Six-party alliance to work for true democracy By Staff Reporter - Daily DAWN KARACHI, April 21: Six political parties and groups with left orientation have announced formation of Awami Jamhoori Tehreek to launch a movement against politics of status quo and lay the foundation for a true federal, parliamentary and democratic order in the country. This decision was announced on Friday by Pakistan Mazdoor Kisan Party chief Afzal Khamosh at Karachi Press Club. The representatives of five other component of the AJT were also present. They were Abid Hasan Minto of National Workers Party, Rasool Bux Palejo of Awami Tehreek, Farooq Tariq of Labour Party Pakistan, Tufail Abbas of Pakistan Mazdoor Mohaz, Taj Maree of Inqilabi Jamhoori Workers Committee and veteran progressive leader Mairaj Mohammad Khan. Mr Minto explained the aims and objectives of the AJT, saying the feudal, chieftains, Waderas and tribal system were the fundamental forces which had blocked all roads to progress and prosperity. They had acquired such a dominant role in politics and assemblies that no political party could function without them. The establishment and the army had joined hands with them as absentee landlords by acquiring government lands. He said during last 50 years it was establishment and the army bureaucracy which had been ruling the country with full control over internal, external and economic policies to safeguard their interests. Through 8th and 17th amendments the constitution had been reduced to an ineffective document which was neither federal nor parliamentary. “Today the situation is that the president in uniform and his army advisors have assumed all powers of internal and external affairs to the extent that constitution, democracy, rights of people, federation and parliament find themselves helpless before the establishment. Mr Minto said the world capitalist system through IMF, World Bank and WTO agreements had taken the entire world, the third world countries in particular, in its grip which had deep impact over economy, administrative and legal framework so much so that our budget and taxes system were framed with their consultation. He said that under the garb of globalization the world capitalist system through multi-national companies had been exploiting resources and cheap labour of the third world countries to its advantage, trade union rights were being trampled which had resulted in increasing unemployment and turning our country into a consumer market. The AJT was formed to highlight these issues and break the silence and unconcern attitude form the level of masses and give a new direction to the politics in the country. Rasool Bux Palejo said that formation of AJT was a timely decision which had provided a forum to all progressive people to unite under its banner to launch a movement for resolution of problems. He said those who used to give the impression that the capitalist system had now come to stay should not forget Iraq and Afghanistan where class war and national war were going on. Miraj Mohammad Khan said today’s Pakistan was standing on crutches of IMF, World Bank and WTO because of the total grip of feudal over entire system which had been tailored to serve establishment, bureaucracy and feudal lords. They were in fact obstacle in the way of industrial revolution, progress and defence of the country. He said our basic purpose was to launch struggle against prevailing social order and lay the foundation for an egalitarian system. Warning against use of force to crush people striving for their rights, he said the government could not run the federation through use of force. “Pakistan is heading towards a grave anarchy which could only be avoided by holding dialogues,” he said and pleaded for devolution of power from centre to the provinces without which he warned the country could dismember. Tufail Abbas said the dream of true democracy in the country could not be materialised without revolutionary struggle and unity of peasants and workers. Farooq Tariq announced solidarity with the kiln workers, who were on strike and demanded release of arrested workers of Punjab Mazare (peasants) Association. http://www.dawn.com/2006/04/22/local4.htm    Pakistan - Left groups unite Peter Boyle Six Pakistani left parties and groups have united to form Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (AJT - the People’s Democratic Movement), which has the potential to become the fifth-largest political group in Pakistan. The AJT aims to contest the 2007 elections. The parties in the AJT are the National Workers Party (NWP), the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), Awami Tehreek (AT - People’s Movement), Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party (PMKP), Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz (PMM - Workers Front) and Meraj Mohammed Khan Group (MMKG). A 12-member convening committee has been formed with two members from each group. Abid Hassan Minton from the NWP will be the national convener and Afzal Khamoosh from the PMKP will be secretary of the convening committee. The LPP will organise the AJT secretariat in Lahore. The AJT has announced a campaign against growing militarisation and the grip of imperialism and religious fundamentalism in Pakistan. On March 18, a rally was held in Lahore to mark the third year of the occupation of Iraq. The AJT will hold a public meeting on April 21 in Karachi to oppose the military action in Baluchistan, and has called a nationwide mass workers’ rally for May 1 in Karachi. According to LPP general secretary Farooq Tariq, this new left unity project will strengthen the organisation of workers and peasants. “The draft program of the AJT is mainly an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist and anti-feudal program”, he told Green Left Weekly, adding that the program calls for “the abolition of all discriminatory laws against women and minorities”. The NWP, Tariq explained, is a well-known left party in Pakistan. It came out of a merger between the Awami Jamhoori Party, Pakistan Socialist Party and Pakistan National Party in the early 1990s. It has some important personalities of the left and has respectable weight in the trade union movement. We