October 29, 2007	Monday	Shawwal 16, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: The central committee of the Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party (PMKP) has demanded considerable reduction in defence spending and a full stop to the “non-transparent” privatisation process to help the country’s poor get the basic civic amenities.

The meeting, presided over by the party’s president Afzal Khamosh, discussed in detail the lay off in different organisations privatised recently and demanded that the government should ensure job security of other tens of thousands, who are likely to be fired under the downsizing and restructuring schemes, a statement issued here on Sunday said.

Mr Khamosh observed that after the fall of Russia, transnational corporations and arms manufacturing companies pushed the US into avoidable wars and conflicts to gain fresh markets for their products.

“Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the Middle East and Latin America were bleeding due to the policies of these arms manufacturing companies.

“These counties have now become nurseries for the poor as the rich and capitalists are being protected in the developing countries to exploit the masses as much as possibleand transfer the money back to the developed countries,” he noted.

In a country like Pakistan, where half of the population is poor, spending on fence and security has been made inescapable, or at least this impression was given to the masses, Mr Khamosh said.

In fact, he added, the money could best be utilised on provision of basics to the neglected strata of the society and conflicts, like the Kashmir issue, could easily be resolved peacefully.

He asked the poor, the farmers and the industrial workers to get united for their rights like a single force.

He said the labour class would never be awarded their basic rights; adding that they had to snatch their rights and for this they had to show unity.

After the fall of Russia’s communism, he said, the labourers were now faced with new challenges even in developed countries.

In fact, the rights given to labourers in the US and UK were due to pressure from the Russian system, which regarded the labourer as the creator of everything in a country and that their rights should be protected by the state.

He said the present political system in Pakistan, which was an incongruous combination of feudal system and capitalism, had reached its climax and was about to fall. All it needed is a strong push from those who had been exploited since independence.

He said there had never been any true democracy in Pakistan since its inception and every government was controlled by the military.

Pakistan had witnessed only “controlled” democracy, therefore, political institutions never developed and a bigger chunk of the population remained neglected, poor and being exploited.

“Today, many Pakistanis are unable to provide basic education to their children not to talk of basic health facilities and quality food,” he observed.

The central committee also focused on the issue of inflation and the mafia that caused skyrocketing increase in food prices every time and was never unearthed.

The committee also demanded the enforcement of laws that could guarantee reasonable wages to low-skilled and skilled labourers and measures to arrest inflation.

The committee pointed towards the dilemma of the Pakistani nation, which is easily carried away by anything attached to Islam. The meeting observed that the nation was being put in a very difficult situation in the name of Islam and people were being exploited under the garb of religion.