The Conference on Struggle and Solidarity Among the Oppressed Nationalities organized by the Jammu Kashmir Awami Action Committee Rawalpindi-Islamabad at the National Press Club, commemorated the International Human Rights Day in Pakistan on December 10, 2023.
By Mehnat Kash Tarik, Pakistan
Important speeches addressed the regrettable situation of oppressed nationalities in Pakistan.
Advocate Sajid Kashar denounced both national and global capitalism for turning the world into a prison for oppressed nationalities and for looting national resources and exploiting the working class. He called for the working class to build solidarity with oppressed nationalities.
Advocate Mudassar Mehboob denounced the disappearance of many people from two oppressed nationalities, including approximately 12,000 Balochs and 10,000 Pashtuns over the last years. He criticized the hypocrisy of the Pakistani State for declaring the Baloch, Pashtun, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Gilgit and Balti national resistance as agents of India, as well as the hypocrisy of the Indian State for considering the national resistance in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir as agents of Pakistan and China. Finally, he called for the working class to stand up for socialism to fulfill the democratic and national demands of the oppressed nationalities.
Advocates Raja Mujtaba Arbat, Wajid Ali Wajid, and Rashid Naeem, members of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Public Action Committee denounced the ongoing violence by the Pakistan-sponsored Jammu and Kashmir rulers against the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have been protesting for the past six months over electricity bills and national rights. They stood for the unity of the oppressed nationalities to fight back for their national rights including the election of a Constituent Assembly.
Advocate Safiullah Makhdoom Khaliq-ul-Zaman, representing the Awami Action Committee Gilgit-Baltistan, denounced the authorities’ use of communalism to break the struggle and unity of the people.
The National Democratic Movement central leader and former senator Afrasiab Khattak, Saraiki nationalist leader Abrar Rana, Balochistan Labor Federation leader Abdul Maruf Azad, MQM London organizer Momin Khan Momin and Jammu Kashmir Public Action Committee Rawalpindi-Islamabad leader advocate Nisar Shah stood for fighting together against those who suppress free speech, seize the resources of oppressed nations, and abduct political activists.
At the end of the conference, Baba Jan, leader of Public Action Committee Gilgit-Baltistan, denounced that the entire region has become a hotbed of imperialism, and stood up for the unity of the working classes and the oppressed nationalities from Gilgit-Baltistan to Gwadar.
Original article published here.
