Rejoinder to Fayyaz Baqir

Imtiaz Alam

I wanted to respond to Fayyaz Baqir’s sham story of ‘armed propaganda’ in his previous instalment in this journal (Pakistan Monthly Review, November 2024, Fayyaz Baqir: The Fourth International). He doesn’t even know what is meant by ‘Armed Propaganda’. At the very least, it is not simply a pamphlet that invited the wrath of the law enforcement agencies against Left activists. But he has made my rejoinder much easier by accepting three-lunatics’ infantile disorder that put in jeopardy the newly formed Punjab Lok Party. This ‘Gang of Three’ – Fauzia Rafiq (FR), Shamoon Saleem (SS) and Fayyaz Baqir – didn’t have the capacity or understanding nor any organisation to give an amateurish call to arms. They were frustrated, disillusioned and isolated individuals who tried to create a stir by issuing a hand-written pamphlet to attack police stations. SS’s (Shamoon’s) hideout was no secret and he kept all the minutes of their ‘conspiracy’. When police arrested Shadab he revealed Shamoon as his source of getting that pamphlet. When Shamoon was arrested he broke down instantly and revealed all the secrets of this three-member army. Myself and other Lok Party activists had to go underground when police started raiding to arrest Lok Party activists, who had nothing to do with this provocative group. On Shamoon’s confession, an FIR was registered against me, the homes of Lok Party members were raided by police, and they were sent to prison. We were worried that the remaining two ‘Guerrillas’ might not further put us in uncalled for harm. As a precautionary measure, I somehow met Fauzia, whom even Fayyaz suspected, to persuade her to escape, but she said she had the protection of an army colonel, perhaps her uncle. Fayyaz ran away to the Tribal Belt to take shelter with so-called Robin Hood – a student activist in Engineering University who became a dacoit and had to take asylum in the tribal areas after committing various crimes. Why is Fayyaz Baqir so surprised over my name in the FIR while I had nothing to do with their nonsensical misadventure? The police got the custody of their documents/minutes that falsely dragged the Lok Party into their scheme as a cover and to use its activists for oral ‘armed struggle’. After long years Shamoon came to apologise to me for his and his group’s provocation that pushed us into a very difficult situation. There are other fallacies in his account of his “Life Struggle” that do not deserve a detailed response but where clarifications and proper perspective is required.

He was not among the founding members of the Nationalist Students Organisation (NSO). It was formed by me and 13 other student activists. I wrote its 11-point manifesto and was elected as its Founding Chief Convenor as opposed to Zaman Khan, a member of Prof Azizuddin’s Study Circle, who didn’t get a single vote. When the Chief Convenor was arrested and sentenced by General Yahya’s military government to one year of rigorous imprisonment, Baqir and his likes, such as Manzur Ejaz, didn’t have the courage to take charge. It was rather Ms Nayar Abbasi, my classfellow in the Journalism Department, who became the Acting Convenor of NSO. On my release from Sheikhupura Prison, I resumed the charge of NSO Chief and got my two-year rustication from Punjab University rescinded by the Lahore High Court. On completion of my education, I was offered a scholarship by the Vice Chancellor Punjab University for admission in the London School of Economics, which I declined. Rather, some of us NSO activists decided to burn our degrees and go and work among the workers and peasants. We later joined the Mazdoor Kissan Party (MKP) in its first Punjab party conference in Lahore in 1972. I became General Secretary of MKP Punjab and Joint Secretary of Pakistan MKP.

My focus was on the Seraiki belt where I built MKP from scratch with the support of many dedicated activists. Our MKP activists built workers’ unions and peasant bases from the MKP platform. Fayyaz Baqir was never a member of MKP. He was invited to the MKP conference in Burewala as an observer, not as a delegate. He was invited once to a Party School in a village close to Bangla Iccha in Sadiqabad and never went to Rahimyar Khan again. He had no connection with D G Khan MKP. Sufi Sibghatullah, a brave peasant activist, was a dear comrade of mine. While fighting his last battle against Karo Kari (killing of both lovers by the tribe) he got fatally injured in a murderous attack by feudal lords. Before dying in a hospital as a martyr his last wish was to see me. It was so tragic that we could not bring his murderers to justice.

Interestingly, the Professor Aziz Group had had long parleys with Eric Cyprian to join MKP, but Cyprian’s and Zaffar Ali Khan’s efforts failed. Muttahida Mazdoor Majlis-i-Amal, led by Tariq Lateef, a close comrade of mine since university times and till the tragic end of his life, Gulzar Chaudhary and Zahid Islam joined the MKP with the efforts of Prof Zaffar Ali Khan and myself as MKP Punjab General Secretary. But Fayyaz Baqir was not a part of it.

