Aslam Khwaja

Women’s March in Karachi on 8 Marach 2019. 

The banner in Urdu reads ‘Aurat Azadi March’ (Women’s Freedom March)


The ultimate expression of women’s mobilization and organization came to surface in early 2018 when different women’s groups and individuals in Karachi announced their programme to hold a rally on 8 March, International Women’s Day. …The venue of a public park, from where the rally was supposed to start was thronged by thousands of women and men, before the scheduled time. They marched for a good two kilometers carrying placards against patriarchy, economic exploitation, gender biases, forced conversions and restrictions on girls education. ….After a long period of time, Karachi witnessed young girls and boys dancing in the open during the cultural program of the event. This rally broke many shackles put on women’s activities in open areas.

Political Context

Political developments in Pakistan since the 2008 general elections have spared the people of the demand of holding elections for national and state assemblies on time. Ever since the early days of independence, and right through three military dictatorships of Gen Ayub, Gen Zia-ul-Haq and Gen Parvez Musharraf, people of Pakistan have agitated heroically and sacrificed immensely for free and fair elections. Since 2008, two elected assemblies have completed their tenure and the third one is sitting. For the current one too, the main opposition parties are claiming at least till now that they want it to complete its tenure. Pakistan has yet to experience a Prime Minister who has completed his/her five year tenure. Two of the elected Prime Ministers, Yousaf Raza Gilani and Nawaz Shareef, have been disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

During the 2008 elections, the most recognized and respectable leader of the country, Benazir Bhutto was brutally murdered during a rally. Her party, Pakistan People’s Party emerged as the largest party of the National Assembly of Pakistan, while another anti-Musharraf party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was the second largest party of the House. After the resignation of erstwhile military dictator Pervez Musharaff from the post of the country’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto became the President. In his maiden presidential speech to the joint session of Parliament, he emphasized on getting rid of constitutional amendments done by the military governments of General Zia and General Musharraf. Most significant among those amendments was the presidential powers to dismiss the government and assemblies, included in the constitution in 1985 during Gen Zia’s rule. This was followed by a long and nerve- wreaking process of multiple proposals for constitutional amendments, in which besides the representatives of all parliamentary parties, leading figures from lawyers’ fraternity, intelligentsia and civil society also participated. Though consensus was easily reached on withdrawing presidential powers of dismissing assemblies, and the restriction on becoming Prime Minister for the third time (a Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Shareef specific restriction introduced by General Musharraf), agreement on the devolution of powers from center to provinces, and renaming North West Frontier Province to Pakhtoonkhwa were not so easy to achieve. On both of these issues, representatives from Punjab were not ready for a concession. The name Pakhtoonkhwa demanded by the Pashtun speaking people of the area was not accepted. Instead Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa was adopted as a compromise. In the case of devolution of power, Punjab, which is not only demographically dominant (45% of Pakistanis live in Punjab), but also enjoys dominance in the all-powerful military, had to surrender a lot on paper. Different stakeholders achieved consensus on constitutional amendments by adopting the policy of give and take. However, even after nine years, all the powers are yet to be transferred to provinces. Especially, the ownership of mineral resources, collection of revenues and the right to make changes in academic curricula have not yet been transferred to provinces.

The  2008-13 National Assembly will be remembered for its pro-people progressive legislation, which included acknowledging the UN Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women ( CEDAW), laws against domestic violence, laws against sexual harassment, illegitimate marriage with Koran, laws against acid crimes, Hindu marriage laws, and standardising the age of marriage. Attempts were also made to amend blasphemy laws, for which Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer and Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti were murdered by religious fanatics.

