Way forward: Fanoos Gujjar takes up AWP mantle

Party's two-day federal congress elects new president, other office-bearers

KARACHI: The Awami Workers' Party (AWP) organised its second federal congress this weekend in Karachi to elect a new president and other party officials. The meeting is organised every three years.

The outgoing party president, Abid Hassan Minto, called it a day after a 65 years' struggle for the rights of the working class and untiring efforts for uniting all the fragmented progressive forces in Pakistan, said a statement issued by the AWP.

During the closing session of the congress on Sunday, newly-elected president Fanoos Gujjar criticised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, saying the prime minister is not the only corrupt person in the country. "Khan should extend [his claims] to other politicians and officials too," he said, announcing that AWP will soon call a meeting of all leftist parties and host a conference on the issues facing the public.

Elaborating on the idea of merging Pakistan's leftist parties, AWP general-secretary Akhtar Hussain said that more than 16 leftist parties are together today with one common agenda. "There is a need for a socialist revolution and to tell people to fight for their rights," he added.

Chairperson of the Pakistan Trade Union Association, Kaneez Fatima, criticised the state, saying it has made it difficult for farmers to survive. "The government should provide fertilizers at half price and free electricity so farmers can also earn something," she suggested.

Talking about hate speech and freedom of expression, senior vice president of the party, Yusuf Masti Khan, said the state does not protect the working class but people can fight to get their rights. "Pakistan can only be powerful if common people can work freely as per their choice," he said.

Masti also stressed that the spread of hate speech should be controlled. "Nowhere in the world does a constitution term a particular sect as disbelievers but here in Pakistan our Constitution calls Ahmadis kafirs," he lamented.

Discussing the issue of Baloch missing persons, AWP's Farooq Tariq was of the view that extra judicial killings cannot be accepted in any case. Suspects should be taken into custody and presented before a court but cannot be killed outright, he said.

Earlier, the delegates elected a 41-member federal committee that elected the federal executive committee of the party for the next three years. The congress elected Fanoos Gujjar as its president, Akhtar Hussain as general-secretary, Javed Akhtar as organising secretary, Yousuf Mustikhan as senior vice-president, Abida Chaudhry as vice-president, Ismat Shahjehan as deputy general-secretary, Farooq Tariq as the party's spokesperson, Shazia Khan as finance secretary, Farman Ali as information secretary, Alya Bakhshal as women's secretary, Safdar Sindhu as labour secretary and Hassan Askari as peasants secretary.

Provincial party presidents including Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar of Punjab, Bakhshal Thalho of Sindh, Zafar Iqbal of Siraiki Wasaib, Shahab Khattak of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Yousuf Kakar of Balochistan, Nisar Shah from Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Akhon Bai from Gilgit-Baltistan also addressed the congress.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2016.