Farooq Tariq

General Pervez Musharraf would have not expected the political scenario that has emerged after five days of martial law, imposed on November 3. His hopes for achieving normality have been dashed, despite using the most vicious repression against the advocates (lawyers) and political activists. More unpleasant surprises are still to come for the military regime, which was used to relatively stable political control until now.

November 7, 2007 -- On the third day of my underground period, I escaped arrest by seconds. It was because of inexperience. We live in a society full of high-tech methods to find a person.

Today is my second day in underground life. On November 3, when General Musharaf declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution, I was in Toba Tek Singh, a city around four hours from Lahore. This was to attend a meeting to prepare for the Labour Party Pakistan’s fourth national conference. The conference is scheduled to be held on November 9-11 in the city. Posters welcoming the delegates were printed and an invitation card to supporters for the open session of the conference was ready as well.

The following call for unity among left-wing forces was issued by Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP).

On March 8, no-one in Pakistan would have thought a mass movement would erupt in the near future with the potential to overthrow the regime of general Pervez Musharraf. A day later, Musharraf suspended Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, with the illusion that nothing would happen and business would go on as usual.

On March 17, 40 lawyers and at least 10 others were injured when police attacked a gathering of lawyers at the Lahore High Court called by the Lahore High Court Bar Association to discuss a response to the government’s suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. On March 9, President Pervez Musharraf had declared Chaudhry as “non-functional”, which was viewed by many as part of an attempt to quell the judiciary. Lawyers have boycotted the courts and organised hunger strikes and other protests demanding Chaudhry’s reinstatement. A nationwide lawyers’ strike has been called for April 3. The following are excerpts from a March 22 statement by Labour Party Pakistan general secretary Farooq Tariq.

Seventy-three-year-old Aisha Amin, a Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) activist from Shahdra Lahore, was declared dead three days after being listed as missing after the February 18 Delhi-Lahore train bomb blast.

LAHORE — On May 11, one farmer was killed and three injured when a group of Rangers, a para-military unit under the direct control of the Pakistani military, fired on tenant farmers at the Okara farms in Punjab province. The

LAHORE — The revolutionary socialists of the Labour Party Pakistan held their second congress here on March 22-23. LPP delegates agreed to increase their efforts to build the anti-war movement and recognised the need to take up

Mir Zafarulah Jamali, a feudal lord from Baluchistan, was elected as prime minister on November 21 by Pakistan's national assembly. After months of attempts to install a puppet "civilian" government, General Pervez Musharraf's

BY FAROOQ TARIQ & RAJA MEHBOOB HUSSAIN LAHORE — On August 8, the military government of President Pervez Musharraf declared that its previously announced plan to privatise Pakistan's educational institutions would not take place.

LAHORE — The national committee of the Labour Party Pakistan, meeting March 16-17, decided that the party should help form a united socialist electoral alliance in Pakistan. Left-wing political parties, trade unions and social