Ali Wazir, a prominent leader of The Struggle, a Pakistani Marxist Organisation, has won the national assembly seat from NA-50, Tribal Area –XI with a margin of 16,015 votes. His closest rival from MMA (an alliance of hardline Islamic parties) got 7,515 votes.
According to reports, Ali was offered a seat by Pakistan-Teherek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan but he refused. However, Imran didn’t field a candidate against him. The Struggle has joined the Lahore Left Front, a united platform of several Left groups and parties.
Ali Wazir’s family was targeted by Pakistan Taliban and 16 of his relatives were killed by the Islamists. Leftists were always easy targets of Islamists and military dictator Zia Ul Haq.
Notwithstanding the victory of a lone Marxist, the Left movement holds no future in the conservative society of Pakistan.
Leaders of the Communist Party of India, which supported the Partition, hoped that the nascent state of Pakistan could be easily converted into a Communist state. They believed Pakistan’s politics and economics provided ideal situation for a Communist revolution.
The leader of CPI Sajjad Zaheer formed the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP). He tried to forge an alliance with labour leaders, students and Left political leaders. But the CPP could not grow the way the leaders had desired. The Communists conspired with Major-General Akbar Khan for a ‘progressive nationalist coup’. The coup plan was scuttled by some of the military officers who were recruited by Akbar Khan.
Akbar, his wife, poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and dozens of officers and CPP members (including Sajjad Zaheer) were arrested, tried and thrown in jail. The CPP was banned. The coup leaders were given pardon and Sajjad Zaheer and those who had come with him from India were deported back to India. Rest of the leaders went underground.
Besides, ideological confusion triggered due to ‘socialist sectarianism’ split the party into pro-Soviet and pro-China factions. During Zia-Ul-Haq’s dictatorship, Communists leaders were jailed and persecuted. Thus CPP had an untimely demise, though it produced some leaders and activists.
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