Movement grows to confront dictatorship

In Pakistan U.S.-backed military dictator President General Pervez Musharraf is confronted by a rising mass movement. Ever since Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on March 9, the country has been experiencing mass protests and legal challenges.

May 4. Pakistan Labor Party demands release of Farooq Tariq.

President Musharraf removed the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in an effort to intimidate the judiciary from raising any political challenge in parliamentary elections which are expected in September or October. President and General Musharraf is expected to seek another term as president, without giving up his role as head of the armed forces. This is illegal under Pakistan’s constitution.

The attack on the chief justice was seen by opposition groups as an outrageous and unconstitutional attack on the independence of the judiciary and as political preparation for his illegal reelection.

General Musharraf came to power in Pakistan after a right-wing coup in 1999, with U.S. assistance. He had himself declared president in 2001. Under Musharraf’s military dictatorship, arbitrary arrests, torture, persecution of political opponents and extrajudicial killings have vastly increased.

In his struggle to consolidate his position and continue his rule, Musharraf accused the chief justice of misusing his powers and originally placed him under house arrest. The effort to intimidate the chief justice had the opposite effect. After a storm of protest Justice Chaudhry was released, but he is still under investigation. Musharraf is now faced with the most serious political crisis since he seized power in October 1999.

Musharraf’s close relationship with U.S. imperialism and the role of the Pakistani military in the war in neighboring Afghanistan is deeply unpopular in Pakistan. Intensifying repression, the deteriorating economy, growing unemployment and rising inflation have added to the mass anger. The Bush administration has made clear its total support for the unpopular dictatorship.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.2 billion, compared to $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks—a 45,000 percent increase—boosting Pakistan to the top tier of countries receiving U.S. military funding, according to the Center for Public Integrity. A recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the total value of all U.S. aid to Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001, including military, economic and development assistance, at more than $10 billion.

Since 2001, Musharraf has allowed the U.S. to use Pakistan’s air bases in “anti-terrorism” operations, provided access to logistics facilities, shared intelligence, illegally detained citizens charged with involvement in terrorism, and deployed 80,000 Pakistani troops on the Afghan border. This growing U.S. military presence and growing climate of repression is deeply unpopular

Chief Justice Chaudhry has become a rallying figure for the entire political opposition in the country. Every effort to intimidate the growing opposition has led to a new series of demonstrations demanding a return to civilian rule.

The opposition to Musharraf is an alliance that includes left and progressive organizations all the way to conservative religious parties. At this point the movement is led by lawyers, journalists, political workers, human rights workers and students. It is a movement drawn mostly from the middle class.

Police forces have battled militant street demonstrations and raided and ransacked political offices and opposition media. They raided the Islamabad office of GEO, a popular television news channel, which has aired in-depth and often critical coverage of the events following the suspension of Chaudhry. At this station and other TV stations, such as AAJ and ARY-TV, the regime has blocked transmissions to prevent coverage of rallies and meetings. It has banned magazines and newspapers such as the Awami Tehrik Party’s magazine, imposed curfews and impounded thousands of public transport vehicles to restrict travel to demonstrations.

Chief Justice Chaudhry’s decision to travel by car from Islamabad to Lahore for a political rally was seen as a test of the opposition’s growing strength. Lahore is considered Pakistan’s most politically influential city.

The government demanded that Chaudhry travel to Lahore by air or they threatened that “terrorists” might target him. Chaudhry insisted on driving.

As it traveled through towns and cities of central Punjab province on the way to Lahore, the slow-moving car caravan several miles long became the occasion for a series of mass rallies against the Musharraf dictatorship

On the eve of Chaudhry’s arrival in Lahore, the general secretary of the Pakistan Labor Party, Farooq Tariq, who was at the forefront of the protest preparations, was arrested by police at the Labor Party’s office and taken to secret detention. Immediate demonstrations demanded the release of Farooq Tariq.

Despite the arrests and intimidation tens of thousands of supporters thronged roadsides to greet Chief Justice Chaudhry on May 5.

On May 7, unsuccessful in stopping the demonstration or in intimidating the opposition, the police released Labor Party’s leader Tariq.

In the days before the giant opposition rally, the alliance of left-wing and religious parties joined together to celebrate May Day and especially to express solidarity with immigrant workers in the U.S. and other countries.

The event organized by the Labor Party of Pakistan focused attention on the racist attacks on immigrant workers and especially on the U.S. policies of targeting, detaining and deporting Muslims. They denounced the treatment of six planeloads of Pakistani deportees recently sent back to Pakistan.

The demonstration raised demands concerning the migrant community working in the Middle East, where millions of workers from Pakistan, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal and Bangladesh face the worst conditions. Workers are treated as slaves, deprived of all human rights, union rights and health care. Passports are confiscated, while workers are paid $120 to $170 a month for 12- to 16-hour days of work. The Labor Party described conditions of workers in Qatar where 600,000 out of a population of 800,000 are migrant workers without any rights. In Dubai, out of a population of 4 million, only 800,000 are citizens.

The May Day rally, the struggle for workers rights in Pakistan and the decision to raise the struggle for the rights of all workers show that as the mass movement against the military dictatorship gains momentum, the working class will increasingly come forward with its own demands for economic and political rights.