Like the global labour movement, Pakistan’s workers’ movement has also witnessed waves of ebb and flow. From the earliest days of independence until today, it has faced persistent state opposition. Our country’s emerging industrialists and capitalists always treated it as an adversary, leaving no opportunity to suppress or crush it.
Yet, despite this hostility, it is also a fact that the labour class produced individuals who sacrificed their lives without ever compromising on principles or workers’ rights. Among these leading figures was Usman Ghani, who was martyred in broad daylight on 17 September 1995.
“He gave his life, for it was His to give,
Yet the truth is, the debt was never repaid.”
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Usman Ghani’s martyrdom. A son of Sindh and an immortal character in Pakistan’s labour struggle, he was born in Karachi’s historic Chanesar Goth. True to his roots, he never left his ancestral neighbourhood.
Usman Ghani began his professional career at a private bank. Politically, he was affiliated with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). At the bank, he became deeply involved in trade union activities, soon emerging as a champion of workers’ rights. He was elected president of the Collective Bargaining Agent union and later rose to become a central leader of the bank’s trade union federation.
He went on to serve as deputy secretary-general of the Pakistan Banks’ Employees Federation, one of the most influential nationwide labour organisations of the 1970s to 1990s. With remarkable speed and resilience, Usman Ghani established himself as a vanguard of Pakistan’s workers’ movement.
Usman Ghani’s life is defined by three significant dimensions: He was a prominent national labour leader, who devoted his entire life to the struggle for workers’ rights. He was a dedicated PPP loyalist, enjoying the closeness and trust of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Indeed, it was Usman Ghani who played a key role in convincing her to establish the Peoples Labour Bureau. He was a social worker, who lived among the poor of Chanesar Goth, serving them selflessly. To this day, the people of his community remember him with tears in their eyes.
This great labour leader’s journey was cut short when ruthless assassins ambushed him on the morning of 17 September 1995, as he left his home for work. He was shot dead near a bridge close to his residence.