have been working together in the Anti-war Committee Pakistan, Anti-privatisation Alliance and Pakistan Peasants Coordinating Committee. The PMKP is an ex-Maoist party - mainly based in the North-West Frontier Province - which led a peasant struggle in the ’70s and still has a significant base there, and to some extent in Punjab. The PMM is mainly based in Karachi and has a base in the unions. AT is the largest party in the AJT. It was considered a radical nationalist party but has moved left in recent times, Tariq told GLW. “It mobilised more than 25,000 in Bhit Shah Sind on March 5 for its national convention”, which LPP representatives attended. The AT “has led a successful movement against building a controversial dam recently and is part of several alliances on the issue of water in Sind. It has a mass base among women in Sind.” Tariq explained that the MMKG is led by a well-known left personality, Meraj Mohamed Khan. “He was one of the main student leaders in the ’60s and has led the youth movement against the military dictatorship of Ayub Khan. He was a founder of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “Meraj Khan became a minister under Bhutto, but he resigned when the PPP fired at a workers’ strike, killing many in early 1972. He was jailed for the next four years by Bhutto.” According to Tariq, Khan then formed a small party, “but later merged with Imran Khan, the Pakistani cricket hero, to form the Pakistan Justice Movement. He became secretary of the party but then left his party due to the feudal attitude of Imran Khan.” Tariq described the AJT as a joint activity-oriented forum at this stage. “We need to give the room for the groups to work together in activities and see the possibilities in future and also to bring more left groups into it. All parties in the AJT will work independently but also together as the AJT.” From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006. http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/article.php3?id_article=1027   Minto slams Democracy Accord, announces to join elections Staff Reporter – Pakistan Observer Lahore—Awami Jamhori Tehrik (AJT), an alliance of seven left wing political parties, convenor Abid Hassan Minto has announced to participate upcoming general elections and declared that the Democracy Accord was not representing a real democratic ideology. Addressing a press conference here at Lahore Press Club on Friday, he said that democracy accord was an incomplete agreement because there was no participation of masses in that accord while it did not vowed to end feudalism in the country. He said that if both of these political parties really want to get rid of the auspices of Pakistan Army then it would be possible for his organisation to join hands with them in future. Minto said that Pakistan was facing three basic problems including the supremacy of the military on civil institutes, feudalism and influence of radical religious groups in the region. He said that amalgamation of 17th amendment in the constitution has confused it while MMA was responsible for that as they always played as supporting role for military dictators. He further said that today Pakistan Army has neglected its duty to defend the nation and now they have become contractors in all civil sectors including industrial zones, construction works and property. Mentioning the special role of army in Defence Housing Authorities (DHAs) and Pakistan Railway, he stated that Army grabs lands from simple civilians at very low cost and sell these plots at very high rates by declaring them a DHA area. He claimed that President General Pervaiz Musharaf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Salman Shah and other government high-ups were representatives of multinational companies and they were developing “a neo middle class” in the country, which consisted on the servants of those multinationals. On the occasion, Abid Hassan Minto also announced AJT committee for Punjab, which included Amir Hussaini as convenor, General Secretary Dr Amin. Muzamal Mukhtar, Ch Ishaq, Asif Ali Shaikh, Ch Imtiaz, Rana Azam, Khalid Mehmood and Shadab Jaffery were also named as members of AJT committee. http://pakobserver.net/200605/21/news/lahore02.asp   Privatisation to give rise to financial scams: Minto By Our Reporter ISLAMABAD, June 3: President of the National Workers Party (NWP) Abid Hassan Minto warned that the country could witness more financial scams in the near future if the privatisation process was not stopped immediately. In a statement issued here on Saturday, Mr Minto reiterated the principle stand of his party that sought an end to unbridled privatisation of vital national assets. He said privatisation of national assets like Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) at throwaway prices had given rise to financial scams and was tantamount to the Enron issue. Enron has become a household word synonymous with treachery, deceit and outright theft. Enron Corporation is an energy company based in Houston, Texas. Prior to its bankruptcy in late 2001, Enron employed around 21,000 people with claimed revenues of $101 billion in 2000. Enron became famous at the end of 2001, when it was revealed that it was sustained mostly by institutionalised, systematic and well-planned accounting fraud. Its European operations filed for bankruptcy on November 30, 2001, and it sought Chapter 11 protection in the US two days later, on December 2. At the time, it was the biggest bankruptcy in US history, and it cost 4,000 employees their jobs. Mr Minto, who is also the convener of Awami Jamhoori Tehreek, said privatisation of PSM and PTCL was part of the structural adjustment programme of International Monitory Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). The programme only served the interests of international investors and multinational companies and was part of global capitalism that thrived on the poor and downtrodden of the third world. Details of the PTCL and PSM published in various national dailies and presented before the Supreme Court had revealed that the privatisation process was never transparent and that national assets were sold to favourite parties at throwaway