The differences in MKP were between three factions that resulted in the breakup of MKP: MKP Major Ishaq group and MKP-Workers Group led by me in Punjab; MKP led by Afzal Bangash and Sher Ali Bacha in Khyber Pakthunkwa (KP), and MKP Sindh led by labour leader Akram Dhareja. The MKP split followed the exit of Eric Cyprian, who was the General Secretary of the Communist Group (Mazdoor Party) running the MKP and other fronts. Cyprian held the party together and balanced the differences between the two Bigs, Afzal Bangash and Major Ishaq.

Causes of the split:

1. Clash of personalities between Afzal Bangash, who along with Sher Ali Bacha was the leader of the KP peasants movement, and Major Ishaq, who was confined to central Punjab, whereas Imtiaz’s focus was on the Seraiki belt.
2. The ideological differences were clearly articulated by Imtiaz Alam and Sher Ali Bacha in a booklet Mazdoor Kissan Party mein Nazrayati Jedjojehad (Ideological Struggle in the Mazdoor Kissan Party).
3. Differences over social formation: Imtiaz and Bacha thought that capitalism has been developing in agriculture as well, with shades of extra-economic coercion, while Major Ishaq and Bangash focused on feudalism.
4. Being a Maoist Party, all groups were committed to armed struggle, but which was confined to KP alone. It was a left-wing infantile disorder that was addressed in the last Central Committee meeting that agreed to adopt other forms of struggle, including participation in elections. Major Ishaq opposed participation in the election in 1977 while Bangash, Imtiaz and Bacha favoured parliamentary struggle as well. The party got split afterwards.
5. The differences between rural workers and peasants emerged. Bacha and Imtiaz took a position for a separate Khait/patti Mazdoor (Rural Workers) organisation whereas Bangash and Major Ishaq opposed it, which created a split between the Bangash and Bacha factions in KP.
6. There were differences over the National Question. Major Ishaq took a Greater Pakistani chauvinist position against oppressed nationalities while Bangash-Bacha-Imtiaz supported the cause of oppressed nationalities.
7. There were differences over duplicity and overlapping of MKP and Mazdoor Party, both Bangash and Major Ishaq upholding MKP.
8. Critique of Maoism was emerging in MKP with Major Ishaq siding with the Communist Party of China, whereas Bangash was never pro-China nor anti-Soviet. Imtiaz and Bacha also revised some of their Maoist tendencies.
9. Bangash formed his own MKP by appointing Sardar Shaukat Ali as his General Secretary. He offered Imtiaz to become General Secretary, but then preferred to join hands with Sher Ali Bacha.
10. The MKP workers group emerged after the split between Bangash, Bacha and Major Ishaq. It included Imtiaz, Bacha and Akram Dhareja.
11. Later, we formed the Punjab Lok Party and presented its new thesis to the larger communist conference underground during General Zia’s Martial Law. It was to be aligned with other left formations in other provinces. Punjab Lok Party became the main Left outfit in Punjab. It soon came under attack due to some agent provocateurs who called for attacking police stations without any actual plan or any capacity while using the cover of the Lok Party (See above – Ed.). Many Lok Party workers had to go underground and over a dozen were arrested. The provocateurs like Shamoon, Baqir and Fauzia had to be saved to save the Lok Party. They disappeared leaving their (hashish) smoking ‘gun’ (solitary hand-written pamphlet) behind. Their arrested associates Shadab and Shamoon exposed everything in police custody and the verbosity of ‘armed struggle’ came to a shameful end. Still, the Lok Party fought Shadab’s case. Myself and many Lok Party comrades had to go underground for three years and I was later imprisoned for five years under General Zia’s brutal military rule. The rest, as they say, is history. Disappointed by split after split in MKP, comrades converged in the unified Communist Party of Pakistan, which was rebuilt after a lot of efforts. Lastly, comrades who formed the Qaumi Inqilabi Party on the basis of a new thesis that I presented in the Swat Congress, also got divided on ethnic lines. I finally decided to leave ‘Party Politics’ in favour of Marxist Pedagogy as an individual. I joined the media and subsequently formed the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) for peace between India and Pakistan and the creation of the South Asian Economic Union. For the last four years, I remain banned from the media and am still fighting my case against the biggest Media Mogul of Pakistan.

I didn’t want to indulge in polemics with Baqir, but his false storyline forced me to correct some of the erroneous narrations and falsehoods. I am working on a Left movement’s history and will share it.