Pakistani community meeting in NYC evaluates new possibilities

By Shahid Comrade 

The author, general secretary of the Pakistani-U.S. Freedom Forum, wrote this report on his organization’s approval of the following declaration.

Today, on June 21, 2026, at Lahori Chilli, Coney Island Avenue, which is also called Little Pakistan, we start by remembering our loved ones who have passed away during the last year. 

We stand in solidarity with the families of the 168 children and teachers who were murdered on Feb. 28, 2026, by an unprovoked U.S. and Israeli airstrike in Iran in violation of the United Nations Charter. We also stand in solidarity with the thousands of innocent families who have been brutally murdered during the ongoing West-backed genocide in Gaza, which is a continuation of the brutalization that started in 1948 and has now gone on for more than three years. 

In Iran, around 7,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands wounded.

In Lebanon, nearly 5,000 are dead, and over 11,000 have been injured. Gaza has seen over 360,000 homes destroyed, 432 schools struck and more than 30 hospitals put out of service. The United States has spent at least $29 billion waging this war. Israel has spent another $11.5 billion. The global economy has lost an estimated $2.2 trillion. The carbon released during these wars will accelerate a climate crisis that will fall hardest on the very communities already bearing the weight of this violence. 

This is what occupation and impunity cost, not just in lives but in schools, in hospitals, in the future of entire peoples. 

We also speak as workers. Pakistani and South Asian drivers make up a large part of this city’s gig economy workforce. Uber earned $9.85 billion in profits in 2025 while permanently deactivating up to 500,000 drivers worldwide with no recourse, no union, no path forward. We are the labor that powers this economy. We deserve rights, not algorithms. 

And we speak about Pakistan. The military regime, operating through corrupted courts and with documented foreign interference, has imprisoned political leaders without due process, disappeared journalists and activists and silenced civil society. There is no accountability — not through the courts, not through parliament, not through the press. We refuse to be silent about this from across an ocean. 

The United Nations Charter was written to prevent exactly this: occupation, aggression and the trampling of people’s right to determine their own fate. Supporting occupiers is not a path to peace. It is a guarantee of more war. 

We are proud as Pakistanis of how our government, installed after a U.S.-backed regime change, worked for peace as a host of the Islamabad peace meeting between the U.S. and Iran. They did this, because standing with peace and against war is a cornerstone of our foreign policy. This is what our founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, believed in. He was a man of law and believed in the principles of our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The present situation in Pakistan for journalists and the press has been very dangerous, which is the result of the direct intervention of the foreign policy of the U.S. and the West. 

U.S.: Stop funding regime change

We submit that our future generations will have better lives if the U.S. and the West stop funding, supporting and backing regime change, colonization of people’s land and occupation in our world. 

We put forward the following demands today:

1. War must end for lasting peace. All peace agreements should be done in accordance with the U.N. Charter and the Geneva Convention and past U.N. Resolutions, like the 1967 Resolution, Kyoto agreement, etc. 
2. We demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui and the millions of African Americans languishing in jails for minor offences. 
3. We demand a humane immigration policy that is adopted not to increase revenues, but to facilitate the lives of immigrants. Such a policy has been due for over 40 years. 
4. We condemn the kidnapping of presidents and dignitaries of sovereign governments by the U.S. and demand that they be released. 
5. We demand the release of all detainees who have been picked up by ICE and condemn the force being used on immigrants by federal law enforcement in the U.S. We condemn this principle of might is right and demand a dignified life for all people in the U.S. 
6. We demand freedom of expression for all journalists in Pakistan and an end to the attacks on dissidents and civil society by the Pakistani Government. 
7. We stress upon our own government in Pakistan to take measures to ensure peace within the region and lasting relations with all our neighboring countries. 

Passed with the authorization of the president unanimously by audience vote.