prices. He said the process was against Article-3 and 2-A of the 1973 Constitution which ensured equal rights to all citizens and pledged their economic and social emancipation. Mr Minto said privatisation was against the very concept of social welfare and deprived the poor of their jobs and livelihood which enabled few individuals to increase their wealth further. He said Pakistan Steel Mills was a profitable organisation and the government had no justification to sell it to its favourite parties. “From the beginning we were against the privatisation process and are still sticking to our principle stand,” Mr Minto added. http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/04/nat1.htm   People's Democratic Movement launched for joint struggle Urdu Times(News) Six left-wing parties and groups have formed an alliance to wage struggle from a joint platform for the 'socio-economic and democratic rights of people, provincial autonomy and to get rid of present rulers.' The alliance, which has been named Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (People's Democratic Movement), comprises National Workers Party, Pakistan Mazdoor Itehad, Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party, Labour Party Pakistan, Awami Tehreek and Meraj Mohammad Khan Group. Addressing a joint news conference at Lahore Press Club on Sunday, the leaders of the alliance said they would wage a joint struggle from the newly-formed platform for the just cause of the people of Pakistan and endeavour to make Pakistan a true democratic country as conceived by the Founder of the Nation. Speaking on the occasion, National Workers' Party Chairman Abid Hassan Minto said all the said six parties and groups had also constituted a convening committee under his headship, which comprises Yousuf Masti Khan, Shaukat Chaudhry, Qazi Ahmed Naeem Qureshi, Afzal Khamosh, Abdullah Kamoka, Farooq Tariq, Nisar Ahmed Shah, Rasool Bakhsh Palejo, Jami Chandio, Meraj Mohammad Khan, Azhar Jamil and Afzal Khamosh. Abid Minto further said that all the claims of government for development of the country were false, and as a matter of fact, all endeavors of the government in that regard were aimed at making Pakistan a 'consumer society.' The rulers were out to make the people of Pakistan as slaves of multinational companies while poverty level was on rampant rise. The country is faced with problems such as religious extremism, terrorism and law and order problems, he pointed out. "So Keeping in view all such problems, we have resolved to form an alliance of the left wing parties to jointly work for the wellbeing of people and liberate them from the clutches of tyrannical forces through bringing an 'alternate system' in the country," he added. He said the alliance would present its detailed programme before media and people of Pakistan on 21st April. He said on 18th March, the alliance would also hold meetings and protest rallies against the US occupation on Iraq and Balochistan situation, in Karachi and Lahore. A meeting will also be held at Karachi Press Club on 18th March. The alliance will also hold public rallies on the eve of May Day at Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Multan and Quetta, he said. Abid Hassan Minto on this occasion also invited all like minded and progressive forces of the country to join hands with them for this just and common goal. Rasool Bakhsh Palejo said those six parties and groups would jointly work from that joint forum and muster public opinion on all issues of national importance, including Kala Bagh Dam. To a question, he said if Sindh, which was faced with multiple problems such as law and order problem and distribution of irrigation of water, was not given justice then no body would be able to stop creation of 'Sindhu Desh'. Meraj Mohammad Khan said because of wrong policies of the rulers Pakistan was moving towards chaos. According to him, the present rulers had also endangered the Federation. He said at present over 40 per cent people were living below poverty line while the government had totally isolated itself from the problems of the common man. The root-cause of all such evils was the military dictatorship. He also supported the demand of big political parties for formation of an interim setup and an independent election commission to hold free and fair elections in the country. Farooq Tariq of Labour Party Pakistan and Afzal Khamosh of Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party were also present on the occasion. http://www.urdutimes.com/englishnews/2006/03/13/en9/     Pakistan global security state after 9/11: Minto By Our Reporter LAHORE, March 2: Supreme Court Bar Association’s former president Abid Hassan Minto has said that Pakistan has become an international security state after the 9/11 incident as it has more concern for international than internal security. He was speaking at a meeting of the Lahore Press Club’s literary society held for launching a book on poet late Habib Jalib compiled by his younger brother Saeed Parvaiz here on Thursday with Pakistan Socialist Party president C.R Aslam in the chair. PPP leader and MNA Aitzaz Ahsan, columnist and former MPA Ayaz Amir, PPP leader Aslam Gurdaspuri, playwright Munnoo Bhai, columnist and writer Ataul Haq Qasmi and others addressed the meeting and paid rich tributes to Jalib for revolutionary poetry of resistance. Elaborating his point of Pakistan assuming the role of an international security state, Abid Minto said that long before the former Soviet Union’s invasion in December 1989 the military intelligence and establishment of Pakistan in collusion with religious elements had started interfering in Afghan affairs. It was the occasion when the people of Afghanistan had changed their government that had started brining drastic land reforms like abolition of big land holdings in possession of jagirdars and warlords, distribution of their lands to landless peasants, progressive educational and social reforms like women’s emancipation and empowerment and withdrawal of all restrictions on their liberty. He said that after the 9/11 incident Pakistan had become an active international security state when it started conducting raids and attacking places