In memory: Dada’s legacy honoured by comrades, supporters

Glowing tribute paid to struggle of Ameer Haider Khan.

RAWALPINDI:

Glowing tributes were paid to revolutionary leader Ameer Haider Khan, popularly known as ‘Dada’, to the services he rendered for the betterment of farmers and backward segments of society.

Organised by the Awami Workers Party (AWP) at the Rawalpindi Press Club, Wednesday’s event was a celebration of his 113th birth anniversary.

“His struggle aimed to free the poor farmers and downtrodden segment from the clutches of feudal lords,” said AWP President Abid Hasan Minto, who was also the chief guest. He said Dada was a far-sighted leader who organised the subcontinent’s first-ever trade union in 1920 in Madras (now Chennai), India.

“Dada had challenged global capitalism a century ago by attempting to unite the working class across the country,” he said, while adding that the AWP aimed to continue his struggle and carry forward his ideology by uniting the working and deprived classes throughout the country.

AWP Provincial General Secretary Aasim Sajjad said Dada’s message resonates today as the current democratic set up had failed to deliver and guarantee the basic needs of people. “Laying the foundation of a genuine democracy is impossible without drastic land reforms, nationalisation and regulating multinational companies,” he stressed.

He said AWP is determined to rid farmers and labourers of prevailing exploitation and to lay the foundation of true democratic set up.

AWP Punjab Secretary General Ayub Malik said the country is still facing the problems it confronted a century ago. “Today the condition of farmers and labourers is worse than it was a century ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2013.