In 2008 the people of Pakistan voted
into office the PPP, hoping that this would bring genuine change, i.e. a
real improvement in their living conditions. Instead we have a
worsening economic situation, real suffering of the millions of poor,
and warfare killing many innocent civilians. Meanwhile the PPP
leadership is busying itself applying the IMF-imposed policies of cuts
and privatisations. In these conditions it is not surprising that many
are asking themselves what democracy has meant for them.
As the Pakistani official political scene was dominated by the debate
on the 18th Constitutional amendment, which basically does away with
the undemocratic provisions introduced by different military governments
in the past, the majority of ordinary Pakistanis were wondering what
democracy has really meant for them.
Pakistani Marxists condemning the recent killing of innocent people in
Abbottabad who were protesting against change of name of their province.The
country’s population is facing severe economic problems, prolonged
power cuts (or as they are officially called “load shedding”), high
inflation, cuts in public spending, etc. To this we have to add all the
side effects of the US “war on terror” in Afghanistan: the killing of
innocent civilians in Pakistan’s tribal belt, both by the Pakistani army
and the CIA drone bombers and increased terrorist attacks in the
country’s main urban centres.
Ever since it came to power the PPP government of president Zardari
and Prime Minister Gilani made it clear that they were committed to
continue support for the US war against “insurgents” and that its
economic policies would not substantially change. The PPP government
first a coalition with the country’s main right wing party, Nawaz
Sharif’s Muslim League, and then just with the extreme right wing MQM
went cap in hand to the IMF in November 2008 asking for assistance. The
IMF has given Pakistan an $11.3billion emergency loan, which, as in the
case of all IMF loans, comes with heavy impositions and
conditionalities. These include very strict deficit to GDP ratios, the
introduction of VAT taxation [tax on goods and services] and the phasing
out of fuel, electricity and water price subsidies.
Measures
These measures have severely hit the population. With temperatures
reaching levels of 45C, power cuts in Islamabad last at times 22 hours a
day, in other places these are 10 to 12 hours, depriving people of the
use of fans, air conditioning and even cold water. There have already
been riots and demonstrations in several parts of the country in protest
at these power cuts. The IDOM site at www.marxist.com have already reported on the demonstrations in
Islamabad (Islamabad
protests show explosive situation) and the ones in Rawalkot which
were led by the Marxists of The Struggle (Masses
erupt against power cuts in Rawlakot). In Lahore, protesters
blocked roads by setting tyres on fire, and chanted anti-government
slogans. In the last few days alone, demonstrations have also been held
in Khairpur Mirus, Murree and Quetta, amongst other cities.
protests against power cuts in Rawlakot.Power cuts are
also affecting basic economic activity as many industrial areas are also
suffering 8-hour power cuts. Steel furnaces throughout the country were
forced to close down for a few days this week, leaving 15,000 day
workers without any income, as a result of Pakistan Electric Power
Company’s decision to cut the power supply to them. There seems to be no
solution in sight to this problem, as PEPCO Director General Muhammad
Khalid reported that problems will easy in June-July, with the coming
online of a number of power plants, which would reduce power cuts to only
6 to 8 hours, but that load shedding would continue for
another three years! No one is likely to believe his promises, as
last year he had already committed himself to putting an end to power
cuts by December 2009.
IMF
Just to make sure everybody knows who is boss, the IMF has delayed
the transfer of the fifth tranche of its emergency loan to Pakistan, as
the country has not fulfilled all the agreed criteria. Zardari’s
government begged for some leniency and a couple of amendments were
agreed. The budget deficit will be allowed to reach 5.1% instead of the
4.9% initially insisted on, and the very important measure of lifting
subsidies on the prices of electricity, water and fuel (originally
scheduled for April 1) may be delayed until August. This measure on its
own could cause a social explosion.
