Statement of Revolutionary Socialist Movement and League for the Fifth International on the state of emergency in Pakistan
• Defy the state of emergency!
• Mass demonstrations now against the state of emergency!
• Workers, peasant’s organisations, lawyers and all democratic forces – call a general strike now to bring down the military regime! Form popular committees to co-ordinate the resistance.
• Army rank and file – put down your weapons, don’t enforce this state of emergency, form your own committees independent of the commanding officers
• Urgent call for international solidarity
General Musharraf today announced a state of emergency in Pakistan. All private news channels have been shut down and military personnel are tonight patrolling the streets of Islamabad. The Supreme Court is now under occupation of military personnel and Supreme Justice Chaudhry, re-instated following his suspension by Musharraf this year, has been told that his services are “no longer required.” The 1973 constitution has been suspended and Musharraf has issued a “provisional constitutional order”, passing all power into his hands.
A state of emergency was first seriously threatened by Musharraf in March, at the very beginning of the lawyers’ movement that challenged his rule. His decision to declare the state of emergency now comes as the Supreme Court is about the rule on whether his “re-election” in October for another five year term was legitimate. It seems more than likely that Musharraf has taken this move in the knowledge the Supreme Court were to rule against him. Tonight Musharraf has sworn in a new Chief Justice, Abdul Hameed Doggar, to replace Chaudhry – who has no doubt promised to be a pliant servant of the military dictatorship.
The military has also this week suffered devastating defeats against Islamic militants in Waziristan and Swat. They are reported to have thousands of troops in fierce fighting over the last two or three months, and have this week forced into signing a ceasefire. Even today militants are reported to have captured two police stations from the military forces and have paraded 48 captured paramilitary personnel – bringing the total military personnel captured to more than 300. While in no way politically supporting the Islamists we are opposed to this reactionary military offensive which is designed to install conditions on the population suitable for imperialist super exploitation. This war is being waged by Musharraf on behalf of American imperialism. Like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it is un-winnable, can only bring further destruction and suffering – the sooner the US and its allies are defeated, the better for the world’s people.
Musharraf also faces a continuing wave of working class resistance. The West can portray the resistance to Musharraf simply as Islamists all they like – but the truth is very different. Just as Musharraf and his regime slavishly follow the “war on terror” dictates of Washington, so too they pursue its neo-liberal economic agenda. Just this week workers nationally in Pakistan International Airlines have downed tools, in Karachi 200 doctors at the hospital began an indefinite strike and 300 workers and activists have protested against killing of a textile workers leader. They join the teachers, the Unilever workers, and the students, who have all this year opposed the neo-liberal government agenda.
The state of emergency is a desperate act by a regime that is losing control of Pakistan. Before it was shut down by military personnel the Supreme Court called this state of emergency “illegal and unconstitutional” and asked civil servants and army personnel not to take the “oath”. The head of the Supreme Court Bar Association, who has now been arrested, has issued a call for mass demonstrations of lawyers and ordinary people on Monday.
A spokesman for the PML-N has said, “the whole nation must resist these extra-parliamentary actions.” So far, the PPP have only condemned the actions, stating that we are “trying to build institutions, not destroy them.” Indeed Musharrafs state of emergency completely exposes the reactionary nature of the PPP’s strategy – any “democratic deal” with the Pakistani military is utopian and reactionary. But the bourgeois parties fear the mass mobilizations of the masses on the streets. Just this week the PML-N, who have posed as “democrats” throughout this crisis, have called on the general staff of the army to break with Musharraf – but is this not the very corrupt general staff that must be brought down?!
These bourgeois parties fear the mobilization of the masses because they know the revolutionary overthrow of the military regime, will create huge pressure from below for an anti-neo-liberal, anti-imperialist government.
Musharraf and the military are now extremely isolated but we know cornered beasts become dangerous. They may now move to make mass arrests of opposition activists and impose martial law on the streets. There must not be any prevarications by democratic forces at this critical hour. We must be prepared to defy these actions with all the power and militancy the movement of lawyers and ordinary people showed in resisting the Karachi massacres in May.
We support all the calls to defy the state of emergency and mass actions to resists. But crucially, we call on workers, peasants’ organizations and all democratic forces to call a general strike against the state of emergency. We must be ready to defend our demonstrations from attack by the military – we must organize for this now. We call on workers to organise factory and neighbourhood committees, and peasants to organise in the countryside the resistance to the military government.
To the rank and file of the army – worn down and demoralized by the fighting an imperialist war for the United States – our message is clear and unequivocal: do not turn your weapons on the people, do not enforce this state of emergency.
We say, not only that all state forces should not observe the “PCO Oath”, but they should defy – in action not just words – every decree and action of the military regime.
The drive to crush the opposition in Pakistan comes at a time when the United States and its allies prepare to plunge the Middle East into a new and terrifying war against Iran.
The struggle against the military regime in Pakistan, is a key struggle for all those resisting the “war on terror”. We call for urgent international solidarity with the people of Pakistan. We must build demonstrations and pickets outside Pakistan embassies the world over.
This corrupt military junta must be shamed abroad and overthrown at home. It is this critical struggle that we in the Revolutionary Socialist Movement, sympathizing section of the League for the Fifth International, are now totally focused on.
We call for elections to a sovereign constituent assembly, with full voting rights for all men and women in which we will fight for a workers and peasants government.
We can bring down this military regime, and open the road to a socialist revolution against capitalism and imperialism.
Saturday 3rd November, Revolutionary Socialist Movement, Pakistan