By ATTAC
September 15, 1999
Over a thousand trade unions and social welfare organizations rallied in Sindh Province, Pakistan on August 20 to protest the levying of a 15% general sales tax (GST) by the present Nawaz Sharif government, and to demand the cancellation of Third World debt. Organized by the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), it was the first demonstration of its kind in the province. The GST was imposed in Pakistan by the present conservative government on the instructions of the IMF and World Bank in order for $200 million to be released as the latest installment of the IMF to the Pakistani government. During the last three months, the price of gas, electricity, telephones and water has been increased by 10 to 30 per cent to enhance the revenues of the government, a recipe given by the IMF. There have been no matching pay raises for the workers.
According to the LPP leaders, the main aim of the IMF and World Bank is to benefit the international monopolies making them "the new kings re-colonising the Third World and the present capitalist government making labour the main losers." A general strike was held on September 4. Call for the strike came from the Association of Small Traders in Pakistan (ASTP). All the main shopping centers were closed despite the government's new ordinance declaring the strike to be terrorist activity carrying a maximum prison term of seven years. Several members of the ASTP in Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan and home of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, were arrested during the strike and incarcerated. The Association is now calling for a three-day strike (September 14-16).
13/09 (AFP) The Pakistani authorities Monday freed some 250 opposition workers and leaders who were detained in a weekend police crackdown on an anti-government rally in Karachi, officials said. The release came as the opposition's strike in southern Sindh province entered its second day with a partial response in this port city, sources said. A senior police officer said that 37 women activists were also freed after the government withdrew the detention orders amid widespread criticism.
A total of about 250 detainees from ex-premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement were released from the city's six police stations, he said. They included PPP provincial president Nisar Khuhro, senators Raza Rabbani, and Qaim Ali Shah as well as MQM lawmakers, Farooq Sattar, Aftab Shaikh and Nasreen Jalil.
The leaders and workers were arrested on Saturday to frustrate the opposition's planned show of strength in the country's commercial hub and the provincial capital. The opposition, criticising Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's domestic and foreign policies has launched a campaign to press for new elections. Police had sealed the venue of the public meeting, lobbed tear gas shells, charged crowds with batons and whisked away all frontline leaders in waiting vans to thwart the rally, witnesses and opposition sources said. About a dozen people including some journalists were reported injured in the clash.
Imran Wants IMF to Stop Funding Pakistan
By Shaheen Sehbai
September 14, 1999
Washington - A mainstream opposition leader and chief of Tehrik-i-Insaf Imran Khan on Monday asked the IMF to stop funding Pakistan and demanded the country's constitution should be scrapped. "If the constitution cannot hold the country together and ensure the unity and stability of the federation, it should be scrapped. It is meant for the people and not vice versa," Imran told a prestigious Washington think tank.
Speaking at the Centre for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) Imran said the IMF should stop providing funds to Pakistan which were being siphoned off by the ruling party and the country was sinking deeper into economic chaos. His demand came in response to a question by a State Department diplomat who wanted to know what could the US do in this situation. Imran said the US could ask the IMF to stop the $280 million tranche to Pakistan.
"By providing the money the IMF would only delay the disaster that was fated for Nawaz Sharif and its funding would only add to the indebtedness of the Pakistani people. The rate at which the country's revenue had been falling, Islamabad would find it difficult to pay off its burgeoning domestic and international debt," he said.
The meeting at the CSIS was attended by officials and experts from the State Department, CIA, Pentagon, several leading think tanks and organisations interested in South Asia.
Surprisingly Imran received a much better response in Washington than many government leaders and politicians do. He was able to meet Karl Inderfurth, the key State Department official for South Asia. He spoke at a forum at the World Bank and even leading pro-Nawaz Sharif businessmen and community figures like Chicago's Choudhry Rashid, attended his events.
Imran painted a gloomy picture of Pakistan saying the federation was at stake, institutions had collapsed, law and order had broken down, unemployment had become a time bomb which could explode any time, fundamentalism was rising because of unemployment as the young were being fed guns and money by extremists, state structure was breeding inequality and the judiciary had no will, courage or strength to provide justice. Imran demanded that the present government be removed and replaced by a government with a package of reforms to clean up the mess. If necessary even the "doctrine of necessity" should be invoked, he said.
Briefing Washington-based journalists, Imran said the country should be told how and why the Kargil disaster took place. "Why did we take up positions at Kargil and if we did, why did we withdraw in such an insulting way," he asked. He said the Kargil episode had caused a loss of about 50 to 60 billion rupees to the national exchequer and claimed that the government was now trying to extract this huge amount by squeezing the poor and the downtrodden while sparing the rich and the powerful. Kashmir cause, he said, had been given a severe blow and now even the All Parties Hurriyet Conference had blamed Nawaz Sharif for damaging the cause of Kashmir.
Imran appeared sure that the end of the Nawaz Sharif government was round the corner and his own party had bright prospects. What he was not sure was how the change would take place but he repeatedly said: "Believe me we are coming. We have workable solutions for the country's problem and we have received tremendous response from the masses."
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