HYDERABAD: National Party (NP) president Sena­tor Mir Hasil Bizenjo has said that the middle and lower-middle classes should be organised and persuaded to actively take part in politics so that they become ideologically strong enough to bring about change.

“Changing conditions and emerging trends in the world need to be kept in mind because mere slogans of socialism and communism cannot make the struggle [for change] a success,” he told participants in a programme held in connection with the death anniversaries of comrades Rais Brohi, Ghu­lam Mohammad Leghari and Qazi Faiz Mohammad.

The programme was organised by the Sindh NP at the local press club on Tuesday.

“Democracy is a double-edged sword,” Senator Bizenjo remarked, and observed: “This society is exploitative in nature where nations are oppressed and common people lead miserable lives”.

The NP emerged successful because it kept pace with changing global conditions and trends, he said.

“Balochistan’s is a tribal society that hasn’t [made any] progress and lags far behind in education but the NP has linked its struggle with the middle and lower-middle classes,” he said. Unless organised, the people belonging to these classes could not become ideologically powerful, he added.

Now when more subjects had been devolved and resources given to provinces under the 18th amendment, they should utilise their resources for people’s welfare adhering to democratic principles, he said.

He said the peasant movement now stood depoliticised but would have to return to politics. “If people belonging to the left stick to the decade of the 60s and link everything to flaws [in system], things will not change,” he said, adding that it’s time for a new struggle with a new strategy.

“Democracy cannot necessarily be ‘Western’ or ‘Islamic’; it is simply a way of governance and ‘state’ is a piece of land where people live,” he said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Balochis­tan government spokes­man Jan Moh­am­mad Buledi said new political trends had emerged so people would have to go beyond the 18th amendment. “People need a new social contract to make Pakistan a democratic country that guarantees protection to everyone. This is how a new state will be constituted,” he said.

Adviser to the Balochistan chief minister Khair Jan Baloch, Ramzan Memon, Idrees Brohi (son of Comrade Raees Brohi), Taj Marri and Shaheena Ramzan also spoke.

A resolution adopted at the programme called for end to feudalism, introduction of land reforms and land grant to landless haris.

Another resolution demanded regularisation of villages and fixing of the minimum wage at Rs20,000.

Some other resolutions demanded establishment of ‘hari courts’ through an amendment to the Sindh Tenancy Act; recognising nations’ rights over their respective resources, complete provincial autonomy; and declaring the Sindhi, Balochi, Punjabi, Pushto and Siraiki languages as the national languages.

The participants opposed plans to privatise the OGDC, Pakistan Steel and other national institutions. They also condemned ‘conspiracy to divide Sindh’.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014