Sajjad Zahir: The Voice of the Common Man

the shabby treatment Sajjad Zaheer and Faiz Ahmed Faiz got in Pakistan -- what can I say except -- Qadre gauhar shah danud ya bu danud jowhari -- none of these two existed in Pakistan of those days...

....may be they would have been happier under Shah Musharraf NOW -- but then again the treatment meted out to Poet Laureate Ahmed Faraz lately -- under Bahadur Shah Musharraf -- is no indication they would have been either....

The ``Party of God`` you speak of believes in the worst kind of exploitation of the people...

Pakistan doesn`t need ``parties of God``, ``left`` ``right`` and ``centre``... Pakistan needs to follow the constitution of 1973 in letter and spirit- which all these parties agreed to...

This haves and have-nots ... and widening gap analysis is the work of people like Urstruly who are not ready to allow Pakistan to take the course of an ordinary democratic state.

To all Chowkies:

Haiy tau yeh rasm-e-zamanah, lekan phir bhi
Ho mubarak tumhain yeh saal nya, meray rafiq

Happy New Year

Mohammad Gill

Wajahat # 11

The leftist agenda promotes the polarization between haves and have nots. So if leftist agenda succeeds it costs haves their existence. This is unnatural and inhuman.

But in the life of nations eradicating the distinction between haves and have nots is just one aspect of the whole paradigm. The term ``social justice`` is very braod and economic disparity is only one part of the issue that it addresses.

It is true that Pakistani society has been acutely polarized but being have or have-not is just one aspect of this polarization. There in fact only one chasm in the society and that chasm separates the ruling class and the oppressed class. It is not necessary that everyone in the ruling class is a have and everybody in the oppressed class is a have-not. This chasm now divides people in two parties - the party of God and the Enemies of God. The ruling class currently represents the ideology of the enemies of God. This group beleives in corruption, sab-chalta-hai, and a dog-eat-dog paradigm of life, where man is either weak and a loser or strong and a winner. All laws, all business of polity, and all institutions protect the interest of strong. Corruption, extortion, and oppression of weak is a way of life. Kill or get killed. Its the law of jungle. This is a cuture that even primates have evolved out of. This group has all shades of people in it - Moulvis, faujis, leftists, rightists, democrats, fascists and you just name it. But these names are just their cover; the cover that they use while masquerading and digging their fangs deep into the jugulars of weak and helpless. This class has full backing of the neo-colonial powers. This class protects the interests of neo-colonialists in our country.

As compared to that there is an ideology of social justice, compassion aand obedience of law, that guarantees to protect the rights of the weak. This is the party of God. All shades of people are in it too - moulvis, faujis, shopkeepers, studemnts, bureaucrats, businessmen, sweepers, women and children. The party of God believes in equity, social justice, and a society free of corruption, crime, and oppression. Unfortunately, this party is on the receiving end.

In the last couple of years the chasm between these two parties is widening. Now a stage has come when one of them will be defeated and rendered extinct. We have reached a point where further coexistence is impossible. The mortal combat has begun.

#7 I hate fascists of all colours and shades but I hate commies more than anything.

Urstruly

I am sure you are very satisfied by the polarized political climate of pakistan today, i think its time we see throught he whole commie bashing this. I am not a communist, but can identify with the broader leftist agenda. SO who do you support the Beards or the US proxies in brown?

#6 by wajahat

“how then did the pakistan army with the right religious outlook under zia helped create the MQM which basically countered and eroded the power that jamaat islami held in karachi and larger part of sind? “

MQM was not created to counter Jamaat Islami in Karachi. It was created to intensify the ethnic conflict in Sindh and to counter the resistance to Zia regime in Sindh. The first batch of MQM workers were mostly from the Islami Jamiat Tulaba, a Jammat Islami student wing in Karachi. Altaf Hussain himself had cooperated with IJT when he was in student politics.

Within years of creation, MQM spiraled out of control and at that point Jammat Islami stepped in to oppose it in Karachi. But I guess it was too late. Soon after the army action began against the MQM in Karachi to completely dismantle it. Little did the army realize that the previous generation of the MQM workers was honed in communal strife in the central provinces of India and had the ability to fight back doggedly like the way did in pre-partition India.

