Workers, youth, students – boycott Musharraf’s sham elections!
Over the past weeks thousands of students, lawyers and journalists across Pakistan have defied Musharraf’s state of emergency. As many as ten thousand opposition activists have been thrown into Pakistani prisons, but still the struggle has continued, as daily protests of students, lawyers, trade unionists and social movement activists have taken place against the Musharraf regime.
On December 15th Musharraf ended the state of emergency and purported to restore the Pakistani constitution. He claimed that the state of emergency had “saved the country” which continued on a course to democracy. This claim is totally fraudulent. On the contrary, Musharraf has used the state of emergency to consolidate the power of the military.
He brought in a series of amendments to the constitution that would usually require a two-thirds majority in parliament, in addition to draconian amendments to existing legislation. He has given the army and president constitutional immunity for all their actions during the state of emergency. He has removed the opportunity for challenges to the presidency, changed the voting procedure for presidential elections and legalised the judicial purges.
The 1952 Army Act has been amended to allow the military to try civilians in its own courts for crimes as vague as “public mischief” – and by making this law retrospective to 2003 with a stroke he has legalised the infamous “disappearances” of the last few years. The independence of the Bar Association has also been revoked and new laws ban lawyers from taking “anti-government” initiatives.
Above all, Musharraf’s “re-election” as president in October, while he was still head of the military, and by assemblies that were last elected in rigged ballots in 2002, has been declared “legal”. This allows him to remain in power for a further five years. Now that the judiciary has been purged, there are no forces in the Pakistani state that can prevent Musharraf rigging the January parliamentary elections. In short, Musharraf may have formally removed his uniform during the state of emergency but only on the condition of massively strengthening the powers of himself and the military.
How has Musharraf – who appeared so vulnerable in the summer – been able to consolidate his hold on power in this way? It has only been possible thanks to the shameless betrayal of the bourgeois opposition parties – chiefly the PPP who have, since the summer, sought a negotiated settlement with Musharraf. After the state of emergency they briefly took a principled stance, as they called on Musharraf to go, for an end to the state of emergency and for the restoration of sacked judges. But in the face of heavy state repression and fearing the mobilisation of the masses, they capitulated.
The elections planned for January are sham elections – undertaken in the context of these attacks on democratic rights and the massive centralisation of power in the hands of the military and Musharraf. These powers will be used as weapon against the genuine, progressive, democratic and working class forces that are resisting the regime. Any participation by opposition forces would only serve to legitimise Musharraf’s dictatorial hold on power. We support the call made by lawyers, student activists, and social movements, to boycott these elections and build mass protests.
The struggle over the last year has demonstrated that the working class, urban poor and peasants face a crippling crisis of leadership. The dominant bourgeois parties not only offer a programme identical to Musharraf’s – a continuation of the neoliberal offensive and the war on terror – but also outright capitulation in the struggle to overthrow the military, bonapartist regime. Indeed, the two policies go together. It is because the opposition bourgeois parties know the army is essential to maintaining a stable, capitalist order that they capitulate to them.
We demand the restitution of the pre-November 3rd judiciary and the repeal of all legislation passed under the state of emergency. We say no to these farcical and corrupt elections and yes to a struggle for a sovereign constituent assembly brought about through mass struggle, with elections organised by the working class, the poor peasants and the mass social movements. This will mean a decisive struggle against the military regime, including a general strike and the building of action committees amongst the working class, students, peasants and the army rank and file. Within this movement, and in any constituent assembly, we fight for an agrarian revolution, the liberation of women, self-determination for Pakistan’s oppressed nations, the expropriation of the bourgeoisie and the formation of a workers’ and peasants’ government based on workers’ and poor peasants’ councils and defended by the armed people. We recognise that revolution in Pakistan must spread to the surrounding countries with the goal of creating a socialist federation of South Asia
We propose that all working class, socialist and progressive forces hold a conference for the foundation of a new workers’ party. We propose this revolutionary action programme should be the basis of that party.
League for the Fifth International, 20 December 2007