Pakistan against Inequalities on the Eve of the World Economic Forum

A Report by Murddabir Ali (Coordinator – Fight Inequality Alliance Pakistan) 

 Ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos (2024) a people’s movement ‘Fight Inequality Alliance Pakistan’ responded to  the call of the Global Secretariat and put up an incredible resistance against the top 1% rich class by protesting in sixteen cities across Pakistan. A Report on this resistance follows:

 Lahore: 

A large number of women from Chungi Amar Sidhu, a low income neighbourhood in the vicinity of Lahore showed up under the leadership of comrade Riffat Maqsood. The protest was joined by people of all ages, groups, young, old and children. Slogans were raised against the top1% of corporate profiteers. 

A street theatre group of team Umer Zamran performed. Their performances showed how the SYSTEM is inherently disadvantageous for the majority living under the poverty line and if the current structure of exploitation are not stopped it would create problems for our planet as a whole. 

 Jhang: 

 Factory workers and farmers gathered outside the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee office on Chiniot Road. Khalq Youth Front member Ali Syed and Fahad had travelled from Islamabad to participate in the protest. =

 The protest was covered by the local print and social media. Akbar Jutt who is the lead organizer of PKRX and a Council member of FIA Pakistan led the protests in this region.

 Faisalabad: 

 Faisalabad witnessed one of the biggest demonstrations of this season.  The majority of the protesters were labourers. Under the leadership of Baba Latif Ansari (Council Member FIA) the factory workers demanded implementation of minimum wage and issuance of social security cards. They held placards that showed a redline warning to the Billionaires. 

The protesters blocked the main Jhang road of Faisalabad for an hour. Rajanpur: The protest in Rajanpur took place in Jampor village. Farmers protested against the unfair prices fixed by the government on cash crops like sugarcane. They demanded that farmers should be taken on board while finalizing the minimum support price the government announces to facilitate the farmers. 

 Kasur: 

Kasur is a city adjacent to Lahore. Here, mainly activist groups came out to protest against the exploitation by the super rich. Gujranwala: The protest took place in Aimenabad area where mostly factory workers live. 

The protest demanded  rights due to the workers including old age benefits, implementation of minimum wages and issuance of social security cards. 

 Sahiwal: 

The main issue raised by the farmers of Sahiwal was land grabbing by big corporates in the name of corporate farming. Arifwala: Today’s biggest protest was held in Arifwala Pakpattan.  

Comrade Farooq Tariq joined the protest and reinforced the demands of local farmers about their land and dignified livelihoods. In his speech comrade Farooq raised the issue of corporate farming and building of six new canals on the River Indus to irrigate the Cholistan desert where the land is distributed amongst  1% of the super rich class of the country. 

 Larkana: 

Senior comrade Mujeeb Peerzado (Council Member) led the protest in Mohenjodaro. Mohenjodaro is the symbol of the Indus Valley civilization and one of the oldest cities in the Subcontinent. The people demanded basic necessities for  the poor people fulfilled as a priority and that is possible by taxing the super rich elite class. 

 Mardan: 

The Mardan protest was organized by Kissan Kerkela Organization headed by Gulzar Khan (Council Member). This is one of the prominent farmer organizations in KP province of Pakistan. 

The farmers in the protest demanded that they should be given fair prices for their produce and less taxes should be imposed. 

Qila  Abdullah: 

 Qila Abdullah is one of the remote areas in Balochistan Province. Despite the very harsh weather people came out and protested against the policies of the elite who have made the situation for the vast middle-class unbearable.  

Islamabad: 

Conveyor of the Fight Inequality Alliance Pakistan, Nisar Shah led the protest in the capital Territory Islamabad. The protest was held outside the National Press Club.

 Human rights activists and progressive political workers joined the protest and demanded imposition of strict taxes on the elite who earn their profit by exploiting the labour of the working class. 

 Toba Tek Singh: 

Toba Tek Singh is the historical city of Punjab where Comrade Shabbir organised the Bhatta Mazdoor (Kiln Workers) Union workers to protest against the capture of resources by the Global elite and the economic policies that they decide in international forums like World Economic Forum. 

Shikarpur: 

Shikarpur had the third largest protest today. Alongside RedLine To the Billionaires the protest locally carried the name Darya Bachao (Save the River). The protest was led by Comrade Ali Khoso (Council Member FIA Sindh). 