in search of persons accusing them of terrorists and belonging to Al-Qaeda. Internally, he said, the military had a virtual control over most of the economic and political channels. The army generals, whether in uniform or retired, were in big businesses like the real estate, banking, and industrial concerns. They purchased expensive lands in housing schemes at throw-away price of thousands of rupees per kanal and sold the same at highly expensive rates of million of rupees per kanal. No political party dared to check them, he said and added that the nation needed a poet like Habib Jalib with courage to question them. He recalled his reminiscences of his contacts with the poet. PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan was of the view that Pakistan has become a national security state and not a people’s welfare state as visualised by the Quaid-i-Azam as was evident from his speech on Aug 11, 1947, at the inauguration of Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly. In a welfare state, he said, the government took care of the people while in national security state the military. He said the character of Pakistan as a state had been changed during the past 50 years. He said the civil society had started losing its hold over the state from the day Gen Ayub Khan was made defence minister and a cabinet member back in 1954 and the military establishment had come in directly when Ayub Khan had declared Martial Law in 1958. Since then Pakistan had been made a national security on the plea that Pakistan’s security was in danger because of conspiracies of its enemies. The military had no political, moral, legal and social justification to govern the country. It was deplorable that some political parties and religious elements supported the army to perpetuate its rule on the excuse of national security. Mr Ahsan said the concept of national security was so much trumpeted that the people started believing that Pakistan was facing real danger. He said the state never stabilised or fortified on the strength of its army. Had it been so the Soviet Union which had much bigger army equipped with even nuclear weapons would have not fallen apart and divided into 14 small states. The concept of national security state had failed not only in Soviet Union but all over the world, even in Latin American states which had been ruled by the military in the past. He said that after 1989 when Afghan war had started the concept of national security had been strengthened in Pakistan and the civil society subjugated. This was not acceptable to the PPP and the ARD and we wanted Pakistan to be a people’s welfare state and civil society to rule over the country. Ayaz Amir said that Habib Jalib’s poetry was the poetry of resistance. Jalib had never compromised with the establishment, civil or military. He was the poet of the people as he always highlighted their woeful plight and the tyranny of rulers and their supporters. He said the concept of state had undergone a great change in Pakistan which had started its journey with the western political principles. Now those principles were being discarded and the thought and mind-set of rulers had changed. The new concept of state, he said, was not confined to Pakistan but it had overtaken the entire Muslim world. Expediency and not truth was the hallmark of new political concept. To challenge the expediency, the nation needed the rebellious and revolutionary poets like Habib Jalib, he asserted. In his presidential remarks, C.R Aslam asked the people, particularly the younger generation, to study Habib Jalib who had made service of the down-trodden people, students, peasants and workers as his mission. Despite lack of resources and poverty, he said Jalib had boldly resisted the tyranny of rulers and never compromised on his principles. He did not know expediency. http://www.dawn.com/2006/03/03/nat9.htm     Privatisation to give rise to financial scams: Minto By Our Reporter ISLAMABAD, June 3: President of the National Workers Party (NWP) Abid Hassan Minto warned that the country could witness more financial scams in the near future if the privatisation process was not stopped immediately. In a statement issued here on Saturday, Mr Minto reiterated the principle stand of his party that sought an end to unbridled privatisation of vital national assets. He said privatisation of national assets like Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) at throwaway prices had given rise to financial scams and was tantamount to the Enron issue. Enron has become a household word synonymous with treachery, deceit and outright theft. Enron Corporation is an energy company based in Houston, Texas. Prior to its bankruptcy in late 2001, Enron employed around 21,000 people with claimed revenues of $101 billion in 2000. Enron became famous at the end of 2001, when it was revealed that it was sustained mostly by institutionalised, systematic and well-planned accounting fraud. Its European operations filed for bankruptcy on November 30, 2001, and it sought Chapter 11 protection in the US two days later, on December 2. At the time, it was the biggest bankruptcy in US history, and it cost 4,000 employees their jobs. Mr Minto, who is also the convener of Awami Jamhoori Tehreek, said privatisation of PSM and PTCL was part of the structural adjustment programme of International Monitory Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). The programme only served the interests of international investors and multinational companies and was part of global capitalism that thrived on the poor and downtrodden of the third world. Details of the PTCL and PSM published in various national dailies and presented before the Supreme Court had revealed that the privatisation process was never transparent and that national assets were sold to favourite parties at throwaway prices. He said the process was against Article-3 and 2-A of the 1973 Constitution which ensured equal rights to all citizens and pledged their economic and social emancipation. Mr Minto said privatisation was against the very concept of social welfare and deprived the poor of their jobs and livelihood which enabled few individuals to increase their wealth