Bolshevik Day 2008.The commitments with the IMF will mean
an acceleration of the privatization plans of the government. So far,
the PPP-led coalition government has only carried out one privatization,
not so much for lack of willingness to privatize, but because of the
negative economic environment due to the international economic crisis.
In the case of the proposed privatisation of Qadirpur gas field, the
plans were temporarily abandoned because of strong opposition on the
part of the workers in which the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign
was heavily involved (Bolshevik
Day in Pakistan 2008).
However, this was only a temporary retreat, as Prime Minister Gilani
made clear when announcing the measure in November 2008: “The PPP will
only take those steps, which are in the interest of the people and privatization
of Qadirpur (gas fields) will be finalized only when there will be
across the board consensus in the house”.
to help with privatisation of Pakistani postal service.The
government had in fact approved a list of companies for privatisation
in the 2008-09 fiscal year including, "Hazara Phosphate Fertilizer
Limited; Small Medium Enterprises Bank; Faisalabad Electrical Supply
Company, Printing Corporation of Pakistan Press; Pakistan Machine Tool
Factory; Larkana Coal Mining Project; Khewra Salt Mines; MORAFCO
Industries Ltd; Sindh Engineering Co Ltd and Services International
Hotel." In the end, only Hazara Phosphate could be privatised, but now
the PPP-led government, having agreed with the IMF to cut the budget
deficit, is speeding up privatisation plans again.
At the beginning of April, Minister of Privatisation, Waqar Ahmed
Khan, announced privatization plans for 58 state owned entities, 23 of
them to be fast tracked. Amongst those, the first ones to be privatized
will be Faisalabad Electric Supply Companies (FESC) and Pakistan
Petroleum Limited (PPL), but the list includes railways, postal
services, oil and gas, mining, electricity and other utilities, banks,
etc.
Furthermore, the government is "restructuring" all these companies in
order to make them more attractive to foreign investors. In a press
release on January 19, privatisation minister declared that, "prior to
the privatisation of 80 State Owned Entities (SOEs) their financial
remodeling would be conducted to double their assets and balance sheets
and to improve their management structure for making them attractive for
multinational companies for taking part in their privatisation
process."
Stock Option
The Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme (BESOS) through which
shares in state owned and formerly state owned companies are given to
workers is a preparation for this process. The calculation is that once
the workers become share-holders they will feel that the interest of the
company is their own interest and there will be less resistance to
privatization. When this scheme was first announced, the reaction of the
Islamabad Stock Exchange was clearly favourable. According to a report
in the Business Recorder:
"Brokers claimed that the presence of SOEs employee on the board
would provide support to the privatisation programme of the government.
When the representative of the employees would be present on the board,
it might facilitate the interest of privatisation process. It would also
prevent any kind of agitation or negative campaign against the
privatisation of state owned entities."
The handing out of shares to workers may be popular among those
layers concerned. It appears to be free money and a share in the
dividends. But we have seen these methods applied in the past. Thatcher
boasted about having created a “share-owning democracy”. There was a
“mad dash for shares” in British Telecom in 1984, when many of the
company’s employees bought shares. Little did they know that soon their
jobs would be on the line! Subsequently, as the company was privatised,
many lost their jobs.
In Russia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the process of
privatising much of the state owned enterprises began. The workers in
these companies were clearly concerned that this might put in danger
their jobs. How did the government get round this? They were offered
free shares and discounts, with the idea of making them feel owners of
the companies. Later, those same workers paid dearly for such a policy,
although at the time the idea was quite popular among some layers.
The duty of Marxists
It is the duty of Marxists to warn the workers against such schemes
and strengthen trade union organization to fight against the
privatization plans of the government. Even if the distribution of free
shares can be popular among some, especially those who receive them, it
is the duty of Marxists to always tell the workers the truth: the
distribution of free shares today is part of the plan to privatise the
company at a later stage preparation, and if today you get shares,
tomorrow you will be at risk of losing your job!