A large number of farmers and workers joined the protest and reverberated the highly important issue of water shortage to the lower riparian Sindh area. Farmers called upon the government to take adequate action to save Sindh land from becoming barren. 

In Punjab the core issue highlighted in the protest was condemning corporate farming, including the Kissan Card scheme and retaining the landownership rights of small landholders. 

In Sindh the unequal distribution of water was the predominant issues, the protesters demanded that making six new canals on the Indus river should be halted immediately. 

Due to harsh weather protests in Balochistan could not take place properly. We wrote a brief pamphlet about Global Action and sent it to the respective cities but it could not reach some cities because of the long distance. Next time we will send the relevant material at least three days before the activity.

Murddabir Ali
Coordinator
Fight Inequality Alliance Pakistan

Pakistan is facing one of worst economic and political crises at present. The political crisis is best manifested by the fact that almost half of the National Assembly (Lower House of the parliament) members have resigned while two of the four provincial parliaments were dissolved a year before the elections otherwise due in October this year-2023.

 The two provincial parliaments, in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, were dissolved by the former prime minister Imran Khan. His party, Pakistan Justice Party (PTI) held a majority in these two houses. He had hoped that the dissolution of the two provincial parliaments would force the federal government to announce an early general election. 

The caretaker governments in these two provinces have refused to call the elections, otherwise due within 90 days of assemblies’ dissolution. This delay is in violation of the Constitution of Pakistan. The pretext for the delay in elections is the lack of funds. But popular perception is that the delay is a manipulation by the army. The army fears a PTI victory in the elections. Ironically, in 2018, the army was accused of rigging elections to secure a victory for Imran Khan. 

There is great political manoeuvring going on at the judicial level.  The chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court are Imran Khan supporters. This has been manifested by the verdicts issued by the judges in several political cases, that are not seen to be just. 

Every time, the PTI moves the courts, everyone knows the verdict in advance. For instance, a Supreme Court bench consisting of three judges, known for supporting Imran Khan, ordered on April 4 that elections be held in the Punjab Province on May 14 this year. However, this 3 member bench initially included nine judges. Those judges are not supportive of Imran Khan were removed by manoeuvring by the court officials. The Supreme Court judges often issue contradictory statements. This reveals that the judiciary is as divided as any other institution in the country.

The Federal Government and the Punjab caretaker government have rejected the Supreme Court decisions regarding elections on May 14.  This public conflict between the Supreme Court and the federal government aggravates the political crisis. 

Most state institutions are stuffed with pro-PTI as well as pro-Muslim League elements. The Muslim League, controlled by the Sharif dynasty, is presently ruling in coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party (the party of the Bhutto dynasty). 

The Supreme Court has the power to remove the present government on the charge of contempt of court. However the question is: who would take over a collapsing Pakistan? 

The spectre of a military takeover is often under discussion. Pakistan’s turbulent political history is marked by 32 years of direct military rule ever since independence in 1947. When not in power, the military controls from behind the scene. At present the military establishment is posing to be “neutral”. However, they too have little credibility.

In fact, as stated above, the 2018 general elections that brought Imran Khan to power were rigged by the military establishment in his favour. When the military establishment withdrew support from Imran Khan in early-2022, his government collapsed. 

Imran Khan tried to find scapegoats for his downfall by blaming, firstly, the USA, then the military establishment and many others in his ever-changing narratives. He is ridiculed as a man of ‘U turns’. He is known to repeatedly contradict himself in different public speeches- a sign of his inconsistency and desperation to cater to the public he addresses. 

The Imran Khan government was replaced by a coalition government of Shahbaz Sharif, heading the Muslim League (after his elder brother and three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif was banned from politics in 2018). When Mr Sharif tried to implement the conditionalities of the IMF, Imran Khan regained popularity, by gaining mass support. 

The IMF has become very unpopular in Pakistan amongst the masses. Whenever there was an unprecedented price hike announced by the government, the IMF was cited as the reason. The only pretext to justify the IMF conditionalities by the PML-led coalition government is: ‘if we do not meet the IMF conditions, Pakistan will go bankrupt’. Masses have already gone bankrupt, and so has the state in real terms but a formal announcement on this bankruptcy has been delayed. 

