By Farooq Tariq
In the first of a two-part report on the elections, Farooq Tariq of the Pakistani socialist paper Struggle, reports on last week’s general election in that country.
Ali Wazir, a central committee member of The Struggle, has won a seat in the national parliament from NA-50 (Tribal Area – XI) with 23530 votes with a majority of 16,015 over his closest rival a religious parties alliance (MMA) who got 7515.
Ali Wazir is one the main leader of Pashtun Tahafaz Movement (PTM) and during this year, mass meetings were organised in major cities to raise voices for the fair compensation to the victims of the “war on terror” and to demand the release of all “missing” persons or to bring them to the courts if they are guilty.
Two other leaders of this PTM also contested for the national parliament and another of them, Mohsin Dawer, also won a seat after a close competition. Mohsin Javed Dawer got 16,526 votes, while Aurangzeb of Imran Khan’s PTI got 10,422. However, the MMA candidate got a close 15,363 votes.
These two PTM leaders contested from Waziristan, an area in the north west of Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, dominated by religious fanatics. However, a strong movement for civic rights of Pashtuns had cut across the influence of the fanatics and Pashtuns voted, despite all the threats to elect the leaders of their mass movement.
The presence of the two main leaders of PTM in the parliament has given a hope to many in Pakistan that now at last there will be the people’s voices in a parliament dominated by feudal lords, corrupt capitalists and the stooges of the military and judicial establishment.
Who is Ali Wazir?
Ali Wazir is a very special person. His personal ordeal best illustrates what prompted his demands. He was pursuing a degree in law at the turn of the century when his hometown, Wana, the headquarters of the South Waziristan Agency, became the epicentre of global terrorism when a host of Taliban-allied groups sought shelter in the communities.
No doubt the terrorists had some individual local facilitators, but ultimately it was the state that failed to prevent them from using the territory. When Ali’s father, the chief of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe, and other local leaders complained of their presence, government officials ignored and silenced them. Instead, Islamabad spent years denying the presence of any Afghan, Arab, or Central Asian militants.
By 2003, the militants had established a foothold in South and North Waziristan tribal areas and were attempting to build a local emirate. Ali Wazir’s elder brother Farooq Wazir, a local political activist and youth leader, became the first victim of a long campaign in which thousands of Pashtun tribal leaders, activists, politicians, and clerics were killed with near absolute impunity. Their only crime was to question or oppose the presence of dangerous terrorists in their homeland.
In 2005, Ali Wazir was in prison when his father, brothers, cousins, and an uncle were killed in a single ambush. He was behind the bars because of the draconian colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) law, that holds an entire tribe or region responsible for the crimes of an individual or any alleged crime committed in the territory.
Family members assassinated
Ali Wazir had committed no crime, never got a fair trial, and was not sentenced, yet he was prevented even from participating in the funerals of his family members. In the subsequent years, six more members of his extended family were assassinated. The authorities have not even investigated these crimes let alone held anyone responsible.
Ali Wazir and his family faced economic ruin after all of the notable men in his family were eliminated. The government failed to prevent the militants from demolishing his family-owned gas stations. They later used the bricks to build bathrooms, claiming they were munafiqin (hypocrites) so even the inanimate materials from his businesses were not appropriate to build proper buildings.
His family-owned apple and peach orchards in Wana were sprayed with poisonous chemicals and tube wells were filled with dirt to force them to surrender to the forces of darkness.
In 2016, his family-owned market in Wana was dynamited after a bomb blast that killed an army officer which was an accident. They nevertheless destroyed their livelihoods under the FCR. After the demolition, the government prevented the local community — mostly members of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe — from collecting donations to help them. They were told that it would set an unacceptable precedent because the government cannot let anyone help those it punishes.
So, altogether, sixteen members of his family, including his father, two brothers were killed by the Taliban during these years.
Ali Wazir was one of the main leader of the Pashtun Tahafaz Movement (PTM) which grew up: a movement for the civic rights of the victims of the war on terror. Recently he toured around the whole country and organised mass rallies in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Swat. In Lahore, the Lahore Left Front hosted a public meeting which was formally not permitted by the authorities. We were not allowed to campaign or post stickers around the city. Ali Wazir and seven others were arrested the night before the public meeting and after a massive immediate response, they were released before the rally. Yet still over 10,000 attended this public meeting.
In June this year, dozens of PTM supporters were injured and ten were killed as a result of an attack on PTM leader Ali Wazir by the “pro-government militants”, also known as ‘Peace Committee’. However, PTM sympathisers who had gathered to welcome Ali, fought back upon which the militants fled, leaving Ali’s cousin and a Voice of America (VOA) journalist injured among others.
“My life has been transformed”
In an interview during April 2018, Ali Wazir said,
“The past few months have transformed my life. Amid the agonies I have endured and the threats, suspicion, and accusations I face, the love, support, and respect I receive is overwhelming. Since February, when we began protesting to draw attention to the suffering of ethnic Pashtuns — among the worst victims of terrorism — I have learned a lot about the potential of ordinary Pakistanis. Their thirst for change is inspiring and heralds a peaceful, prosperous future we must build for generations to come”.
During those difficult years, he didn’t lose faith in the mass movement and remained committed to politics of class struggle. He ran in the parliamentary elections in 2008 and 2013, but in the latter case his victory was changed into a ‘defeat’ at gunpoint. He lost the election by just over 300 votes after the Taliban intimidated voters and tortured his supporters and campaign volunteers.
Amid the volcano of violence, thousands of civilians have disappeared and thousands have fallen victim to extrajudicial killings. The leaders of PTM are profiled as suspected terrorists across the country, face humiliation at security check posts, and innocent civilians face violence during security sweeps and operations. As the world’s largest tribal society, the Pashtuns are known for their hospitality, commitment and valour, yet they were falsely reduced to ‘terrorist sympathizers’ despite the fact that they are its worst victims.
Ali Wazir belongs to The Struggle, the Pakistani Marxist organization. Struggle is part of the Lahore Left Front, a united platform of several Left groups and parties and the Lahore Left Front has organised mass activities in which Ali Wazir has participated.
The general election of 2018 was the most rigged elections in the history of Pakistan. The society has pushed further to the right with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek e-Insaaf (PTI) coming to power. Imran Khan telephoned Ali Wazir prior to the elections and offered him the PTI nomination from the area, an offer which Ali politely refused. However, such a respect for Ali Wazir that Imran Khan told him that in any case, “we will not put up our candidate against you”.
Prior to the general elections, a wholesale rigging took place at the behest of the Establishment. PMLN candidates were threatened, forcing them to change loyalties. Khan’s PTI had the open support of most of the state institutions.
With this background, when the PTI, a more right-wing party than the previous ruling party PMLN, has come to power, a Marxist in the parliament will be a breath of fresh air in the stinking parliament.
Although other Left groups also contested the election, including the Awami Workers Party (AWP), and had conducted tremendous election campaigns, the campaign of Ali Wazir was of special significance. He addressed more than one public meeting every day and went door to door with his meagre resources. Thousands cheered him all the time. We were all sure that he will win but we were afraid of any incident that could cancel the elections from his constituency.
Ali Wazir has opened the gates for the entire Left. He is loved by most of the social activists as well. He is a sober person who is always down-to-earth in his presentations to workers’ meetings, but he speaks like a lion when he is addressing the ruling class. A fearless class fighter who has emerged as the one of the most respected Left leaders in recent working-class history.
July 30, 2018
First published in the Asian Marxist Review
