Awami Workers Party presents 10-point agenda

We have jumped into the election fray because it is only through the institution of elections that we could communicate our plans and ideals for the welfare and the prosperity of the masses.

These views were expressed by Advocate Akhtar Hussain, general secretary of the Awami Workers Party (AWP), while addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Monday afternoon.

He said that thus far a concept had existed in our society that national elections were just a pastime of the feudal, stinking rich landlords, exploiter capitalists, and the strong and influential.

“If we were to accept this viewpoint, then the rich and the powerful would manipulate the machinery of state in accordance with their wishes and interests as they are least bothered about the travails and issues of the less fortunate segment of society,” he said.

Hussain was of the view that all the feudals, the rich and powerful did was to indulge in mudslinging and accuse each other of corruption, thus vitiating the atmosphere. The AWP, he said, was different in that it was the voice of the workers, peasants and other progressive forces.

The party, he said, stood for an end to all forms of exploitation and rule by the toiling workers. He said the main priorities of the AWP were education, employment, healthcare and housing. “Through these elections, we want to make it clear that with the active cooperation of the masses, we can change the complexion of society and governance for the better,” he said.

The AWP has put up eight candidates for the National Assembly and 12 for the provincial assembles, two from the Punjab and two from Sindh, and the rest from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

When a questioner asked as to how they could talk of coming to power when they were fielding only 20 candidates for the NA, Hussain said that it indeed was a dilemma but said that their party was not a party of millionaires. They were lower middle class or working class people who didn’t have the kind of easy money to spend on elections. He added.

Hussain regretted that despite the Supreme Court’s directive to introduce legislation to cut back on election expenses, the main parties in the legislature had made it all the more necessary to have pots and pots of money to contest elections.

He announced the 10-point agenda of his party as such: i) elimination of the remnants of the feudal and tribal set-up of society; ii) total gender equality; iii) total elimination of discrimination on the basis of religion; iv) neutral and anti-imperialist foreign policy; v) countering environmental degradation; vi) trickling of political power to the lowest echelons of society; vii) free education and healthcare for all; viii) safeguarding of the political rights of all; ix) ushering in of genuine federalism and assertion of national identity; x) and assuring facilities of employment and shelter.

As regards fourth point, a neutral and anti-imperialist foreign policy, a questioner asked how that could be achieved given the “crippling domination” the US had established, Hussain replied that no foreign power could set up a “stranglehold” if the people were united and galvanised into a united and contented nation.

Another questioner talked about the rumours in some quarters about the postponement of elections to which Yusuf Masti Khan, senior vice-president of the party, replied that it wouldn’t be possible as there would be lots of international pressure. Foreign observers, he said, had already started arriving.