To underline its commitment to privatization policies, President
Zardari has just appointed Hafeed Shaikh, the minister of privatization
under the Musharraf dictatorship and former World Bank official, as the
government’s chief economic advisor. His qualifications for such a
position are excellent from the government’s point of view. During his
previous period as minister he managed to sell off 34 state owned
companies worth a total of over US$5bn.
There is one area which has not been touched by the government’s
austerity measures and budget cuts, that of military expenditure. On the
one hand the government, in order to maintain the loyalty of the
powerful Pakistani army, needs to increase defence spending, and on the
other hand the Army needs money to pursue its war against insurgents on
behalf of US imperialism. Zardari has justified the austerity measures
of the government by saying that the “war against militants had
inflicted great loss to Pakistan’s frail economy” and that therefore
“there was no option left for the government to take a number of
unpopular decisions, even at the cost of its popularity, for the
stability of economy”.
This is increasing even further the opposition of the Pakistani
masses to imperialism. The war in Afghanistan has brought them not only
increased terrorist attacks, but also austerity policies. But the war is
being conducted not only in the neighbouring country but inside
Pakistan itself, which by now has suffered more civilian deaths than
Afghanistan itself. The killing of innocent civilians, both by US troops
and the Pakistani army, runs into thousands, to which we must add 1.3
million internally displaced from the border areas. The latest offensive
in Orakzai, which escalated a month ago, has pushed around 200,000 out
of their houses (the total population of Orakzai is 450,000).
According to David Kilcullen, the Australian former adviser on
counter-insurgency to General David Petraeus, the ratio of civilian
deaths to “insurgents” killed is 98 to 2! This is creating a mood of
widespread anger. In the latest incident of this kind at the beginning
of April, 71 people, men, women and children, are said to have been
killed by the Army in the Khyber tribal area. According to locals "there
was no Taliban and no militants. All the people who were living there
are government employees. One of them was an army man." The BBC reports
that “the airstrike hit the house of a tribal elder, whose own sons
fight against the Taliban, as part of the local paramilitary force.”
No Surprise
It is no surprise that the mood of the masses is becoming cynical
about bourgeois democracy. They brought the PPP to power hoping to see
policies which would improve their lot, inspired by the PPP’s
traditional slogan of “Roti, Kapra aur Makan” (bread, clothing and
shelter), but instead what they are getting are power cuts, bombings and
privatization. Ah yes, but these are “democratic” power cuts,
“democratic” bombing of innocent civilians and “democratic”
privatization (in which workers get some shares).
Zardari and Gilani have already made their choice: with the IMF
against the people, with Clinton and Obama against the people of
Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ruling class in Pakistan is quite happy
with this state of affairs. The PPP was brought to power in the
aftermath of the mass movement after the assassination of Benazir
Bhutto. The masses yearned for fundamental change. From the point of
view of the ruling class this was the best government to carry out
austerity measures. Once its support amongst the masses has been spent,
the PPP leaders will be unceremoniously ditched by the ruling class
(bringing out corruption scandals, pending court cases, etc) and
replaced by the Muslim League (which conveniently abandoned the
coalition early).
Only by breaking with the logic of capitalism (starting by breaking
the coalition government) could the PPP really implement a policy to the
benefit of the masses of workers, peasants and the poor which voted it
into power. Such a move would bring forth the wrath of Obama, the IMF,
the army and the capitalists, but would enjoy mass support amongst the
downtrodden masses which form the backbone of support for the PPP.
The Marxists in Pakistan are implacably opposed to the policies of
the PPP leadership, which is firmly in the pockets of US imperialism, in
its economic policies and regarding the imperialist war in Afghanistan
and the tribal areas. In this way they are connecting with the growing
mood of anger amongst ordinary working people and preparing to play a
key role in the revolutionary upheavals that are being prepared.
[Note: See this article on Geo Televsion Network Power crisis peaks; Balochistan
plunges into darkness which gives a very vivid description of the
situation regarding the power crisis in Pakistan.]
