Recent events in Pakistan have been reported in some detail by the bourgeois press in the West, but even now their interest seems to have been sparked off essentially by the attempted assassination of Pakistan's dictator, Ayub Khan. This sudden interest in Pakistani politics would tend to give the impression Pakistan since the coup d'etat October 1958. They have had the effrontery to call it the " October Revolution After ten years of dictatorship, opposition to wing Jamaat-i-Islam (Pakistan's version of the Muslim Brotherhood) and a large section of those who call themselves Maoists, but of this last category more later.
The main purpose of the military takeover of Pakistan in 1958 by General Ayub was to circumvent the country's first General Election which was scheduled for April 1959 and at which it was obvious that the political parties in favour of withdrawing from SEATO and CENTO would be elected to power. Ayub's own brother, Sardar Bahadur, talked at one stage of his 'unshakeable conviction ' that the CIA were involved in the coup. It seemed that even bourgeois democracy was not meant for Paki stanis. President Ayub told the nation, ' We must understand that democracy cannot work in a hot climate. To have democracy we must have a cold climate like Britain.
With this as its motto the new regime banned all political parties, imposed a vigorous censorship on une press and warned that any participation in polities by the masses would be dealt with severelv. It would take an entire volume to give a detailed survey of the early inqultes ot the Ayub regime. Certain facts. however, bear repetition. A well-known communist militant from Karachi. Hassan Nasır. was arrested and taken to Lahore where he was held in the infamous Lahore Fort - a torture palace dating back to the 15th century. After weeks of torture Hasan was murdered and his body disappeared. From the village of hOOB. near bueLa (in Baluchistan). 400 Baluchis were taken to a concentration camp n nIs camo nau nakee bersons were une ov their feet and subjected to vile tortures. Seven Baluens were naneeo ua avceroao onson Their only crime was the demand for provinc121 aTono. w tue mese repors are suu denied by the Ayub regime there is no reason to color tre autrenuety ano use ume is nol far off when they will be stated in public by une oppositionists.
In unis atmospnere or repression te opposo via une student community wno Dy virtue of their place in society were the only organised force in Pakistan. Organised not ir any political sense but organised beause they coula assemole in large numoers at tnel schools and universities. The first demonStratons n rakistan were not civi rignts demonstrations. They were organised to protest against the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961. The demonstrators chanted anti-US, anti-UN slogans. A few shouted slogans against the Ayub regime. The important point, however, was unal students naa aenea a martial law regulaton wmen torbade alr pontcal demons radons Ene main force ol tne opposition was In asu Pakistan (separated from the West by 1,000 miles of Indian territory) where the student community played a vital role in energising the masses who have a tradition of militancy dating back struggles against British imperialism. In 1963 after Ayub had promulgated a new Constitution with sufficient checks ana balances to sareguara nis positon semipermanently. there were protest demonstrations in East Pakistan. A Cabinet Minister defending government policies was man handled at Dacca University for insulting the of mutant students. Hundreds of studenis were arrested, ine insidious University Ordinances were brought into force crime ior students to 'interfere" in polities and banned free elections in Universities. In West Pakistan the government also made it a crime (maximum penalty two years rigorous imprisonment) for male and female students to talk to each other on university campuses. Theatrical performances with mixed casts were banned! Political and sexual repression reigned supreme. Pakistan'. Hence she had to be treated with some ' respect' by the dictatorship. Miss Jinnah elections on the basis of adult franchise she would have won. However the indirect method whereby 80,000 basie democrats elect the Miss Jinnah.
The present struggle should, therefore, be viewed both as a continuation of the struggle against the regime and as an advance. It has that the decision of some of the leading members of the Ayub faction to oppose the Boss has had a traumatic effect on the masses It is as if Khruschev and other members of the Stalinist faction had come Stabisitio to sitali just acter orld War Ife Sino-Pakistan Relations It became clear in 1964 even to the most reactionarv element in the Avub coterie that the United States was more interested in India unan in Pakislan. Inis was true both militaril. and geographically. Politically, of course, India was the tree words moder agamst baidd (How ludierous that seems now.) It was also clear that the aim of the United States was to unite India and Pakistan militarily as a 'base against Red China ". And certainly Ayub played his part to perfection. He appealed to Nehru for joint defence"! ' Joint defence against whom?' retorted the Indian Prime Minister. The United States had at that stage nol convinced the Indian government of the need for a confrontation with China. Apart from that fact the social-democrat in Nehru viewed the reactionary, Sandhurst-trained Ayub with ill-concealed distaste. After the Sino-Indian confrontation Ayub was still prepared in the early stages to 'talk business' but was rebuffed. The Pakistan government then decided nestiv ate menti Teis relations with the Chinese government was originally ntended to 'blackmail' the United States. Th latter, however, knew full well that if it ever came to the crunch Avub would back those who fed him. 'Friendship' with China was anlowed to OrOgeSs Chou-en-Lai visited Pakistan; Ayub visited China. Marshal Chen Yi on one of his visits to Lahore declared • Basic Democracy is very similar to our People's Communes. This embarrassed even the Pakistani Maoists. Basic democracy is the name avue mas sven to mae system now prevailing in Pakistan! One of the architects or rnenasmp wiln China was the takistan Foreign Minister, Zulfiqur Bhutto. His antiimperianst rnetoric was useru to tne ayub regime while they were playing the anti-imperialist card. During the Indo-Pakistan war sition remained silent. When it emerged it did the Chinese were the only major power to give total support to une rakisan posion on Kashmir. It seems clear, as Bhutto has consistently maintained, that it was the threat of Chinese military intervention which prevented the Indian government from taking over East Pakistan. (And incidentally also frightened the Soviet Union and the US into ending the war.)
