Increase font size Decrease font size Reset font size

Book sparks debate on factors behind communist movement`s decline in Pakistan

By Hasan Mansoor 2017-02-10
KARACHI: Speakers at the launch of a book on the communist stalwarts of yore discussed what ailed the decades-long movement in which committed people sacrificed their lives for the cause of a revolution, yet it did not attract the masses as effectively as populist parties headed by the elite class -managed to.

`It was a huge movement, which has surely lost pace but not the existence and the cause,` said Iqbal Alvi, a veteran communist leader.

He was speaking at the launch of Rafiqan-i-Sidqo Safa, a book written by Aiz Azizi, an activist of the left movement and artist, at the Ahmed Parvez Hall of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi. The book is composed of life sketches of several left activists, including the ones faded in the sands of time, and was published posthumously by the author`s sons.

Mr Alvi reminisced about the volatile decades of the 1950s and 1960s when the state was continuously hunting communist activists, which resulted in imprisonment of many of them and the death of Hasan Nasir, a known leader.

However, the book also picked many activists and leaders from later decades, including Nazeer Abbasi, who died in captivity during General Ziaul Haq`s regime.

Speakers discussed the factors that affected the left and how it ebbed from its peak in the past decades.

`Those who were involved in the movement were humanists and had passion to do [something] for humankind but what affected ...

the cause was lack of practicality, said Harris Khalique, poet and writer.

Scholar Dr Jaffar Ahmed said those who had been involved in the left movement had suffered immensely. `They sacrificed their lives, careers, and their families suffered, yet they kept going hoping for a better future,` he said.

He said criticism of communists was unfair as they fought during hard times and did not falter when others were getting everythingfrom the establishment.

Dr Riaz Shaikh said the book was part of several such publications, which had recently been published and it provided links to varied times and movements that had been missing otherwise.

He said the book had chronicled the socialist movement in Sindh in the 1950s and 1960s. `When no other book gives us that account, this book shows class struggle was active across Sindh.

He said many activists had to destroy documents fearing state oppression, thus, oral accounts had to be relied on.

`We should investigate the annals of the investigation agencies of that time, they must have documented everyone involved in the movement,` he said.

Journalist Mazhar Abbas said politics of romance pushed the movement behind, not allowing it to achieve the cause it was struggling for.

He said it was decided by the new nation`s establishment in 1947 when Pakistan came into being that the Communist Party would not be allowed to work. He said it was time for soul-searching for the activists and leaders.

Taimur Rehman, communist thinker and musician, said since the history of communism in Pakistan was not written as it deserved to be written, it could be said the country was `without the movement` for all those years.

`Work on the communist movement has been done in abundance in India, across the border. We lag far behind,` he said, adding that the struggle, however weak, would continue.

Mujahid Mirza said apart from being a committed lef tist, Mr Azizi was a good painter and sculptor as well.

Activist and journalist Mehnaz Rehman said the leftist movement had suffered gravely because of fragmentation within. She said the pen sketches in the book needed to be researchedfurther.

Mazhar Jameel, Dr Jabbar Khattak, Ramzan Memon, Dr Sehar Ansari, and Zubair Rehman also spoke.

Dr Tauseef Ahmed Khan moderated the proceedings.