Pakistani News

Around two hundred and fifty political activists, students, trade unionists and ordinary citizens held a charged rally in Islamabad from the National Press Club to D-chowk on Thursday to demand that detailed defence expenditures be presented in parliament during the upcoming budget session in line with the procedures that are in place in established democracies all over the world. The protestors also demanded that any such expenditures made public which are not deemed to contribute clearly to the stipulated security needs of the Pakistani people should be diverted towards health, education and other badly neglected sectors.


The protest was organized under the platform of the ‘Awami Shehri Mahaz’, a coalition of left-wing political parties, student groups and trade unions. The demonstrators were carrying banners and placards calling for accountability of the military establishment and the replacement of the national security state with a people’s state. Red flags also made the rally a colourful spectacle while the large number of youth present on the occasion chanted vociferous slogans against the resource-grabbing antics of military personnel.

Speaking at the conclusion of the rally at D-chowk, Aasim Sajjad of the Worker’s Party Pakistan (WPP) said that over the past few weeks numerous incidents including the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbotabad have made clear once and for all that the military and its expenditures need to be made subject to public scrutiny. He said that it is no longer acceptable to the long-suffering people of Pakistan for the military to be allocated upto 40% of the federal budget under the pretext that Pakistan faces a perennial existential threat. Aasim Sajjad said that working people need schools, hospitals, clean drinking water, jobs and other basic amenities and after 63 years it is time to change the priorities of the state away from ‘national security’ towards ‘human security.

Ayub Malik, general secretary of the Awami Party Pakistan (APP) said that all over the world professional militaries are answerable to the elected representatives of the people and this must be the case in Pakistan as well. He said that the root of the problem is that the military establishment continues to insist on enmity with neighbouring countries and thereby justifies its monopoly over public resources. Ayub Malik said that Pakistan’s people want to be at peace with our neighbours and at peace with ourselves and this is only possible if there is civilian oversight of the military and accountability of its performance.

Other speakers on the occasion included well-known trader and PPP stalwart Jehangir Akhtar, student leader Alia Amirali from NSF, Aurangzeb Khan of the Railway Mehnatkash Union, Talha Saad of the Young Doctors Association, and representatives of the All Pakistan Government Employees and of teachers associations. In closing, the protestors warned parliament that it must take up the demands of the Pakistani people otherwise its own credibility would be called into question.