further. He said Pakistan Steel Mills was a profitable organisation and the government had no justification to sell it to its favourite parties. “From the beginning we were against the privatisation process and are still sticking to our principle stand,” Mr Minto added. http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/04/nat1.htm   The Americanization of Globalization: Reflections of a Third World Intellectual By Lisette Poole Washington Report on Middle East Affairs As long as the United States continues putting profits over people, siphoning precious resources and trampling the rights and sovereignty of nations along the way, the world will witness more resentment, rage, violence and paranoia. The solution is a burgeoning people-to-people movement that will lift nations out of misery and into economic self-reliance, peace, cooperation and regional development, said Abid Hassan Minto, a noted intellectual from Pakistan. According to Minto, 74, who teamed up with former South African President Nelson Mandela when they were elected vice president and president respectively of the International Lawyers’ Association (1990-1995), the world is caught up in a vicious circle: American hegemony is leading to militant resistance and has set the Muslim world on a collision course with the West. Billions spent on military expansion rightfully belong to the people for the development of schools, hospitals, roads and bridges. In a wide-ranging, exclusive, interview with the Washington Report, Minto pointed out rapidly multiplying dangers and offered an alternative to the current U.S.-provoked worldwide militancy. He urged Americans to question their government’s policies that are leading to a global crisis. “The United States is advancing its corporate interests all over the world,” he stated. “The grand design is to maintain itself as the sole, unchallenged power in the world. Over the past two decades the U.S. went into Latin America, it went after Venezuela, it toppled governments, installed its own stooges. What did it want? Resources! Now it claims it is going after so-called Muslim fundamentalists. Iraqi President Saddam Hussain was not a fundamentalist. Yet they sent their troops, invaded a sovereign nation, and the whole world knows it is about oil! “People everywhere must rise up against corporate globalization that allows development to occur in one part of the world using the resources of the rest of the world,” he said during his visit to the San Francisco Bay area. “The West has failed to solve problems on the ground, political ones such as the 50-year old conflicts in Palestine and Kashmir as well as developmental problems such as the lack of technology transfer between the rich and poor nations. The result is disillusionment and anger. “Why is it a surprise that people are challenging the authority of the U.S. to do what it is doing?” Minto asked. “At the moment fundamentalists all over the world are after the U.S. hegemony. That is their main issue. For sure, one deplores their methods. But they do have a plausible argument: their countries, their nations, their people, are suffering on account of what they see as the U.S. hegemony around the world. The proof is that it is mostly the countries that have sided with the United States—Spain and England—that are the victims of terrorism, not others. The same is true for Egypt and Saudi Arabia. “The continuing military and corporate expansion of the United States invites militancy,” he pointed out. “And it so happens at the moment that the militants are Muslims.” What is the solution? Minto believes the world community, especially the American people, must strive to uphold international law and sovereign equality among nations, as well as promote regional cooperation for economic development and conflict resolution. He was essentially referring to the growing demand for a set of rules and procedures, commonly labeled as the “Universal Jurisdiction” of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which would criminalize military adventurism by any state. He welcomed the political rapprochement between India and Pakistan as an indication that change is occurring at the grassroots level, and said the recently announced gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan to India—over the objections of the U.S.—“should be extended to China. “Why not go all the way?” he asked. “We can increase regional development while helping avert a showdown between China and the U.S. over resources. It will lead to peace and stability in the Asian subcontinent. “There was a time,” he noted, “when the entire Pakistani nation had one single point of view with regard to India: India was the enemy. It is five times larger than Pakistan, it has weapons and we have to defend ourselves. Security was to be built and the only way to build it was to support the armed forces. We were victims of this. The armed forces were built at the cost of democratic institutions…these are our experiences of how a state creates a paranoia mindset for its people. “Fortunately, people in Pakistan have started changing their mindsets, as indicated by their desire to befriend India on all levels. That is a good sign. That is where we pin our hopes for a new movement,” he said. “It is already happening by the force of circumstance. There is political consciousness. Millions around the world took to the streets [in 2003] to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq.” Speaking of the Middle East, Minto argued that “the establishment of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of 150,000 U.S. troops from Iraq would deflate the raging anger around the Muslim world and allow the people of the Middle East region also to run their own affairs in peace.” Terrorism will stop, he said, when use of brute force is replaced by rules, procedures, negotiations, mutual-accommodation, and resource sharing. He foresees a growing movement as part of the World Social Forum, recalling the 1960s, when the non-aligned movement championed by India, Egypt and Indonesia provided an effective bulwark against neocolonial onslaught. “We must find an alternate way,” Minto insisted. “We must fight poverty and hunger…There