AWP calls for focus on genuine problems of masses

The common goal of all the parliamentary political parties today is to perpetuate the present feudal and exploitative capitalist system.

This was stated by Akhtar Hussain, general secretary of the Awami Workers’ Party (AWP), while addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Friday afternoon.

He said the major political parties were accusing each other of wrongdoing in the matter of the Panama Leaks and Bahama Leaks through money laundering and setting up of offshore companies and corrupt practices, as well as through plundering the nation’s wealth. 

He also accused the media of having created hype on the issue. The leadership, he said, had absolutely no concern for the most basic rights of the masses like education, healthcare, shelter, jobs, rights, which he described as the crux of the basic right to life. 

Hussain said that corruption, tax fraud, money laundering, setting up of offshore companies and stowing away assets abroad were all part of the capitalist system and these political parties were all to blame.

Sixty-five percent of the country’s population lived in the rural areas where they were the victims of the stranglehold. They, he said, were deprived of the most fundamental rights like education, healthcare, and jobs, but rulers were not prepared even to introduce basic land reforms.

“It is five years (2011) since the workers’ party appealed against a ruling by the Federal Shariat (Appelate Bench) of the Supreme Court declaring land reforms illegal, but nothing has been heard of the petition.

“We again appeal to the chief justice of Pakistan to fix a date of hearing of the petition and decide the matter pertaining to the fundamental rights of the downtrodden masses.”

The AWP leader said people in the urban areas too were deprived of their fundamental rights and the megapolis of Karachi, population of which had crossed the 15 million mark, had become the centre of all problems. Most children were being deprived of education, public educational institutions were diminishing and private educational institutions were in a blind race for profits without imparting quality education, he said. 

Hussain opined that the health sector had further deteriorated, and these institutions were now a business for accumulating unlimited profits. The transport system and the urban communications systems were rapidly collapsing, he added.

He said that there was talk of reviving the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) which would greatly mitigate the commuting woes of the citizens, but the land mafia, in concert with the ruling elite, had manipulated the encroachment of the Railways land. He said that while his party supported the revival of the KCR, it insisted that those removed from these lands be provided with alternative settlement. He said the AWP always opposed religious extremism and sectarianism. He said Pakistan had suffered seriously with its social fabric being blown to smithereens on account of extremism and sectarianism. “State exploitation of religion has cost us dearly and we should all work to rescue Pakistan from this crippling aberration.”

Fanoos Gujjar, president of the AWP, said the Panama Leaks and the setting up of 800 offshore companies were all part of the “corrupt” capitalist system, adding that the confusion being seen in the US today was a result of capitalism.

The accountability bureau in Islamabad, Gujjar said, was purely political.

Talking in the light of the impending national census, the senior vice-president of the AWP, Yusuf Masti Khan, said: “We have a whole lot of the Baloch living in Sindh and a few in other provinces. There are 800,000 Afghans living in the province. The census authorities must take this into consideration and make appropriate arrangements for a genuine census.”

In reply to a question about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, he said, “We are just not against development projects. All we demand is that the interests of the local people be safeguarded first and foremost. We demand that the Gwadar port be held by the local elected government, by the local people.”

In reply to another question, Akhtar Hussain said that the party wanted the Supreme Court to frame a law on the implementation of the Election Commission’s code of conduct for the elections in order to curtail expenses and provide a level playing field to all contesting parties and all segments of people, rich and poor.