We have received this report from the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) on the terrible conditions faced by one of the most downtrodden sectors, the agricultural labourers. The PTUDC is taking a courageous stand in their campaign to organise them into a union.

The demonstrations organized by YFIS in Lahore received full coverage from all the main Pakistani daily papers and TV, such as the Jang, the Nation, and the Dawn (the largest circulation English speaking daily). We will keep you informed as more reports come in.

Report by Sadaf Zahra and Aamir Raza for the PTUDC, Pakistan, February 2003.

Pakistan is in a critical condition at the current time, it is engulfed in a social, economic and international crisis. In an attempt to escape from this crisis, General Musharaff held elections for parliament at the end of last year. In spite of all the hopes of Musharaff the elections have not created any strong government. His “democracy” is a sham. Musharaff has reserved the right to amend any law passed by parliament. He even has the right to amend the constitution. One man can override the whole of the elected parliament. But behind the political crisis lies the social and economic crisis that the country faces.

The PTUDC in Britain organised a speaking tour throughout January. The tour was designed to build the profile of the campaign in this country, to establish points of support in the labour movement, and to collect financial donations for the campaign. The tour involved meetings and discussions with leading figures and bodies of the labour movement, meetings with individual trade union branches, and regional public meetings to attract broader layers of workers and establish support in Britain's Asian communities. Lal Khan, PTUDC International Secretary, and Manzoor Ahmed, the recently elected Marxist PPP MP, spoke at many trade union meetings around the country.

Finally the Musharraf dictatorship was forced to call the session of the parliament in the wake of an irresistible pressure from all sides. The only member out of the 324 taking oath with a red jumper was comrade Manzoor [editor of the fortnightly Marxist paper Class Struggle]. On his chest he was wearing a very prominent badge of Karl Marx. When he was called to the podium to sign his name the television cameras had to film him and the Marx insignia was shown on the television screens beaming to millions of the Pakistani workers and youth wanting to have a glimpse of their only representative in the parliament.

In this interview Mansoor Ahmed explains how he intends to use his position as a member of parliament to defend the interests of the workers and peasants of Pakistan. Interview by Jonathan Clyne.

The first general elections in Pakistan since General Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1998 will solve nothing for Pakistan’s workers and peasants. As could be expected, the party created by the outgoing military dictator “won” the elections. In spite of the rigging however the result is still a hung Parliament, with no party gaining an outright majority. Instability therefore reigns in Pakistan. The light at the end of the tunnel, however, is there, with the election of a Marxist MP, as reported in our previous report.

Even before all the votes had been counted the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto accused the Pakistani regime of vote-rigging. However, this is not just a ritual claim of a bitter leader forced into exile by accusations of corruption. Even the EU observers have had to admit that, "Regrettably... the Pakistan authorities engaged in a course of action which resulted in serious flaws in the electoral process." This was particularly blatant in the case of Sialkot-5, one hundred kilometres north of Lahore. Here Ghulam Abbas was denied victory because of his role on the left of the PPP.