The manoeuvres of the Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan around the issue of “blasphemy” have made worldwide headlines. What gets less publicity is the militant class struggle of Pakistani workers. One such struggle is that of the workers at the Karachi Electric Supply Company, who have fought and defeated the bosses plans to forcibly retire 4500 workers.

We are passing through a painful epoch. A deep malaise has set in. There is a generalized decline of economy, politics, ethics, morality, art, literature and culture. In a political spectrum littered with stale and deceitful leaders, Salman Taseer was a vivid and pleasant rarity. One could disagree with his economic and other policies but at least he was bold and frank. His ghastly assassination was an insult upon injury for the already suffering and agonized masses of Pakistan.

On the call for anti-privatisation protests by the Postal Action Committee huge protests and demonstrations were held in many cities of Pakistan on 4^th January.

A seminar on the topic of “Price hikes, privatization, unemployment, Reasons and Solution” was held at the PMA House, Garden Road, Karachi on December 30th. The program started at 3PM and was chaired by the Central General Secretary of the PTUDC, comrade Nazar Mengal, while comrade Lal Khan was invited as chief guest.

The right-wing government of Punjab has taken the decision to privatize 26 leading colleges. This has sparked anger in the people and the students. The privatization is being carried out under the cover of so called "autonomy". The government claims that it is only giving internal autonomy to the colleges and has created boards of governors in the colleges. But the teachers and students know the government's intentions very well.

As Pakistan plunges into even greater economic decline, the custodians of this system in its terminal decay call for measures that instead of retrieving will further exasperate the already adverse conditions society is afflicted with. Almost all the political parties and the domineering intelligentsia and experts are crying hoarse for the implementation of an austerity regime and the recipes of trickle-down or supply side economics.