are immense resources available to the developed countries, technological developments, they have the economies of the world in their hands. Let us now decide how to use these democratically for the benefit of the entire humanity, rather than corporations. Not doing that is neocolonialism.” Reflecting on his third visit to the United States, Minto, a professor of constitutional law in Pakistan, criticized the U.S. for betraying its ideals of democracy. “How can governments around the world implement democratic reforms,” he asked, “when the very notions of free speech and due process are being denied in America, the role model? “The world is not receptive to the U.S. image of democracy, not at all! There is growing disillusionment with the U.S.,” Minto emphasized. “In Pakistan and other countries of the East and Third World we admire that original civilization that preached democracy, but we are dismayed with the PATRIOT Act, torturing of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Abu-Ghraib, and profiling of religious and ethnic minorities. “People have come to realize that the democratic society within the U.S. is also shrinking to suit the interest of those who constitute the establishment, including corporate America,” he said. “Voices are being raised against this,” Minto acknowledged, “but I think that voices have to be raised in a more organized fashion, not only by the immigrants or Muslims alone, but also by the mainstream. “The shrinking civic space in the U.S. is actually demolishing the image of democracy outside and causing disillusionment of its own people,” he said. Minto offered to defend Lynne F. Stewart, the American civil rights attorney who faces up to 30 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorist activity by smuggling messages from her imprisoned client, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, to his followers. She is to be sentenced in September. About the Author: Lisette B. Poole, a free-lance writer in the San Francisco Bay area, also lectures at California State University EastBay, Hayward. http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/analysis/2005/09specialreport.htm   Leftist parties, HRCP reject KBD, Balochistan action Issues be resolved under Constitution Staff Reporter Lahore—In a joint protest rally, four leftist political parties and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has rejected unanimously the construction of Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) as well as they urged the government to stop army operation in Balochistan. The progressive political parties including Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP), National Workers Party (NWP), Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) and Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz (PMM) staged a protest rally around the Lahore Press Club here on Saturday. A veteran politician and NWP President Abid Hassan Minto, a senior journalist and HRCP Director I. A. Rehman, LPP General Secretary Farooq Tariq, Afzal Saroya, Arshad Baloch, Ms Azra Jahan and other leaders participated the rally. The participants raised the slogans against KBD, Balochistan army operation and government. The protestors also carried banners and placards against the proposed project of the dam and army operation in Balochistan. It is also pertinent to mention here that when the protesters started their rally, Abid Hassan Minto, Farooq Tariq and women participants were man handled by the police but after a clash the protesters succeeded to held the rally. While addressing the rally participants, Abid Hassan Minto accentuated the government to solve the issue under the light of constitution of Pakistan and to form a “Council of Common Interest” at national level who decide the future of the Dam. Addressing the rally, I.A.Rehman said that out of four, three provinces of the country were against the KBD so it was not a good idea to construct it and if the government would insist on it, the integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan would come once again in danger after 1971. About an army operation in Balochistan, he suggested the government to solve the issue politically. Farooq Tariq, in his address, asked the army regime to avoid by taking an unpopular decision of the construction of Kala Bagh Dam. He suggested the government to construct Bhasha Dam. http://pakobserver.net/200601/01/news/topstories08.asp   AJT Punjab leadership announced 21 May 2006 Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (Peoples Democratic Movement) elected its Punjab leadership on Friday 19th May. The meeting of all seven component parties of AJT, the left alliance formed in March this year, met on Friday to discuss the organization in Punjab. Abid Hassan Minto, national convener of AJT, chaired the meeting. The meeting unanimously elected Amir Hussaini of Labour Party Pakistan as convener of AJT in Punjab and Dr. Amin from Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz as secretary. The meeting also elected a 20 member organizing committee, with 10 as full members and 10 as alternate members. Amir Hussaini is a leading LPP activists and one of co founder of Jeddojuhd Inqilabi Tehrik, the fore runner organization of LPP. At present, he is LPP Khanewal district organizer. He has written and translated extensively on various aspect of Marxism for Weekly Mazdoor Jeddojuhd (Workers Struggle www.jeddojuhd.com) and the newspapers printed in Multan area. Amir Hussaini is also one of the co founders of youth organization Progressive Youth Front (PYF). On Friday after noon, after the meeting, Abid Hassan Minto alongside with all the national leaders of AJT announced the decisions of the meeting at a press conference at Lahore Press Club. After the press conference, over 250 left wing activists from all over Punjab heard the newly elected young leadership of AJT Punjab about their plan of action and future strategies. They vowed to build a left wing movement in Punjab shoulder to shoulder with the trade unions, youth organizations, radical social organizations and peasantry. With the elections of the Punjab AJT, the process to build an alternative left wing movement in Pakistan