Demonstration for release of political workers

AWP general secretary condemned the state institutions for what he called criminalising political activities

LAHORE:

The Awami Workers Party’s (AWP) Lahore chapter staged a demonstration on Friday to condemn the use of police and terrorism laws to prevent Left activists from raising a voice for the rights of marginalised communities across the country.

The demonstration was part of a National Day of Action arranged by the party to press for the release of Ghulam Dastagir and Baba Jan, AWP leaders in Sheikhupura and Gilgit-Baltistan, respectively, and other activists.

AWP general secretary Farooq Tariq condemned the state institutions for what he called criminalising political activities. He said there could be no hope for a substantive democracy in the country without freedom of expression and of political assembly. He said selective application of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms was not acceptable. “Parties like the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek are free to bring the country to a standstill to voice their demands. Terrorism laws are [only] used to prevent working people and politically disenfranchised communities from exercising these freedoms,” he said.He said Dastagir, in his late 70s, had been imprisoned three years ago on a false murder charge for his participation in a demonstration of tenant farmers dispossessed of their land holdings in Dera Saigol, Muridke. He said a fact-finding mission arranged by the HRCP had stated that the protesting farmers were unarmed, and, therefore, could not have fired the shot that led to the killing of a passer-by and a police official. The mission had suggested that there was no circumstantial evidence available to hold Dastagir, a former trade unionist, and others, in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th,  2016.