Pakistan

Pakistan in turmoil after poll

On Tuesday 13 February Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), together with other smaller parties, agreed to form a coalition government, the main aim of which is to prevent supporters of Imran Khan taking control of the state. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, or Pakistan Movement for Justice), has been heavily repressed and its candidates were forced to run as independents in the 8 February general election. Nevertheless, PTI ran an effective social media campaign and out-performed the army-backed PML-N. Sharif had been expected to win easily...

Quetta rally hits Baloch repression

Since December there have been major protests against state repression in the part of Balochistan occupied by Pakistan, including Baloch-led protests in Pakistani capital Islamabad. The immediate focus is killings, disappearances and abductions by the Pakistani army, security services and allied militias, which have reached huge proportions in Balochistan. Even the Pakistani government admits thousands of “disappearances” in Balochistan in recent decades, while human rights activists say there have been many thousands. In many ways Balochistan is to Pakistan what Kashmir is to India. The...

Solidarity with the Baloch protests!

Since early December the part of Balochistan occupied by Pakistan has been swept by major protests against killings, disappearances and abductions by the Pakistani army. Protesters against this violence and for holding its perpetrators responsible have also travelled the best part of a thousand miles to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. Across the country they have been met by arrests, repression and state violence. On 5 January the protest in Islamabad was continuing and being joined by people from other national and ethnic communities concerned about disappearances and state violence...

Solidarity, not saviour complex (part 1)

Part two of this article is here In the last few months, I’ve encountered a slew of campist leftists, mostly from the West, on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other issues. The majority of them are purposefully equating the Ukrainian resistance to Nazism by emphasising the minority of right-wing nationalist elements in the Ukrainian resistance, acting as useful idiots for Putin and his Russia’s colonial war. Despite many Ukrainian socialists and anarchists speaking out about their needs for weapons and aid, and Russian soldiers whispering about the war crimes committed by the Russian military...

Solidarity, not saviour complex

Some leftists are equating the Ukrainian resistance to Nazism by emphasising the minority of right-wing nationalist elements in the Ukrainian resistance, acting as useful idiots for Putin and his Russia's colonial war.

To make good damage, seize capitalist wealth!

“We became a victim of something with which we had nothing to do, and of course it was a man-made disaster. Imagine, on one hand we have to cater for food security for the common man by spending billions of dollars and on the other we have to spend billions of dollars to protect flood-affected people from further miseries and difficulties. “How on earth can one expect from us that we will undertake this gigantic task on our own?” With these words Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, appealed to the assembled world leaders at COP27 in a key intervention in the loss and damages debate. The...

Pakistan: a disaster made by capitalism

Pakistani socialists are supporting a disaster relief appeal by the small farmers’ organisation Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee: see here . One third of Pakistan is under water. At the time of writing more than 1,500 people, including over 400 children, have been killed by the flooding; over 12,000 injured; and well over 30 million – the equivalent of ten million in the UK – affected. Over 700,000 livestock are dead. In the province of Sindh, which produces half of Pakistan’s food, 90% of crops are ruined, threatening tens of millions more. The rains that have deluged the country are still...

Thirty years since The Satanic Verses

Last month [September 2018] saw the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses . Rushdie’s sprawling novel defies summary: interlinking stories meld scurrilous fantasies, dark humour and cutting political satire directed not only at Islam, but British racism and Indian immigrants’ attempts to adapt. It is an honest attempt to deal with the warping pressures of racism, religion and cultural dislocation. When it was published in September 1988 there was no spontaneous grassroots opposition. According to Kenan Malik in From Fatwa to Jihad , one early move...

1971: Bangladesh's "Liberation War"

The first part of this series, ‘The origins of Bangladesh and Pakistan’s 1968’ , was published in December 2021. “Kill three million and the rest will eat out of our hands.” So Pakistani dictator Yahya Khan is said to have told his top brass in March 1971, as they prepared war against the people of East Bengal. By the time Bangladesh – “Bengal Nation” – gained its independence in December, Pakistan’s army had murdered at least several hundred thousand civilians and many more had died from disease, malnutrition, etc. These were among the worst atrocities of the 20th century, seeking to suppress...

The origins of Bangladesh and Pakistan's 1968

East Pakistan, 1969 Part two, telling the story of the war itself, is here . Fifty years ago one of history’s biggest anti-colonial struggles triumphed. On 16 December 1971, the Pakistani armed forces that had waged a nine-month campaign of genocidal mass murder to subjugate Pakistan’s eastern half surrendered in the face of Indian military intervention. East Pakistan – East Bengal – became the independent state of Bangladesh. The Bengali people of East Pakistan were among the largest of the many nations to throw off colonial rule in the 20th century. In 1971 Bangladesh’s population, 66...

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