Pakistan

Capitalism: a murderous system

At least 314 garment workers burned or suffocated to death in two factory fires in Pakistan on 12 September. Twenty-five people died in a shoe factory in the city of Lahore, when chemicals caught alight; 289 died in a garment factory in Karachi. In the Karachi fire, workers were trapped inside the burning building because exits had been locked and they could not open security grilles at the windows. Factory bosses and government officials, who have turned a blind eye to the flouting of health and safety regulations, are being prosecuted in the wake of this national scandal. But, equally, as...

Pakistan: abolish the blasphemy law!

A young Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, has been arrested and her family placed under protective custody after a Muslim mob in a poor part of Islamabad threatened to set her alight for allegedly burning pages of the Koran. Nine hundred Christians living in the slum neighbourhood, where they have lived for almost two decades, have been forced to leave. A local Mullah told reporters: “We are not upset the Christians have left and we will be pleased if they don't come back. They have done this to provoke the Muslims, like they have with their noisy banging and singing from their churches.” A large...

International news in brief

Islamist parties have taken to the streets to oppose the ratification of a law which would penalise domestic violence in Pakistan. Women’s rights campaigners confronted the bigots outside parliament last week. The Islamists’ arguments against the legislation include: preventing domestic violence is “Western”; and that the Bill is a copy of Indian legislation. A spokesperson for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl said, “We will not let these senseless women, who depend on American dollars, to work against the Constitution and Islamic Shariah,” The anti-violence Bill, first introduced in 2009, advocates...

A long way to go on gay rights

According to the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) seven majority Muslim countries still maintain the death penalty for homosexual activity. They are Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen. In northern Nigeria, where some states use Sharia law, homosexuality is also punishable by death. In Iran gay men are normally arrested under other trumped up charges. But in September 2011 three men were executed for homosexuality. And when execution is not used other brutality can be. In 2010 a Saudi man was sentenced to 500 lashes and five years in jail for...

No to political Islam! Solidarity with Pakistani secularists, socialists, workers and women

On Monday 5 January Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab (Pakistan's largest province) and a former Pakistani People's Party MP was shot 27 times by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri in Islamabad. Taseer was killed by Qadri because of his support for the reform of the long established blasphemy law which has led to people being incarcerated for insulting the prophet Muhammed. 
The shooting is the latest symptom of the rise of religious conservatism and right-wing radicalism in Pakistan, and Islamist attempts to rid the country of what they call 'Western extremism'. In fact Pakistan already has some of...

Pakistan disaster - support the Labour Relief Campaign!

The number of people affected by the floods in Pakistan has now reached 20 million. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed, along with people's livestock, household goods, clothes, shoes and other essential items. Millions are without drinkable water, food, shelter and clothing. Diseases like flu, fever, diarrhea and cholera are spreading fast. Now more torrential rains are forecast. This is one of the most devastating floods in human history, affecting more people than the South East Asian tsunami and the Kashmiri and...

Pakistani workers' strike wins victory

On 29 July the nine-day strike by power-loom workers in Faisalabad, Pakistan, ended in complete victory. The Commissioner of Faisalabad Mr. Tahir Hussain announced at a workers' rally that all demands of the workers will be met. He said that a 17 percent rates increase for all will be implemented in its full spirit. The case of the four arrested strike leaders will be withdrawn after an initial inquiry. This announcement came after over 25,000 workers marched to the city cenre and picketed the office of the Commissioner. The workers marched over 20 kilometers by foot. It was a totally peaceful...

Against both Islamists and empire

The following (abridged) article by Farooq Tariq from the Labour Party Pakistan was first published on the International Viewpoint website on 28 October 2009. The conditions he describes — daily suicide bombings by supporters and allies of the Taliban in Pakistan — have worsened. On 1 January a bomb killed 75 people at a volleyball game in North-West Frontier Province. You can read it in its original form on the LPP website here . What do to about religious fundamentalism? Once again Pakistan has become the focus of world attention. Every day there is news of the latest suicide attack or...

Pakistan: Islamist violence on the rise

On Wednesday 21 October four people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a university in Islamabad. This attack was the latest in a series on prominent, government, institutional and military “targets” in Pakistan, by jihadists associated with or in support of the Taliban in Pakistan. It was retaliation for the Pakistani military’s incursion, now a ground offensive, in South Waziristan. The Pakistani government, acting under pressure from the US, want to destroy, demobilise or otherwise disorganise the Taliban in this region, which forms part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of...

Defend Pakistani socialist Tariq Mehmood!

On 9th August 2009, Tariq Mehmood, a human rights activists and general secretary Labour Party Pakistan Toba Tek Singh district, issued a press release to the journalists in Toba Tek Singh. He alleged that eight Christian women were raped by Muslim fanatics in the 28 July attack on Korian, a village in Gojra Tehsil. He also alleged that 40 women are still missing. Condemning this horrific act, he demanded the government investigate the case/ On the accusation of “blasphemy” over 60 houses were burnt by Muslim fanatics. This act then led to an attack on Gojra, a Christian community, where nine...

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