LAHORE: The Awami Workers Party (AWP) has reiterated its support to the parliamentary democratic system in the country and, once again, rejected the dubious methods of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), warning that the complete mayhem that has unfolded in Islamabad may descend into total breakdown of constitutional rule.

“The democratic political forces have already been forced into a retreat by the announcement on the night of August 28 that the military will act as the ‘facilitator’ between the government and the so-called ‘revolutionaries’ and the threat of a direct military intervention is growing greater by the day,” AWP President Abid Hasan Minto said while speaking to the participants of the party meeting here on Sunday.

He pointed out the complete bankruptcy of Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri, who were holding the country hostage to their narrow agenda. He said only the liberal parties had a workable political programme for genuine democracy and fundamental change in the country based on a substantive analysis of the state and society, promising elimination of all forms of oppression.

“The right-wing populists like Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan have cheapened the idea of revolution in Pakistan by associating it with their elitist, megalomaniacal and reactionary politics,” Mr Minto deplored, adding these forces in Pakistan had, over the past few years, succeeded in hijacking the vocabulary of the Left to add a populist edge to their political project.

Speaking on the occasion, AWP Secretary General Farooq Tariq said it was clear that the right-wing remained a visibly anti-people force that was inextricably tied to the ideologies and hegemonic forces that perpetuated the system of material exploitation in the country.

“However, we congratulate the people of Pakistan inasmuch as trade unions, peasants organisations, women’s fronts, student groups and other organisations of the working people have not been swayed by the hollow slogans of the PTI and PAT,” Tariq added.

He asserted that any anti-democratic moves by the establishment under the guise of anti-government protests should be opposed at all costs. Despite the civilian government’s economic and political failings, it retained a mandate to complete its term in office, and all progressive forces must resist attempts to either rollback the democratic system or institute a so-called ‘technocratic’ alternative, he added.

AWP Chairman Fanoos Gujjar said the right-wing continued to be an instrument of control of the establishment to be used whenever it felt its interests were threatened, and the progressive forces must be wary of any such manufactured ‘revolutions’.

“The right-wing populists used the language of the ‘poor’ and ‘oppressed’, none are truly committed to dismantling the structures of power in Pakistan, which are built around the alliance of the military establishment, imperialist powers, the religious right and propertied classes,” he said.

Mr Gujjar said only the left-wing had brought together class, gender, ethnic and other questions and held out the promise of genuine social transformation in the long-run.

“The AWP is committed to bringing together all left and progressive forces to build such a viable project of social transformation,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014