Imo, MQM is the true successor of Muslim League in Pakistan. All signs are there. Like the Muslims league of pre-partition India and of Jinnah, it parted company with the religious sections of the society and now is trying to shed its ethnic image to gain acceptance in Sindh against a possible army action in future.
Jamaat e Islami is now a political wing of the army despite its current political postures.


#7 by Urstruly

I can’t challenge your inside info about Mian Iftikhar at all.

Have you seen the movie Salam Namste? Remember that “egjectly”?

So my response to your post: Egjectly!

India was divided into Dominion of Pakistan and Dominion of India.

Is earlier United province same as Uttar pradesh when India was made into India and Islamic Republic of Pakistan ?
As people were imported from India to IRP to bring left wing rulers its appears left never had acceptance in our county. Generally Islam and socialism have confrontation. It appears almost all Ummah rulers is dependant on USA for economic and political survival. As most Ummah people do not like USA at same time they can walk they will be in trouble. Its hate and dependance relationship. Ummah+West liquitaded soviet Union. Honestly left has no chance in our country. It appears ethinic nationalists are having more support than left.

No. 1

I hate fascists of all colours and shades but I hate commies more than anything.

No. 2

Having said that, the communist party of Pakistan was a joke, and probably a laughing stock around the globe. The party was headed by its chief patron Mian Iftekhar, who himself was a feudal lord and a capitalist. Could there be anything funnier that that - I mean, a feudal lord heading a communist party? The fact of the matter is that that communist/socialists in Pakistan were the social rejects and political yateems who got their stipend from Moscow for practically doing nothing. That is the reason, today each and every one of them is sitting in the American yateem khana after the collapse of Soviet Union and receiving stipened from them for termiting the foundations of this nation. Lets see what happens to them now.

HP

You stated some interesting facts that I wasnt aware off. But my question is this if as you say that the Jamaat had such support in the urban centres like karachi,and that senior army figures supported the Jamaat, how then did the pakistan army with the right religious outlook under zia helped create the MQM which basically countered and eroded the power that jamaat islami held in karachi and larger part of sind?

#1 by wajahat
“Some people say that the rawalpindi conspiracy case was a a suicide note for the left at the time. But it was more than that, it was the fatal reliance on a military solution albiet a leftist one to the problems of the pakistani leadership. The left made the same mistake that the civilian govt. made in terms of the hobnobbing with the military.”

There is no evidence that the left in Pakistan was actually involved in the pindi conspiracy case with the army. The only Pseudo liberal was Gen. Akber and his motivation was Kashmir and not some left leaning coup. Gen. Nazir was a Quadiani muslim and Quadianis are generally a conservative group of people. Brig Afghani was a sufi though after his release, he joined the progressives in Pakistan. Zafar ullah Poshni, I heard, bought a bar across the street from Rex Cinema in Karachi.

The left never hobnobbed with the army. The fact is that the Pak army in 1948 did not have a dominant role in Pakistan. Their influence started during the Korean War so even if we accept the claim that the left was hobnobbing with the army in 1948-49, the nature of the Pak army was different than what it developed into in the early 50s.

Here is a little info that I learnt thru some former leftists in Pakistan about the army and the left.

After the 1958 ayub coup, the Progressives looked at the Pak Army and realized that there is no political institution in Pakistan that is as powerful as the army and the likelihood of turning Pakistan in to a kind of democracy that India was, were non existent. They looked at other options and a thesis was developed that the left should find some common grounds with the army. But, by the time this thesis was developed, the army was already in Cento and SEATO and had other anti-communist pacts and the US was spying the soviets thru airbases in Pakistan. So the chances of turning the army against the US or accepting the left philosophy were zilch. This thesis also came up with a unique option that was to encourage the left leaning students to join the army so over the years the army can be changed from the inside.