However what is also clear is that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union were prepared for any alteration in the status quo in the Indo-Pak sub-continent. For them the rights of the people of Kashmir or of India and Pakistan were completely irrelevant.
Chinese popularity in Pakistan increased after the war. Newsreels showing ether Mao or Chou-en-Lal were greeted with massive applause in cinemas throughout the countrv. But the attitude of the government towards China began to cool considerablv. Bhutto was forced to resign as the American government refused to resume aid while he was in the cabinet.
Bhutto's resignation resulted the latter becoming a leading spearhead of the opposition against the dietatorship. Forgotten were the SEVErYEdS he had taithfulv served the dictatorship. He himself remarked, in reply to Ayuw s aneratons mar mus pegest crune was accepting office under the dictatorship. The removal of Bhutto from the cabinet coincided with the removal of various like-minded officers trom tue armed services. some oi wnom nad visited Peking!
1966 Railway Strike The economie situation deterorated rapidiy after the war. The price of flour and sugar rose bnenomenay. A Suret rabonin imposed and workers and peasants had to wait for hours in queues betore they coula be served. As a result some of them had to forego working days in order to collect their rations. forced to seek redress through the governmental conciliation machinery and industrial CourIs.ne rawav wolkers mo was/sd stooge UnIOR completely - nationa interests aege v Unoaa uuon was controlled by the Maoist wing of the National Awami Party. The latter were opposed to any strike action because of the 'anti-imperialist nature of the Ayub regime Any national strike would harm the regime and only serve imperialism! (Incidentally this line was laid down bv none other than Chou-en-Lai himself when he went to see Maulana Bashani, leader of the Maoist wing of NAP who was being treated at a hospital in Peking in 1964!) The result was that completely spontaneously, inde pendent workers' committees were set up and the call for a strike went out by word of mouth and a few scruffy, badly-distributed leaflets. The strike action was a complete success. Train services throughout W. Pakistan came to a complete halt. Veteran observers claimed that it was the first SUCCESSFUL rail strike in the history of the Indo-Pak sub-continent. For two whole days not a single carriage moved on the tracks throughout West Pakistan. The 'Maoist' leader Mirza Ibrahim was summoned by the government and asked to call the strike off. He agreeu on condinon wat mis umon was recog nised as the official union. The government said that if he succeeded in calling the strike off, this particular demand would be granted. Mirza Ibrahim called a mass meeting of railway workers in Lahore and asked them to go JACKEO WOLH The strike he claimed was financed' by the CIA. When this was simply laughed off he became more theoretical: "The strike', he now argued, • was preventing grain trom reacning the peasants. Angry railway workers spat on him and told him in no uncertain terms to go home. But, alas, this wa not to be. Ine Ayub regime suspected th: Mirza Ibrahim and colleagues hadn't tried hard enough to end the strike and imprisoned them! There was no mention either of the strike or ot the imprisonment of the Maoists (despite themselves) by either Peking Review or China Reconstructs. An oversight, one presumes Meanwhile the government used every form of intimidation to end the strike and finally it succeeded. There were mass dismissals and arrests without trial. In Hyderabad when striking workers lay on the tracks to prevent blacklegs from driving trains the result was trains being driven over their bodies. Some workers died. Others were seriouslv wounded. The amazing thing about the strike was the level of organisation and spirit of solidarity displayed by the workers. The leadership of the strike was localsed and restricted in the main to young workers. The coffee-house intellectuals hadn't even heard their names before and certainly have not since. The unions, both official and unomcal and their structures were completely bypassed!
