PAKISTAN: FIRST INTERNATIONAL WORKERS/PEASANTS CONFERENCE
Kiran Omar
Hopeful signs of unity among progressive formations in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Labour Party (PLP), the Labour Quami Movement (LQM) and the Anjuman Mozareen Punjab (AMP), are coming together to organize, for the first time, an International Workers and Peasants Conference (27-28 January) in the industrial city of Punjab, Faisalabad. The Conference is part of the fifth congress of the Labour Party of Pakistan.
Prominent speakers from the leftist movement and progressive parties are expected to address the conference. Among these will be names like Abid Hasan Minto, president Pakistan Workers Party, Rasul Bukhsh Paleejo leader Awami Tehreek, Farooq Tariq spokesperson of Labour Party Pakistan, Senetor Dr. Abdul Malik president National Party, Mehr Abdul Satar general secretary Anjmana Mozareen Punjab, Sarwar Bari Pattan Traqiyati Tanzeem, Karamat Ali of PILER, to mention a few. The conference will be chaired by Mian Abdul Qayum, chairman Labour Qaumi Movement.
AMP hopes to mobilize its supporters from all over the Punjab and expects an attendance of 30,000 participants. The peasants from major rural centres, towns, cities and districts of Punjab will participate in the opening of the congress in the traditional manner with drums, music and songs. Slogans demanding rights and a call for land reforms to be enacted all over Pakistan, will be raised. Issues of food insecurity will also be raised at the conference, and attention drawn to the precarious situation of poor farmers.
AMP leaders issued a joint press statement demanding that both the Federal and Provincial governments, fulfill its long standing, but delinquent commitment granting land rights to the tenants cultivating Military Farms and other land claimed by the Army since the creation of Pakistan.
Past leaders, including Ms.Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif had promised to redress the issue upon assuming power; however that promise was never honored. The present People’s Party (PPP) government is also showing disinterest in redressing the plight of poor landless farmers and peasants.
AMP, along with other parties, resolves to continue sustained pressure after the conference through public meetings, protests, Long Marches and other such activities in order to force the government to take remedial action.
(Based on Report by Noor Nabi Media coordinator Anjaman Mozareen Punjab)