Pakistan

Pakistan Wave of Arrests

Farooq Tariq is the General Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan. He explains how he has been caught up in the government’s suppression of opposition parties. I avoided another arrest on 23 September. I had just returned home at 11pm from Toba Tek Singh, a five hour drive from Lahore. I am planning to contest the general election for national parliament from Toba Tek Singh, my home city. When the bell rang, I was sure it was the police again. My partner Shahnaz asked me who it could be at this time of the night. Our children had just gone to sleep, but our daughter Mashal (14) got up as well...

Musharraf regime on the rocks

General Pervez Musharraf’s eight year grip on political power in Pakistan looks increasingly precarious. His desperation showed in his response to the return from exile of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this month. Sharif returned to challenge Musharraf and his cronies in elections due in November. He was deported hours after his plane touched down in Islamabad. Musharraf’s term as President is set to legally expire before the November elections, but Musharraf wants to extend his term — by some ruse or other. The current Parliament, which in which his supporters have a majoirty, may give...

Farooq Tariq released! News from Pakistan

From the Labour Party Pakistan, Tuesday 19 June 2007 Dear All! Lahore: After 15 days of detention, Labour Party General Secretary General Farooq Tariq was released on Tuesday (19 June) from Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore. Dozens of Party workers and members and some civil society activists received him warmly outside the jail. We are thankful to all comrades, friends and well wishers who extended support and solidarity to Farooq Tariq during his detention and launched struggle and campaigns for the release of LPP General Secretary. A detailed e-mail regarding his two week detention will soon be...

Pakistan: the struggle continues

BY Mike Rowley Pakistan is going through a period of heightened struggle against the military-based government of Pervez Musharraf. The current struggles began in earnest on 14 May when a general strike shut down Pakistan’s major cities, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Quetta. This followed two days of protests, some of them violent, against the attempt by the government on 9th March to suspend Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who had ruled against it, on unspecified charges. Nearly forty people were killed, mostly opposition supporters. The government authorised...

Pakistani socialst leader freed

Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the socialist group Labour Party of Pakistan, has been released from prison following his detention without charge by Pakistani security forces. Released on 19 June after a 16-day detention, Tariq describes his imprisonment as “one the of worst jail experiences I’ve had during my 30 years of political activism”. Tariq is also quick to point out that it was massive international pressure, not the benevolence of the government, which led to his release. The repression of over 600 anti-Musharraf activists began on 4 June, when police picked up activists from...

Pakistani socialist leader arrested

From the Labour Party of Pakistan . Lahore: Farooq Tariq, General Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan, was arrested on 5 June at his residence without warrants. On Thursday 7 June he was sent to Bahawalpur Jail after the issue of three-month detention order by the home secretary of Punjab. Farooq Tariq's detention is a part of recent state crack down on political activists and workers, against the backdrop of the lawyers' and media workers' movement against the Mushrraf regime. Across the country hundreds of worker activists have been arrested and cases have been lodged against thousands...

Pakistani workers’ leader freed

Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the Labour Party of Pakistan, a significant revolutionary left group which opposes Pakistan’s military regime, its US backers and political Islam, was arrested for four days earlier this month. Tariq was one of a larger number of people arrested in connection with the protests against military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s sacking of the independent minded chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry. Anti-government strikes have paralysed Karachi and other major cities. A different kind of political threat has also been seen — on 15 May a suicide bomber killed 25...

Farooq Tariq arrested

Letter from Labour Party Pakistan

The General Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan, comrade Farooq Tariq was arrested from his Lahore office by a heavy contingent of Punjab Police at 1:30 p.m on Friday 4 May. He has been taken to Garhi Shahu police station, Lahore, where he is being detained....

Protests against Pakistan’s dictatorship

By Sacha Ismail London and Washington's favourite military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, has been in power since 2000 and “constitutional” president of Pakistan since 2002. This year, he plans to have himself re-elected for another five term, and is determined to crush anyone who gets in his way. The last month has seen a rising tide of protests sparked by Musharraf’s decision on 9 March to suspend Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, chief justice of Pakistan’s supreme court, and try him on charges of corruption. Beginning with lawyers’ strikes and demonstrations, this movement has...

Workers' news round up

By Pablo Velasco Pakistan Six Pakistani left parties and groups have united to form Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (AJT — the People’s Democratic Movement), which has the potential to become the fifth-largest political group in Pakistan. The AJT aims to contest the 2007 elections. The parties in the AJT are the National Workers’ Party (NWP), the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), Awami Tehreek (AT — People’s Movement), Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party (PMKP), Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz (PMM — Workers Front) and Meraj Mohammed Khan Group (MMKG). The AJT has announced a campaign against growing militarisation and...

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