The  2008-13 National Assembly will be remembered for its pro-people progressive legislation, which included acknowledging the UN Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women ( CEDAW), laws against domestic violence, laws against sexual harassment, illegitimate marriage with Koran, laws against acid crimes, Hindu marriage laws, and standardising the age of marriage. Attempts were also made to amend blasphemy laws, for which Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer and Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti were murdered by religious fanatics. Although the above mentioned bills and laws were passed in the assembly, their implementation faces a serious hurdle because procedures and protocols for many of them are not yet in place. The PPP government under Zardari (2008-13) was also unable to solve the issue of Balochistan, for which it had announced a package under the Rights of Balochistan Initiative. The initiative failed mainly due to the actions of the army and other law enforcing agencies as the region saw a large number of forced disappearances and killings by torture of Baloch political workers.

Women’s Movement Marches On

Taking advantage of the opening up of a liberal and democratic atmosphere, women rights movements once again started organising. The first five years after the restoration of democracy witnessed the first female National Assembly Speaker, the first female Foreign Minister and the first female Information and Broadcasting Minister. During those five years, women’s rights activists not only kept up the pressure on the assembly for pro-women laws, but with the help of their former comrades in struggle, of whom a big number were a part of the assemblies and government, they were able to win many rights for women. 

During this time, women leadership started emerging in different parts of the country. This included Malala Yousufzai and Sabeen Mahmood, who gained international recognition, and many others like Farzana Majeed and Jalila Haider from Balochistan, Parveen Rehman and Amar Sindhu from Sindh, Bushra Gohar and Gulalai Ismail from Pakhtoonkhwa and Saeeda Diep from Punjab. Sabeen and Parveen were assassinated in Karachi. Malala moved to England after an attack on her life, and Farzana was forced into exile. The rest of them are still waging struggles despite multiple threats. The real heroes of that time were the female polio workers, who continued administering polio drops in defiance of Fatwas. Many of them lost their lives.

The ultimate expression of women’s mobilization and organization came to surface in early 2018 when different women’s groups and individuals in Karachi announced their programme to hold a rally on 8 March, International Women’s Day. Although the organizers of the march took a debatable decision not to invite political parties, government departments and NGOs, the march was a success. The venue of a public park, from where the rally was supposed to start was thronged by thousands of women and men, before the scheduled time. They marched for a good two kilometers carrying placards against patriarchy, economic exploitation, gender biases, forced conversions and restrictions on girls education. After the march, the gathering was addressed by women from all walks of life, especially working class. After a long period of time, Karachi witnessed young girls and boys dancing in the open during the cultural program of the event. This rally broke many shackles put on women’s activities in open areas.

Hyderabad, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta and few other cities followed suit, organizing marches on International Women’s Day. Hyderabad and Karachi stood out with flying colors. The Hyderabad rally was attended by over ten thousand women and men, with the overwhelming majority from rural areas. A significant number of freed bonded laborers and victims of domestic violence and honor crime also participated in the rally. The participants marched for five kilometers on foot. The Hyderabad rally opened the flood gates of criticism from the conservative and patriarchal sections of Sindhi society against the emerging Sindhi women leadership, who were bold enough to highlight their personal and gender grievances in public. The Hyderabad rally also sharpened the conflict between enlightened and conservative sections of Sindhi society.

The placard reads ‘Khana khud garam karnaa seekh liyaa’ (Learnt to warm food)

The Karachi rally was criticized by conservative sections of society because of placards which raised questions about patriarchy, gender roles and the role of religion in daily life. So much so that some maulvis instigated people to attack organizers and their supporters by declaring them anti-Islamic. In those tense days, a delegation of organizers met Bilawal Bhutto whose PPP is the ruling party of Sindh. This resulted in the issuance of a strong-worded statement by him. Under his direction, the police and local authorities showed their muscle to the religious lobby and forced them to withdraw the declaration.

Besides popular marches, a notable development is the establishment of Women’s Democratic Front. This is a countrywide political organization that organizes weekly study circles around themes of feminism. The Karachi and Islamabad chapters have taken notable lead in this regard. 