has gone forward. The enthusiasm at the meeting showed the potential that can pave the way for building a strong movement in Punjab on class lines. The over 250 activists, many of them were not active before, has been traveling long hours to reach Lahore to hear the new leadership. Several told us that we are going to be active again and will help develop the movement. There also many young and women at meeting who were happy to see the old generation of left wing activists getting together. The next meeting of AJT Punjab will be held on 28th May at National Workers Party office at McLeod Road Lahore to finalize the district organizations plan and activities that they are going to organize during the year. http://www.europe-solidaire.org/article.php3?id_article=2277   Globalization: America Advances Its Corporate Capitalism All Over The World As long as the United States continues putting profits over people, siphoning precious resources and trampling the rights and sovereignty of nations along the way, the world will witness more resentment, rage, violence and paranoia. The solution is a burgeoning people-to-people movement that will lift nations out of misery and into economic self-reliance, peace, cooperation and regional development, said Abid Hassan Minto, a noted intellectual from Pakistan. According to Minto, 74, who teamed up with former South African President Nelson Mandela when they were elected vice president and president respectively of the International Lawyers' Association (1990-1995), the world is caught up in a vicious circle. American hegemony is leading to militant resistance and has set the Muslim world on a collision course with the West. Billions spent on military expansion rightfully belong to the people for the development of schools, hospitals, roads and bridges. In a wide-ranging, exclusive, interview with the Washington Report, Minto pointed out rapidly multiplying dangers and offered an alternative to the current U.S.-provoked worldwide militancy. He urged Americans to question their government's policies that are leading to a global crisis. "The United States is advancing its corporate interests all over the world," he stated. "The grand design is to maintain itself as the sole, unchallenged power in the world. Over the past two decades the U.S. went into Latin America, it went after Venezuela, it toppled governments, installed its own stooges. "What did it want? Resources! Now it claims it is going after so-called Muslim fundamentalists. Iraqi President Saddam Hussain was not a fundamentalist. Yet they sent their troops, invaded a sovereign nation, and the whole world knows it is about oil! "People everywhere must rise up against corporate globalization that allows development to occur in one part of the world using the resources of the rest of the world," he said during his visit to the San Francisco Bay area. "The West has failed to solve problems on the ground, political ones such as the 50-year old conflicts in Palestine and Kashmir as well as developmental problems such as the lack of technology transfer between the rich and poor nations. The result is disillusionment and anger. "Why is it a surprise that people are challenging the authority of the U.S. to do what it is doing?" Minto asked. "At the moment fundamentalists all over the world are after the U.S. hegemony. That is their main issue. For sure, one deplores their methods. But they do have a plausible argument: their countries, their nations, their people, are suffering on account of what they see as the U.S. hegemony around the world. "The proof is that it is mostly the countries that have sided with the United States -- Spain and England -- that are the victims of terrorism, not others. The same is true for Egypt and Saudi Arabia. "The continuing military and corporate expansion of the United States invites militancy," he pointed out. "And it so happens at the moment that the militants are Muslims." What is the solution? Minto believes the world community, especially the American people, must strive to uphold international law and sovereign equality among nations, as well as promote regional cooperation for economic development and conflict resolution. He was essentially referring to the growing demand for a set of rules and procedures, commonly labeled as the "Universal Jurisdiction" of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which would criminalize military adventurism by any state. He welcomed the political rapprochement between India and Pakistan as an indication that change is occurring at the grassroots level, and said the recently announced gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan to India -- over the objections of the U.S. -- "should be extended to China. "Why not go all the way?" he asked. "We can increase regional development while helping avert a showdown between China and the U.S. over resources. It will lead to peace and stability in the Asian subcontinent. "There was a time," he noted, "when the entire Pakistani nation had one single point of view with regard to India: India was the enemy. It is five times larger than Pakistan, it has weapons and we have to defend ourselves. Security was to be built and the only way to build it was to support the armed forces. We were victims of this. The armed forces were built at the cost of democratic institutions...these are our experiences of how a state creates a paranoia mindset for its people. "Fortunately, people in Pakistan have started changing their mindsets, as indicated by their desire to befriend India on all levels. That is a good sign. That is where we pin our hopes for a new movement," he said. "It is already happening by the force of circumstance. There is political consciousness. Millions around the world took to the streets [in 2003] to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq." Speaking of the Middle East, Minto argued that "the establishment of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of 150,000 U.S. troops from Iraq would deflate the raging anger around the Muslim world and allow the people of the Middle East region also to run their own affairs in peace." Terrorism will stop, he said, when use of brute force is replaced