Pakistan: The rot digs deeper

The brutal firing and gruesome killings at a rally in Karachi is yet another episode that epitomises the downward spiral into which the society and the state is unravelling disastrously. Under the deafening din of democracy, reconciliation, rule of law and independent judiciary, the economic meltdown is taking its toll on the beleaguered masses of this unfortunate land in the form of escalating violence, crime and bloodshed.

This is an insult upon injury for the people, who are suffering the torment of ferocious price hike, torturesome load shedding, crippling poverty, agonising unemployment, pathetic healthcare, unaffordable education and unprecedented deprivation. The viciousness of the assault at the Karachi rally on May 22nd killing women and children, exhibited a harrowing mindset and rampant lumpunisation. While the society is beset with such misery and tragedy the repression of the state and its agencies upon bereaved masses has become even more intrusive and tyrannical.

The abductions, torture, killings and mutilations of political activists have intensified. This also signifies the internecine conflicts of various stake holders within the beleaguered state apparatus of class oppression. The arrogance of these agencies in the hearings of the missing persons in Baluchistan depicts their rogue nature and the breakdown of the military’s British built chain of command. This has resulted in the shattering of the confidence of the military top brass and their indecisiveness has never been so blatant. As the atrocities in Baluchistan and Sindh go on unabated there is a pathetic indifference amongst the political and the army elite. The judiciary’s incapacity is reflected in its impotent rage. But if the state institutions have eroded by the intrusion of black capital the elite of this monetary politics that dominates society are also drenched in this informal economy that constitutes two thirds of Pakistan’s total economy. This black capital that originates from extortion, ransom, robberies, corruption, drugs trade and other criminal activities infiltrates those very mafia bosses into the political superstructure. Hence the ideological positions of the evil nexus of the generals, bureaucrats, landlords and bourgeoisie politicians are restricted within the confines of the interests of this rogue capital. It is bound to direct and determine their policies. This black economy has grown as a tumour in this capitalist economy and has metastasised far too deep for this system to recover. Pakistani capitalism is in a condition of terminal decay but it would not abdicate on its own. Unless it is over thrown by a revolutionary insurrection its semi dead corpse will be a cumbersome burden on society choking the lives of the teeming millions.

Elections and democracy on a capitalist basis can in no way guarantee the ending of repression or relinquish the rise of neo fascist tendencies. Let us not forget, Hitler was an elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933. After the defeats of three revolutions in Germany during the preceding decade, the failure to build a united front between the German Communist Party (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the excruciating economic crisis led to the rise of fascism. There is hardly any difference in the economic programmes of all the mainstream parties in Pakistan today. Hence violence inevitably becomes an intrinsic part of their political methodology. The intensifying economic crisis aggravates the mutual conflicts of these drug barons and gangsters masquerading as political leaders. They use ethnicity, national chauvinism, religious bigotry, racism and other prejudices of the past to fight out these wars of attrition. The neo fascist overtones in the Karachi mayhem were palpable.

With the further economic devastation this crass bloodletting and socio economic distress will escalate. Along with other tasks of the national democratic revolution the Pakistani bourgeoisie has despicably failed to solve the national question. In a social and economic stagnation this has become more acute and gangrenous. In Baluchistan and Sind where national oppression has been chronic the crisis of the state and the economy has made it even more callous. The US, China, India, Saudi Arabia and Iran amongst others use these nationalist conflicts in their proxy wars being fought for their lust of mineral resources, wealth and strategic interests in these tragic lands. Imperialism has used the national deprivation to further their hegemony throughout history. A new great game is now ravaging Afghanistan and Pakistan. The demand for a Mohajir province itself exposed the failure of Pakistan to become a modern unified nation state. It is the agony of the festering wound inflicted by partition that cleaved the subcontinent through religious frenzy with millions drowned in blood. It is clear that the national question cannot be resolved in this crisis riddled capitalism. The ruling elite instead of resolving it is using it as a ploy to distract the impending class struggle. Such tinkering exacerbates hatreds and more bloodshed and conflagration erupts. New provinces in a sinking economy would not solve any of the burning problems the toiling classes of the oppressed nationalities. If military rule is a curse for the people, this democratic facade has brought vexing misery and destitution.PPP became a tradition of the working classes during the upheaval of 1968 due to its socialist programme. The reversion of present leadership into policies of neo liberal capitalism have pulverised society. With a relative lull in society, after the defeat of the movement around Benazir Bhutto in 2007 the masses were in despair. Their hopes were decimated by a democracy of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. What they got is there for everyone to see. It is a fallacy and delusional to expect any amelioration from the rich and the powerful. Karl Marx wrote long ago, “Social reforms are never carried out by the weakness of the strong, but always by the strength of the weak.” The rot that has set in will continue to deteriorate as long as this system is imposed. No one else will deliver the fundamental rights of the proletariat for them, they will have to unite, fight and win their own class war. Nothing; less than a social revolution can end this eternal misery and emancipate society.