This article was written by the League for the Fifth International (LFI) and our supporters in Pakistan. On Saturday up to 100,000 people protested. Now we are moving into a critical situation as the government threatens to call a “state of emergency” – the working class movement must be won to a general strike to block such action and bring down the regime. Read more...

On 16th – 17th March thousands of lawyers held further protests against the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The protests have become an outlet for popular discontent with the military regime and there have been a number of clashes with the police. Read more...

This article was written in collaboration between the League for the Fifth International and our supporters in Pakistan. It will be circulated on the further protests of lawyers taking place on Friday and Saturday

On the 9th March president Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on spurious charges including unspecified ‘misconduct’, ‘misuse of authority’ and ‘actions prejudicial to the dignity of office of the chief justice of Pakistan’. The truth is that Chaudhry has been suspended because he has not been the pliant stooge Musharraf had wanted when he was appointed as Chief Justice in 2005. Chaudhry has established himself as something of a maverick and in particular he has taken up the cases of those disappeared by the security services and recently declared privatisation of the state run steel mills unlawful. Read more...

Printed in 1988

After nearly 15 years of Zia’s dictatorship, the Pakistani People’s Party, under Benazir Zardari (née Bhutto) is raising its political profile. Andy Bannister looks at Pakistan’s recent past and what lies in store for workers in the future. Read more...