Coupled with the severe political crises, a new upsurge of religious fundamentalism is visible. For example, terrorist attacks by the Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have increased manifold. The TTP is an off-shoot of the Afghan Taliban. They are targeting and attacking the police and military forces. They have safe havens in Afghanistan under a very helpful Taliban government. 

Imran Khan in his last days of power, released hundreds of arrested Pakistani Taliban, apparently in his bid to hold peace dialogues. In fact, known as Taliban Khan, he and some of his military backers sympathize with the Taliban. Now the security forces are paying the price of this strategy.  

The economic crises are far more severe than the political crisis. The coalition government is implementing the anti-people conditionalities of the IMF by raising the prices of oil, gas, electricity, general sales tax and every other consumer item. 

The Pakistani Rupee is losing its value almost daily against the US dollar and other foreign currencies. On 7th April, one dollar fetches over 290 Rupees, up from 150, a year ago. There are hundreds of containers full of imported goods lying at the Karachi port waiting to be cleared. The government has refused to clear the dues to be paid in dollars for these imported items. 

There has been a series of indirect taxation measures on almost all edible goods and daily consumer items during the last six months. There have been several min-budgets imposed on the people, sometimes announced without any prior notice. 

Peoples are unable to cope and are evidently collapsing,  as is Pakistan under the huge economic burden without raising wages or compensations, leaving alone adequate social security.

Pakistan is trying its best to fulfil the conditionalities imposed by the IMF to fetch the last instalment of 2 billion dollars of a 6 billion dollar loan negotiated by the previous Imran Khan government in 2019. This is the 23rd time Pakistan has taken a loan from IMF. 

Pakistan’s external debt servicing rose by 70 per cent in the first two quarters of 2022-23. Pakistan paid USD 10.21 billion in external debt servicing during this period. This at a time when Pakistan witnessed the worst climate disaster in the year 2022. Instead of suspending the debts because of the climate calamity (where Pakistan witnessed the worst flooding in decades), the IMF increased pressure to pay back even more than the last year.  

The foreign reserves are at a historic low. Pakistan’s central bank foreign exchange reserves have dropped to $4.2 billion due to recent external debt repayment.  To please the IMF and meet the conditionalities, Pakistan has increased the interest rate to a record 21 percent. Wholesale inflation is at an unprecedented level: 37.5 percent, the highest since 1973. The result is a real disaster for the working-class and middle-class Pakistanis. 

The inequalities are at a historic high in Pakistan. Deregulation, privatization, liberalization, and lower progressive taxation contributed to this extreme inequality. According to one survey, the average income of the richest is more than 16 times the average for the poorest.  According to a report by OXFAM, the country’s top 1 percent holds more wealth than the bottom 70 percent of the population. 

Pakistan’s economy is expected to grow only 0.4 percent in the current fiscal year ending June 2023. By all measures, Pakistan performs poorly compared to all other South Asian countries. 

There is no hope amongst the people, that things will improve. The ruling elite of Pakistan has miserably failed in solving the basic problems of the masses like free education, health and employment. An alternative pro-people political and economic agenda is the need of the hour. The progressive forces are weak but trying to fill the gap in some working-class areas.

Farooq Tariq
President Haqooq Khalq Party
General secretary
Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee
farooqtariq3@gmail.com 

@Farooqtariq3 (Twitter)

Francine Mestrum shows how income security is  necessary for social protection and she  presents ways on how income security can be guaranteed for all people.

Download the report

Watch the Webinar:

The objective was to present our working papers and the research at grassroot level concerning different options for giving people income security. From there, we engaged in a dialogue to see what lessons can be learned from the theoretical and practical examples.

Francine Mestrum showed how income security is  necessary for social protection and she  presents ways on how income security can be guaranteed for all people.
Download the report

Speakers: 

• Isabel Ortiz: Director Global Social Justice Programme (Spain)
• Nikhil Dey: Social activist on employment guarantee (India)
• Maris dela Cruz: Network for Transformative Social Protection (Philippines)
• Francine Mestrum: Social justice activist and researcher (Belgium)
• Kate Lappin: Public Services International, Regional Secretary Asia & Pacific (Australia)

Moderators: Meena Menon (India) & Koen Detavernier (Belgium)

Resources:
Presentation: Global Austerity Alert –  Looming Budget Cuts in 2021-25 and Alternatives

Organisers:AEPF Cluster on Social Justice