of the working class, peasants and youth find a political voice? What role are socialist activists playing and what are their prospects?