Daily Times

The ongoing farce and furore of the movements for azaadi (freedom) and independence, firstly in the shape of Qadri and Imran, and now exclusively of the Kaptaan (captain) on the airwaves are continuing to bewilder the ordinary people despite their being subjected to arduous and bruising socioeconomic crises. This uninterrupted melodrama of cyclical talks, confrontations and resumption of talks again ends up causing greater despair for their already agitated minds and beleaguered souls. Some have come to the conclusion that avoidance of talk shows and news bulletins means little stress and boredom from the continuum of monotonous statements and haranguing of status quo politicos with no real content or avant-garde optimism. The corporate bosses of this so-called free media prioritise issues and political topics that hardly address or relate to the burning problems of the teeming millions. In conspiratorial silence it rubbishes the movements of the workers, peasants and youth struggling against oppression.

In the last few months there have been a number of significant struggles of the working masses. The state has unleashed brutal repression against these struggles, while it conveniently avoided its characteristic ruthlessness against the dharnas (sit-ins) and shutdowns led by elite politicians from privileged classes masquerading as the opposition. The news of the workers’ strife is squeezed out by the media. The fight of the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) workers against privatisation, the brave strike of the nurses, struggles of workers in various manufacturing and services sectors and, above all, the militant and courageous revolts of the peasants for better prices of sugarcane have received almost a total blackout from the media. The most recent example of this is the naked brutality of the state against the internally displaced persons (IDPs), the street vendors in Dera Ismail Khan and their temporary respite due to a bold, honest and revolutionary leadership.

On the morning of December 6, 2014, the district council administration of Dera Ismail Khan started an operation against hawkers and street vendors in Tank Adda by ransacking their kiosks and carts. Two ministers from Jamaat-e-Islami, with the full weight of the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, gave direct orders to district police and administration officials to start this ruthless operation early in the morning. Armed with guns, batons and demolition equipment, they attacked the poor on the pretext of clearing space for the market. The assault came without any warning. This was done to occupy state land, belonging to the district and tehsil councils worth billions of rupees. Ten acres of this land had been leased to people who had been displaced by the military operation in Waziristan. The administration had no legal grounds for this operation but it executed it to clear the land by forcibly removing the shopkeepers’ goods on to municipality vehicles. The unarmed and already crushed shopkeepers tried to show the District Coordination Officer (DCO) the lease papers and receipts of the rent they had paid for 2015 but he refused to see them and ordered the demolition of the shops. Left with no option, the shopkeepers locked themselves inside their premises and kiosks.

The police dragged them out and brutalised and assaulted them. Ali Wazir, a popular mass leader of the region, rushed to the scene and asked the DCO to stop the operation. Ali had also contested the 2013 elections from NA-42 Wana, South Waziristan, in which he was perfidiously defeated with a margin of just 300 votes. This rigged result is being challenged in the courts but the wealthy and powerful are impeding the case as usual. The argument between the leaders of the resistance and the administration officials turned into a scuffle. The gathering of poor shopkeepers, ordinary citizens and aggrieved displaced people started to swell. The administration’s invitation to talks was only a deceptive trap to arrest leading figures.

The people of this second most important city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reacted angrily. In their wrath they started pelting stones at the police, who were mercilessly beating them with batons. Ali Wazir and his comrades were taken to torture cells kept for terrorists. As soon as the news spread, the students of Gomal University and other educational institutions came out with protest rallies and blocked the main roads. Other workers and lawyers joined the burgeoning protests. This created enormous pressure on the authorities. Given the tense situation, the district administration moved the arrested leaders to the military cantonment.

However, the masses continued the resistance. Ultimately the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regime had to retreat. Despite it being a Sunday and these being non-bailable arrests, lawyers from Dera Ismail Khan managed get them released after threatening to barricade the courts and seal the city. The shopkeepers have now started rebuilding their dwellings, kiosks and makeshift structures. The land mafias have suffered a blow but their evil designs are still very much there.

This is Imran Khan’s ‘new’, corruption-free Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Sharifs are responsible for the brutalities being inflicted upon the ordinary people in Punjab and the Centre, and other religious and ‘secular’ political parties in power in the provinces have intensified the sufferings and miseries of the toiling classes with the passage of time. The PTI is behaving no differently in its rule. Its leadership is also riddled with billionaires, landlords, crony capitalists and ferocious exploiters of all types. However, these struggles going on beneath the superficial, media-buoyed ‘movements’ cannot be stymied or suppressed for long.

There are innumerable examples in history, both locally and internationally, when the ruling classes and their state used pre-emptive artificial movements through the corporate media and sections of the petit bourgeoisie. Yet, despite this, a movement from below was on the verge of eruption over class issues, cutting across superficial divisions and the media-bolstered judiciary movement, on the arrival of Benazir Bhutto on October 18, 2007. This erupted ferociously on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto but, devoid of the revolutionary policy of class struggle, strategy and leadership, it suffered a tragic fate at the hands of Zardari. The present facade of campaigns against different sections or representatives of the ruling class do not pose any real challenge to the system that is coercing society and tormenting ordinary people.

However, this one incident of an abrupt mass revolt in Dera Ismail Khan speaks volumes about the potential and ability of the working masses and the youth to rise against oppression and the rule of the rich and mighty. Revolutionary movements cannot be launched or become victorious through media coverage and pampering by the intelligentsia of the status quo. However, once these upheavals attain a certain quantitative strength, a qualitative vigour, and have a Marxist revolutionary leadership, no media empire or vicious state apparatus can dare ignore or crush them. This is the verdict of history.

The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com