by rules, procedures, negotiations, mutual-accommodation, and resource sharing. He foresees a growing movement as part of the World Social Forum, recalling the 1960s, when the non-aligned movement championed by India, Egypt and Indonesia provided an effective bulwark against neocolonial onslaught. "We must find an alternate way," Minto insisted. "We must fight poverty and hunger...There are immense resources available to the developed countries, technological developments, they have the economies of the world in their hands. "Let us now decide how to use these democratically for the benefit of the entire humanity, rather than corporations. Not doing that is neocolonialism." Reflecting on his third visit to the United States, Minto, a professor of constitutional law in Pakistan, criticized the U.S. for betraying its ideals of democracy. "How can governments around the world implement democratic reforms," he asked, "when the very notions of free speech and due process are being denied in America, the role model? "The world is not receptive to the U.S. image of democracy, not at all! There is growing disillusionment with the U.S.," Minto emphasized. "In Pakistan and other countries of the East and Third World we admire that original civilization that preached democracy, but we are dismayed with the PATRIOT Act, torturing of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Abu-Ghraib, and profiling of religious and ethnic minorities. "People have come to realize that the democratic society within the U.S. is also shrinking to suit the interest of those who constitute the establishment, including corporate America," he said. "Voices are being raised against this," Minto acknowledged, "but I think that voices have to be raised in a more organized fashion, not only by the immigrants or Muslims alone, but also by the mainstream. "The shrinking civic space in the U.S. is actually demolishing the image of democracy outside and causing disillusionment of its own people," he said. Minto offered to defend Lynne F. Stewart, the American civil rights attorney who faces up to 30 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorist activity by smuggling messages from her imprisoned client, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, to his followers. She is to be sentenced in September. http://edstrong.blog-city.com/globalization_americas_corporate_capitalism.htm   Call to end military operations in Balochistan 16.01.2006 ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: A group of eminent intellectuals and political activists has called for a halt to military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan, and revitalizing the parliament’s sovereign role to resolve the problems politically. Renowned poet Ahmad Faraz, National Workers Party president Abid Hasan Minto, writer and former diplomat Masood Mufti and former vice-chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University Dr Kaneez Yusuf said in a joint statement issued at a press conference here on Sunday that in the medium term the role of the army should be curtailed to its basic and constitutional obligations of defending the borders of Pakistan. They said the governance of the country should be handed over to the people through fair and free elections and the 1973 Constitution should be restored in its original form. In the long term, they said, the Sardari system in Balochistan should be gradually replaced by a direct and democratic role of the people in that province. They said the use of military force, instead of a political process, in Balochistan and Waziristan had resulted in loss of innocent lives. That was alienating the patriotic population and making it resentful. “The real issues are being confused in an unreal environment of violence, eliminating all chances of objective resolution of conflicts. The existing credibility gap between the government and the people was widening to the level of open confrontation,” the intellectuals said. They found a growing perception that the nation was not being properly informed of the real gravity of the situation. There was a general apprehension that a crisis like 1971 was fast developing, when obstinate mishandling of the situation had pushed the country to civil war and break-up. They appealed to other writers, intellectuals, artists and the masses to raise their voice and register strong protests with the decision-makers against the current policies in Balochistan and Waziristan which, they said, were endangering the future of the federation and the country. Ahmad Faraz rejected the government’s claims that it was providing good governance and said the government had failed to ensure peace in the country and provide justice to the masses. He lamented that while the government was seeking assistance for relief and reconstruction in the earthquake stricken areas, a colossal amount was being spent to purchase two VVIP planes for the prime minister. Faraz accused President Gen Pervez Musharraf of violating his oath of defending the constitution and recalled that another general had dismissed the constitution as a mere bunch of papers. Eminent constitutional expert and NWP chief Abid Hasan Minto described the situation as dangerous and said basic problems cannot be resolved through use of military might. He denounced the government for handing over Pakistani nationals to the United States without any judicial process. Referring to the US air strikes on three houses in Bajaur, he said it was not for the first time that American missiles had landed in Pakistan. “It is nothing but an assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan,” he asserted. Even after the insertion of the 17th amendment, he said, the constitution was not operational. Masood Mufti said the situation obtaining in Balochistan and Waziristan looked same as that he witnessed in Dhaka in 1971. The mindset of the rulers seemed to have not changed. Dr Kaniz Yusuf called upon the people to struggle to secure their democratic rights. She criticized the government for relying on external powers for support, reminding that history bears testimony that they never helped Pakistan. http://www.balochunity.org/index.php?news+&did=2325