In a statement, Farooq
Tariq, the general secretary of AWP has said that the timing of the June
9th verdict raises suspicions about its fairness and impartiality. Baba Jan was
scheduled to contest a by-election for Hunza-6 constituency in the
Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly on May 28, 2016. Three days ahead of the
scheduled election, Baba Jan’s campaign team comprising local leadership of the
AWP GB had led a massive rally of his supporters including scores of women and
youngsters.
On the same day, Zafar
Iqbal of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (that governed G-B before the current
PML-N led government) had approached the Supreme Appellate Court seeking
directives for Baba Jan’s disqualification on grounds that he had been
convicted by an ATC. It is widely known in the Hunza-6 constituency that Iqbal
is working in collusion with PML-N contestant, a son of the G-B governor and a
member of the traditional ruling family of the region.
Completely ignoring the
fact that Baba Jan’s conviction had been overturned by the Chief Court, the
Appellate Court directed that by-elections be postponed till a decision was
reached in the G-B government’s appeal against Chief Court’s decision. This was
not unexpected since the Election Tribunal of the G-B had already accepted Baba
Jan’s nomination papers and allowed him to contest the election from jail.
The Hunza 6 constituency
is an important part of the G-B region. The constituency is located on the
Pakistan-China border and serves as a main link between the two countries. With
the launch the $46 billion Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC), the
importance of this road link will multiply manifold for the two states and
their private capitalists.
In this backdrop, it is
very clear that the PML-N led federal government is extending its patronage to
the traditional elite of Hunza (GB governor) to prevent the possibility of a
candidate with mass public support to enter the G-B legislative assembly. The
government and its capitalist allies know very well that Baba Jan will bring with
him the concerns of the working men and women of the region to the assembly
otherwise dominated by the elite and not allow any corruption in the
multibillion dollar project.
The government has
already witnessed overwhelming support for Baba Jan in the June 2015 general
elections. Baba Jan had defeated two of the three candidates affiliated with
mainstream political parties, standing second only to the PML-N candidate who
was backed by networks of patronage extending from Hunza to the federal capital
of Islamabad.
Since then, mass support
for Baba Jan’s candidacy has further increased. All public opinion surveys done
in the constituency indicate a land slide victory for Baba Jan.
After losing mass support
in favour of an ordinary working class hero, the government was clearly looking
for an alternative to keep him out of the electoral race. The only way to do so
was to use the courts to uphold his conviction in a case based on trumped up
charges.
There were three judges
in the Appellate bench that upheld Baba Jan’s conviction on June 9th, including
a chief justice who hails from Karachi, capital city of Pakistani province of
Sindh. It was a split decision, with two judges in favour and one against the
sentence. The Chief Court bench that had overturned the ATC’s judgment and
acquitted Baba Jan and others comprised top judges. So in fact, three top
judges have declared Baba Jan and others innocent and two have taken a political
decision enabling the administration to keep Baba Jan out of the electoral
race.
To link the holding of
the elections with a decision yet to be taken is against all established norms
of justice. The election commission is supposed to judge a candidate’s
credentials at the time of the filling of nomination papers. When Baba Jan
filed his nomination papers there was no conviction against him. His nomination
papers were rejected by the returning officer but the decision was overturned
by an Election Tribunal, allowing him to contest the elections.
Baba Jan’s ordeal has
exposed the colonial nature of administration in the region. Constitutionally,
GB is not a part of Pakistan. It was given the status of a province with
limited self-governance in 2009, including the right for the people to elect
their representatives to the GB legislative assembly. However, the Pakistani
federal government remains in control of all major decisions related to the
region. The judges to the Chief and the Appellate Courts are appointed by the
Pakistani prime minister. Whosoever comes to power in Pakistan co-opts local
elites and remotely controls the region through them.
The elected assembly of
34 members hardly has any decision making power. It is an impotent body.
The AWP leader was
contesting the upcoming election for raising of these and other issues
concerning the working men and women of the region in the assembly.
The administration should
beware that by putting Baba Jan and other activists behind bars it will not
succeed in silencing them or controlling the movement of working men, women and
children that they have helped build in the region. Baba Jan and others’
sentences will not be accepted by the people who have developed a connection
with their struggle, reflected in the widespread popularity of the slogan Teri
Jan Meri Jan, Baba Jan Baba Jan, (Your dearest and Mine, Baba Jan Baba Jan).
They compare Baba Jan and
others with South African revolutionary Nelson Mandela and other political
prisoners who chose incarceration but never compromised on their ideas of
freedom and equality.
The AWP Pakistan and AWP
GB have announced a mass campaign against the Supreme Appellate Court’s
decision.
The major demands of the
campaign are: Baba Jan and other’s immediate release, cancellation of the case
filed on trumped up charges, publication of judicial inquiry report and
punishment for policemen involved in the killing of two locals during a 2010
demonstration.
Baba Jan’s sentence has
created a massive wave of sympathy for socialist ideas and for the AWP’s
political programme among the working men and women of the region.
The campaign against the
sentence will build on this support and further popularise progressive ideas
and the party’s programme.
Farooq Tariq is the
General Secretary of the Awami Workers Party.
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