Workers of Karachi Electric Supply Company have been waging a struggle for many months now. The corrupt management of the company have waged a war against these workers, supported by the government. At the same time, the people of Karachi continue to suffer from long power cuts and hike in electricity tariff on regular basis. Today on 24^th May nearly 10,000 workers came to attend the sit in.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) Sindh is engaged in a strugglefor the rights of doctors. For three months the YDA has issued press statements regarding their problems of salary increment as well as protesting time and again. But the ruling elite and concerned authorities continue to show indifference to the problems of doctors and the masses in general. There is massive unemployment, poverty, hunger, load shedding and target killing. All this has reflected itself in the form of demonstrations, processions and strikes as the whole of society is crying out for change in the present situation, which has become intolerable for people.

The ferocity with which the “international community” and world media have demonised, ridiculed and condemned the Pakistani state has baffled the local ruling elite here in Pakistan. The stinging attacks on the ISI [Pakistan’s secret services] and the establishment by the imperialist think-tanks and intelligentsia are unprecedented.

May Day was celebrated across Pakistan with revolutionary fervor. PTUDC held activities in more than 50 cities across the country in which workers from different sectors participated. Students and Unemployed Youth also attended these activities in big numbers. A special PTUDC poster was published at this occasion which was pasted around the industrial areas and workers’ colonies in the whole country.

Thirty two years ago on the night of 3^rd and 4^th April 1979, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was assassinated on the gallows in Rawalpindi jail. This was probably the most significant political murder in the history of the country. A terrified state, headed by the country’s most brutal and vicious dictator Zia ul Haq carried out this harrowing act.

The Young Doctor’s Association (YDA) of Punjab has announced they are starting a protest movement and taking strike action once again from May 11 in defence of their demands. Earlier the YDA Punjab had led a strike which lasted for around one and a half months and was called off on the promise made by the Punjab Chief Minister that all their demands would be met.

The hoarse bleating and the paranoia unleashed by the media and the intelligentsia in Pakistan complaining about the US operation in Abbotabad as a “breach of sovereignty” is mindboggling to say the least. When did Pakistan ever have genuine and complete sovereignty in its history?

Thirty two years ago on the night of 3^rd and 4^th April 1979, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was assassinated on the gallows in Rawalpindi jail. This was probably the most significant political murder in the history of the country. A terrified state, headed by the country’s most brutal and vicious dictator Zia ul Haq carried out this harrowing act.

After tolerating draconian work conditions, with many workers on day wages, [i.e. workers who turn up each day and wait to see if they get a day’s work], suddenly the wrath of the workers spilled over and they downed tools. The response of the boss has been a lock-out. The struggle continues.

The episode of Raymond Davis’s release has exposed the reality of justice, the myth of sovereignty and the character of Pakistan’s ruling classes. As Hegel once remarked, “Necessity expresses itself through accident”. The whole incident highlights the economic, diplomatic and military crisis the largest imperial power in history is experiencing in this epoch of the senile decay of capitalism on a world scale.

In less than a day after the exorbitantly cruel price hike of petroleum products and the announcement of the home minister that a major terrorist network had been busted in Islamabad, the federal minister for minorities, a Christian, was gruesomely assassinated in front of his mother’s house in the very same city.

The general rottenness of world capitalism and the brutal economic measures adopted by the PPP government has led to widespread misery and anger among the Pakistani masses. The Pakistani working class has been made to bear the brunt of this catastrophe. Just like other parts of the world there is a new awakening within the Pakistani proletariat, which could be felt in the struggle and victory of the KECS workers and now in the strike by the PIA workers.

The spectacular victory of the workers of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation with the reinstatement of the dismissed workers is a rare triumph in the recent period. The firing of 4300 workers by this privatized enterprise brought a lightening response from the workforce.

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.