Struggle for Minority Rights

Another issue which has activated civil society during the last decade is opposition to forced conversions of Hindu and Christian girls. Although the kidnapping of Hindu girls for forced marriages by influential religious and feudal sections of the Sindhi society, and its opposition by the larger progressive and secular sections aren't new, the kidnapping of Rinkie Kumari from a town Ghotki Sindh in the northern part of the province in 2012 led to widespread protests. The perpetrator of the crime was a PPP MP Mian Mitho, who is also the caretaker of a big Dargah. The kidnapping caused an unprecedented mobilization of civil society. Rights activists and writers, poets and intellectuals sat-in at public places and sat on token hunger strikes in various cities and towns of Sindh. Biggest protest was witnessed in Hyderabad where over 800 poets, writers, intellectuals and rights activists sat on a mass hunger strike. This mobilization forced Supreme Court to take suo-moto notice of the incident and the PPP expelled the accused who was a National Assembly member. This happened after Dr. Azra Pechuho, a fellow Assembly member and sister of President Zardari gave an emotional speech in the House. In the last general elections, Mian Mitho was supported by Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf of Imran Khan, but was defeated by the people of his constituency.

Civil society groups of Sindh, where the majority of Hindu population resides, have been protesting against every such incident and have been successful in recovery of many kidnapped girls. However, this problem will not be tackled until the state changes its anti-minority policies.

Since the emergence of jihadist Islam in Pakistan, attacks on the personal and religious properties of minorities are unstoppable. State and its armed forces patronize forces involved in this practice. All major religious minorities including Ahmedia, Christian, Hindu, Zikris and Shia are under attack throughout Pakistan. Because of the presence of armed Jihadist in Pakhtoonkhwa, resistance to religious and sectarian attacks by the people there is almost dead. The ideological influence of the sectarian jihadist organizations in Punjab has created an atmosphere where the vast majority of population is somehow party to the persecution of minorities, especially of Ahmedia and Shia communities. However, the people of Balochistan and Sindh are resisting suppression of their Shia, especially Hazara and Hindu population. Besides the kidnapping of Hindu girls for forced conversions, attacks on Christian churches and Hindu temples and ashrams in Sindh have also been witnessed. The handful of secular activists in Punjab always protest against such incidences. Protests in Sindh have taken a more organized form. When a Hindu ashram in Larkana was illegally grabbed by the land mafia with the support of local religious seminary, protests were organized all over Sindh. The PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto, who later won a national assembly seat from Larkana, rushed to the spot and instructed his party-led Sindh Government to get the ashram land vacated. The ashram was returned back to Hindu Panchayat Larkana.

The Communist Party of Pakistan, Sindh chapter, Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Awami Workers Party Sindh and Awami Jamhoori Party have formed Sindh Progressives’ Committee to counter the spread of religious intolerance in Sindh. The Committee has organized demonstrations and conferences in every district of Sindh. These conferences have mobilized the people at local levels, who now come forward to help attacked groups. This has demoralized fanatic forces.

Culture of Protest in Sindh

Besides politics, cultural expression has always been a leading instrument of protest in Sindh. Although resistance through cultural means is rooted in the freedom movement against the British Empire, the recent past witnessed its reemergence during General Zia's martial law. The culture of protest now use modern means, including social media. One such active cultural group is Lahooti, a Sufi music group of young, well educated people. They use modern instruments in their classical Sufi, along with political poetry. The Lahooti group, under the leadership of its energetic singer Saif Samejo, gave a call to visit the burial place of Dalit folk singer Bhuro Bhil after it was dug out and his dead body was removed by religious fanatics in the district of Badin.

A convoy of over one thousand social, political and cultural activists visited the burial place of Bhuro Bhil and met his family. This forced the local administration to apprehend the culprits. The Lahooti group started an annual Lahooti Melo with the slogan ‘Freedom through Music’. The last Lahooti Melo in January this year was dedicated to women who face sexual harassment and abuse. The three day long festival contained poetry, music and discussion sessions. 

