Lahore

In the first four days after Osama bin Laden’s assassination by US forces, the mass reaction in Pakistan is very mixed. In Punjab there is a general sympathy towards bin Laden, but not many are expressing it openly.

By August 12, more than 20 million people had been affected by the floods in Pakistan. Waters remained at dangerous levels in several parts of the country, with more torrential rains forecast by the weather department. This has been one of the most devastating floods in world history. The UN has once again appealed for donations for Pakistan. But the international response has been slow.

More than 1500 women marched in Lahore from Nasir Bagh to the Punjab Assembly, under the banner of the Women Workers’ Help Line (WWHL) to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8.

The attack on Sri Lankan cricket team at Liberty Chouck, Lahore on March 3 left eight policemen dead and six Sri Lankan cricket players injured in firing that lasted 25 minutes.

Thousands across Pakistan celebrated the humiliating departure of dictator Pervez Musharraf on August 18.

On December 9, 72-year-old Abdullah Qureshi, a member of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) provincial council of the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), was murdered in a suicide attack in Swat valley — currently the scene of a military operation against religious fundamentalists who control a majority of the valley.

It seems that the reign of General Pervez Musharraf is on its last legs. Musharraf has become the most detested president in the history of Pakistan. No longer are there progressives, liberals or moderates in his camp.

Farooq Tariq, the general secretary of Labour Party Pakistan — along with 10 other LPP members — was arrested for the third time in three months on September 27.

On June 12, Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) organised a protest in front of the Lahore Press Club against the illegal detention of LPP general secretary Farooq Tariq, who was arrested on June 5 and given a three-month detention order. Braving 47°C heat, more than 300 protesters gathered, raising slogans against General Pervez Musharraf’s regime and demanding the immediate release of Tariq and all other political prisoners.

The May 23 advocate (lawyers) solidarity conference decided to build more public support for the advocate’s movement for an independent judiciary and an end to the military dictatorship. The movement erupted after Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was suspended on March 9. The conference vowed to bring more and more people to future demonstrations and rallies.

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.

“The Women Workers Help Line is a member-based, voluntary, non-profit making, non-governmental organisation, struggling to create legal, political, democratic and trade union awareness among women for a socially just, economically equitable, politically aware and gender sensitive society”, explains the WWHL’s vision statement. Green Left Weekly’s Jim McIlroy visited Bushra Khaliq, the WWHL’s general secretary, at the organisation’s Lahore headquarters in late March.