That was kind of utopian as the left in Pakistan mostly recruited the cadre from the interior of Sindh, Balochistan, and NWFP and thru the trade unions. The Left had no support system in Punjab and the Urdu speaking in Karachi were too deep with the Jamaat Islami. Sindhi and Baloch were not really keen in joining the army. So the thesis fizzled out within the left circles and was quickly forgotten. Incidentally, Jamaat Islami got hold of that thesis and realized that it can influence the army by encouraging its young students to join the army in the officer cadre.

Jammat Islami for years increased its influence and some of Jamaat Influenced students command high positions in the Army now. One former Corp Commander of Karachi was actually a Jamaat Islami leader in Karachi University.

What the army did with the left in Pakistan? Someday people would write stories about the Abu Gharibs of Pakistan. Some leftist especially in Sindh and in Balochistan were put in the army torture cells and during the Zia regime, the army completely cleaned out the left in Pakistan. The reason was that the left in Pakistan was supporting the afghan coup led by the leftists of that country.

It was not left’s mistake but the persecution it faced that led to an ideologically vacuum in Pakistan and that eventually led to the rise of the extremism as the country had no force that could have countered the Islamist extremist ideologically. Everything in Pakistan was stacked against the left and progressives. Even nationalist like Bizenjo, GM Syed and Wali Khan that were barely leftist were considered state enemies. In an atmosphere like that, Pakistani left did an incredible job as long as it had the ability to influence the nationalists, trade unions and the students.

Since the late 80s there is no organized left in Pakistan and the remnants are doing what ever they can to counter the Islamic extremist but that is obviously not enough.

hard to believe that mr.zaheer would have been 100 yrs old.

Hiren,

The subtle dishonesty in your writing was quite apparent in your previous article.. but this one just takes the cake...

``On the instruction of CPI, following Partition, Sajjad was sent to Pakistan to lay the foundation of a communist party. Remaining underground for three long years, he travelled to the different cities meeting trade unionists, intellectuals, students and workers.``

The Communist Party of India, as early as 1945, endorsed the Muslim League`s call for Pakistan ....Sajjad Zaheer and other communists joined the Pakistan movement accordingly. There was a great paper that emerged by Sajjad Zaheer on ``A case for League-Congress unity``... in which Sajjad Zaheer argued that Muslim League was a great ``liberationist force``.

-YLH

hello wajahat,
It was nice to know that there are people who are interested in reading such pieces. In fact,
I really worked hard in digging info about SZ. What intrigued me that individuals like SZ have been forgotten. I feel his contribution to progressive writers movement has been immense. His writings in ``Roshnai`` brings forwards the ideologue in SZ. His understandings is clear and transparent. Roshnai has been translated in Hindi recently by Vani Prakashan.
Hope someone translates the book in English.

Hiren, Most importantly, congratulations on writing a great introduction for those of us who were not aware of Sajjad Zahir`s life and body of work. Thank you.

Secondly, This article reenforced a belief that I have on how the death of the left in pakistan (can`t speak about India) has been a further catalyst in the rise of the two Right winged extremes in pakistan. The Religous Right & the bureaucratic/militaristic Right.
Talking to my father, I sometimes try to understand the political mood post partition specially in the urban centres of our country. I rationalise with him the political leadership of the time and the left lead by the PWA was thoroughly present in political landscape. Some people say that the rawalpindi conspiracy case was a a suicide note for the left at the time. But it was more than that, it was the fatal reliance on a military solution albiet a leftist one to the problems of the pakistani leadership. The left made the same mistake that the civilian govt. made in terms of the hobnobbing with the military.

Today our socio-political moral standing has to be either engulfed in purely nationalist or religious ideologies or be part of the pro military infrastructure. We as a nation have seen a multitude of civilian govt. f*ckups followed by the danda bashing khakis, playing politics of the barracks and trying to do something that they have proven 4 times in our short history to be totally useless at, which is namely leading pakistan.

There is no proof that the left could have succeded in any of its endeavours, it is however the most important balancing act in a nation`s political hemisphere, the lack of which result in the democratic casualities which is headed by the current politics of the US.

Anyways, great article , you should write more on this website which has over the years turned more juvenille at best.