People's Democracy

PAKISTAN

Left Concerned Over Worsening Situation

IN the background of the brutal murder of Punjab governor, Salman Taseer, at the hands of a fundamentalist fanatic, four Left parties of Pakistan, namely the Communist Party of Pakistan, National Workers Party, Labour Party and Awami Party, held a meeting at Karachi on January 14 and discussed the grave situation prevailing in the country and the ruthless assassination of Salman Taseer by his own security guard. The statement these parties issued after the meeting condemned Taseer’s assassination, expressed resentment over and protest against this cowardly act, and underlined that the ruling classes and the fundamentalist political forces are uniting to divert the attention and rage of the people from the real issues and befool the public at large in the name of religiosity.

The meeting noted that at a time when poverty, hunger, unemployment and lawlessness are rampant across the country on an unprecedented scale, these forces, with their heinous motives and vested interests, have resorted to playing upon the religious sensitivities and passions of the poor people.

According to the Left parties, the audacious assassination of Governor Taseer is not at all a criminal act of an individual but a result of the conditions created by the combined work of the extremist and obscurantist forces and the state’s security agencies over decades. The parties said the killing of Salman Taseer was a signal that a process is on to silence all the democratic and secular, progressive, peace loving forces and the votaries of free speech and liberties in the country, through recourse to gun-power. It is obvious that this heinous incident was perpetrated with total patronage from and connivance of the powerful and notorious security agencies of the country.

The meeting said that against the escalation of religious (Islamic) fanaticism and the intensifying economic crisis in the country, organisations of all sections of the people --- the youth, women, workers, peasants, progressive intellectuals and others --- would be contacted to discuss the gravity of the situation and a joint strategy would soon be adopted to expose the evil designs of the forces that are shedding the blood of innocent youth and promoting extremism in the name of religion.

Imdad Qazi, member of the CPP Central Secretariat and its spokesperson, presided over the meeting.