The present crisis The present crisis was sparked off by a government decision to ban all opposition public meetings and in particular those being addressed by Mr Bhutto. The student community refused to accept this particular directive and the meetings went ahead as scheduled. When the police intervened riots took place and in some instances the students emerged as victors. however if the GouDle beer sparked off by students the regime would have been able to dea with it. The students acted as a detonator and many workers came out on to the streets. This in its turn gave the *leaderships' of the various political parties a long-awaited opportunity to emerge in public at the head of demonstrations. The assassination attempt on Ayub is merely a symptom of the prevailing politico-economie unrest in the country. The arrest ot zuingar Bauto Is another. Mr Bhutto is a petit-bourgeois nationalist politician with no political base in the country except the students. Seasoned political observers here argue that he is simply not interested in building a serious political base. Certainly the manifesto ot nis Pakistan People's Party is extremely confused. While talking about nationalising the key sectors of industry it can still talk in terms of:
* The private sector will play its own useful role in the kind of mixed economy envisaged, but will not be able to create monopolistic preserves. It must florish under conditions proper to private enterprise, namely those of competition..
Of the other opposition parties there is the National Awami Party which is split into proPeking and pro-Russian sections. We have explained the orientation of the first section. The second consists of liberals and former Stalinists, the same tradition as members of any Latin American CP. Their vision seems to be restricted to Parliament! The Muslim League is the party of the more 'progressive" landlords and sections of the rising bourgeoisie to opt out of political opposition to the A regime. At a recent demonstration in Lai over 24 miles long, the Maoists stayed aw What they fail to realise is that in a right-w dictatorship even the demand for " bourg democracy There must be a limited freedom to edu hlas revolutionary UnGeO and influence the masses before a revolutio party can make any headway.
Conclusions No one can deny that the Ayub regime is state of severe crisis. The students are state of virtual rebellion. For the frst ti young schoolboys have demonstrated universitv students and have displaved er lary heroism in the face of police bruta teachers are unreaeneo witlmmeasa missal if they take part in polities. A Sont ov etne Ministry or baucalon principals of colleges and schools read thu in regara to baucational insula receiving financial assistance from the por ment, a condition of grant should be that institution concerned will frame rules regulations on their (sic) own initiati ensure that the employees wether serv whole-time or part-time basis will not temseives as candidales in any elecuon In a country with a population of 100,000 where there is a literacy of below 20% ab 3% are women and owing to the exi circumstances they count for little. Of remaining 17% about 7% are disqualified fi polities because they are government emt ees and that includes teachers and journa (in government service). The teachers o prise the largest single body of *litera people in the country. They are banned fr politics. It seems almost as though s Marxist had infiltrated the Ayub regime Was deliberately giving wrong advice increase the poltica consciousness of The position of the workers peasants is even worse. Despite the prais the Financial Times for Pakistan's econ miracle the actual wages of the worker gone down. The increases in per capita in recorded by the regime's apologists is a of the massive increase of income recorde the 1% (if not less) of the 20% literate run the country. Pakistan is ruled by al 20 tamilies amongst whom the leadine fa is Field-Marshal Ayub's. His sons Gohar A and Tahir Ayub even talk in terms of SUCCESSTU It is possible that with the mergence of Marshal Asghar Khan, an honest versior Ayub, as an Oppositionist the Armed For will not interfere if Ayub is overthro Whether that is true or not the Opposi parties should unite and fight for civil libert That is the most pressing need of the h Socialists should demand the release of political prisoners, freedom of speech press and ONE MAN, ONE VOTE. And Maoists must join his opposition; they stop acting as the frontier guards of state policy and come out in a prin opposition to the dictatorship. Why. should ask themselves have the Chinese p ignored the struggle for political libertie Pakistan. Why does Mao receive a mil delegation Pakistan headed by as students are shot down in cold blood. 1 should demand of the Chinese comrades a l more display of internationalism in pri and a little less slogan-mongering. At the of writing I have just heard that a sectie the left-wing NAP in East Pakistan has par pated in a demonstration against the dict sulp. The demonstration took place in D. on 7 December and troops were called ou aid the police. According to a governa press release two demonstrators have Killed and 20 wounded but the actual fig are bound to be considerably higher. occasion for this particular demonstration Ayub's visit to East Pakistan. His regin consistently treated East Pakistan as a o and it is hardly surprising that the and students of Dacca treat him as they the representative of any occupying This display of solidarity by East Pakis with the struggle in West Pakistan is of mense significance. The realisation that parts of the country face the same pro could go a long way towards creating a s opposition!
Today the acid-test is the struggle liberties. Those who call themselves and Leninists must participate in thi Jf thev choose to ignore this stri themselves will be ignored in tim Meanwhile all Pakistanis living abre set up action committees material and moral support to the inside the country. They can tribute pamphlets explain