The last decade has seen bomb attacks on many Dargahs throughout Pakistan, including of Pashto poet Rehman Baba in Peshawar, Data Darbar in Lahore, Sakhi Sarwar in Dera Ghazi Khan, Shah Noorani in Balochistan and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan. In the aftermath of such blasts earlier, security forces used to close down Dargahs for common people for days and weeks, and permanently in some cases. However, within a few hours of the Sehwan blast, common people forced their way into the Dargah to perform the usual Dhamal. This blast occurred on Thursday, which is a holy day in Sufi tradition. Thousands of socio-political and cultural activists, under the leadership of classical dancer Sheema Kirmani reached Sehwan on Sunday to pay tribute to martyrs and perform Dhamal. Such Dhamals are now organized every year on the blast anniversary.

Universities under Siege

The freedom of academic pursuits and expression has been under attack by state and non-state actors since long in Pakistan. The recent past has witnessed increased brutality. A women’s university in Quetta, a university in Islamabad, and the Bacha Khan University in Charsada were attacked by suicide bombers, killing more than hundred faculty members and students. All these universities were closed down for months after these attacks.

The most brutal attack was witnessed in Wali Khan University in Mardan, where a young bright Marxist student Mashaal Khan was lynched by a mob, for alleged blasphemy. The whole country protested against this brutal murder. However, most of the culprits were acquitted by the trial court.

A few young public intellectuals were barred from being part of panels at the Faiz Mela in 2018 when organizers were threatened by the intelligence agency to cancel the event. The Mela is organized in Lahore by the family of the renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Fiaz and left activists.

An elite private sector university in the same city, Lahore University of Management Sciences was forced to cancel a debate program on Balochistan. The university had invited Mama Qadeer, leader of the more than two thousand kilometer march on foot from Quetta to Islamabad via Karachi in 2013 for the recovery of missing persons, and Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, a Baloch intellectual, as guest speakers.

Ammar Jan, a young Marxist faculty member of Punjab University was fired from his job because of his activism and critical write-ups in different periodicals. Progressive faculty members and researchers of different public and private sector universities and researchers have recently formed Progressive Academic Collective to jointly fight for academic freedom in Pakistan.

Workers against Privatization

Although the trade union/workers' organization sector is shrinking and weakening with every passing day, attempts are being made to reorganize the working class and recreate the spirit of struggle of yesteryear. The strike by workers of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) against privatization of Pakistan International is most significant in this regard. Flying operations all over country came to a standstill during the strike. Pakistan Rangers opened fire in Karachi to disperse protesting workers, resulting in the killing of a senior trade union activist and worker. The strike forced the government to withhold its privatization plans.

National Trade Union Federation took the lead and spearheaded a long struggle for compensation to the victims and registration of police cases against the real culprits. After a countrywide campaign, and solidarity campaigns by European trade unions, the victims and their families were paid compensation.

Workers of Port Qasim sat-in for their salaries and other benefits in front of Karachi Press Club for more than 100 days. The government was forced to accept the workers’ demands under pressure from the emerging solidarity for the striking workers.

Ali Garments in Karachi was gutted in a fire in 2012, when workers were working inside the factory. The government tried to politicize the accident by alleging that an opposition party was responsible. Nevertheless, National Trade Union Federation took the lead and spearheaded a long struggle for compensation to the victims and registration of police cases against the real culprits. After a countrywide campaign, and solidarity campaigns by European trade unions, the victims and their families were paid compensation. The criminal case is under trial in different courts, where as usual it looks unlikely that the culprits will get any punishment for such a heinous crime.

As the Pakistani society passes through a series of crises and conflicts, its social movements remain a beacon of hope for its oppressed and exploited people. Uninhibited by temporary setbacks, these movements continue to challenge traditional hierarchies, state authoritarianism, fundamentalist brutalities, and capitalist criminalities.   

Aslam Khwaja is a leftist writer and researcher based in Karachi. He has been politically and socially active since the late 1970s on various progressive and liberal forums. He was an active member of Democratic Students Federation, the student body connected with the Communist Party of Pakistan. His book People's Movements in Pakistan was published in 2016. It was also launched in India in 2018.

Picture Credits: 1. Aljazeera.com and 2. Dawn.com