— in the beginning there was a treaty SIND IS one of Pakistan's four provinces. Its interior contains one of the most masses. These are the 'haris' or poor peasants.
1948-9 the appointed a committee to study their Dient. its report was a whitewash. but a civil servant produced a dissenting tenort. known atter him as the Masud Report. These few quotes readers some idea of the Sind 'hari'.
*They [the haris] are human beings and, as such, rational animals, and though they drudge like burden, they privileges nor any rights of human beings... When I came to Sind I was shocked see the contons ol lae Nars•. lucy are No better than serfs. They live in the most primitive conditions conception of economic rights...
scattered. tar from one another. in small hamlets consisting of thatched mud houses. Most of them share huts with cattle...
"The hari who has cultivated a piece of land for several generations does not know how long he will be the British burnt whole villages and massacred their inhabitants.
In the second British-Afghan 1878-80, the British decided that the best way of Afghans as they could lay their During a similar conflict at the end of the 19th century, even Winston Churchill proclaimed 'we are a very cruel people' as he watched British troops shoot prisoners and burn villages.
By the time of the third British-Afghan War • of 1919 the British had adopted a new technique for quelling rebellious natives. This consisted of using air power to strafe Afghan villages.
WAS after this Soviet-Afghan treaty was signed. Lenin greeted Afghanistan's successful battle for independence Britain estabusing independent Muslim state in the world', destined for 'the great historic task of uniting around itself all enslaved Muslim peoples and leading them to the road of freedom and independence'.
Buffer Soviet foreign policy independent Afghanistan not just because it recognised the right to self-determination and backed anti-imperialist ecause such a State served as a butter geninst LOVEI WILCHIL will give COLOU enjoy miserable without political They live included women allowed to stay zamindar War conflict that the only supported governments, but A woman poet addresses the audience several hundred on it. Fear reigns supreme. Fear of imprisonment, fear of losing his land, wife or life. The [landlord} might get The Khyber Pass in 1929 annoyed with him and oust him. The zamindar might at any time send for the hari for purposes of forced labour...
The hari behaves like a helpless when he has to face zamindar. It is not an unusual sight to see how numerous haris come and touch the feet of a zamindar...
*The zamindar is a feudal lord and maintains a legion of servants, owns fine horses, cows and buffaloes. He possesses a large number of firearms and hisso fiousnesses ev rupees.
into thousands Extravagance in food and dress, gross and vulear sexual ostentations are the things on which devotes his income.' [Masud Report quoted Tariq Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power, Cape, 1970].
Since that report there has been no qualitative improvement in the life of ine haris of Sind. But they becoming more organised. exclusive photographs show a Hari conference which was organised by the Sindhi Hari Committee in Rahuji Village in the interior of Sind on 8-9 October in 1979. The conference was nol pupucisea, our ive aclegale. attended from all over the province.
The day after it ended several important Sindhi leaders arrested. Rasul Baksh Palejo, Fazil Rahu and sixteen other organisers were arrested for organising an illegal meeting. They were tried by summary military court. Palejo was sentenced to a year in prison. Others were publicly flogged and sentenced to prison. The local police chiefs were suspended for their failure to informt military authorities of conference. The right-wing expressed its 'anxiety' that the 'fires of communism' were being lit in the rural areas of Sind.
is the real face of Zia's India. Evident slim. practically communism's independence This death.
In this follows in 1929:
THE HANGMAN has now become the custodian of the 'free world' in South Asia. The repressive and which Pakistan has being enthusiastically important media as the frontier Those Pakistanis sickened by this campaign will be highly amused, for Zia's record is an open book.
Ali's: In September 1970 fearless military leader was in Jordan, on loan Ene class to the Hashemite monarch. In other words mercenary. He helped to carry out the These bloodiest massacre history.
Palestinian killed. As a token of his King Hussein presented Zia-ul-Haq one of Jordan's two hillary awards. Lla saw absoluleiy no contradiction (as Muslim) in killing Palestinians and Pakistan's so-called support for their cause.
were Five years later Bhutto appointed him Chiet of General Staf Army. Zia obsequious, a uniformed Uriah Heep.
In 1977 Bhutto's daughter Benazir, then at Oxford, socialist who had just returned from a short-visit what he thought of the country's immediate the replied bluntly: "Either your will be assassinated or there will be a military coup.' Replied Benazir: grant you he might be assassinated, but a coup, never. You see Zia is in possible-British invasion of the Soviet Union via The Bolsheviks also knew that the possibility of comminist revelution in Afghanistan was very The Afghanistan the concentrated their efforts in Asia on assisting the Indian Communist Party. Al the same time the have hoped evident _respect for would sprese communist ideas in the comatry.
policy was continued after Stalin's policy "socialism country' — stressing that support for revolutions elsewhere must come second to the defence of the — was to sentence to death man! revolutions and revolutionaries throughout the world. But in Afghanistan it had less effect as no communist movement existed there.
sense the . Soviet attitude Afghanistan at the end of the 1920s differed little from that outlined previously by the Soviet-Afghan treaty of 1921. Rykov, the Chairperson of People's Commissars, put it as Who is Zia-ul-Haq?
our pocket.' that no most brutal, unpopular ever had is now acclaimed by yestern of freedom. servility.
who яге Pakistan's Pakistani ruling state-sponsored in Palestinian indefinite Hundreds and hundreds of freedom-fighters were CE LiCo gratitude, oppositional accompanica highest thousands "devout National Party, off many Mengal.
in Afghanistan. promoted as a was suitably by the Pakistani asked a Pakistani future. He father DECUIC transform rather than later.
Afghanistan and social character, an independent state now for six months was Soviets actively supported from withost.
situation tha Soviet/ Afghas border...e Afghan policy of internal affairs of th Lenin's Convulsions And this 'Our neighbours greal, greal telals suffered basic principies Lenin and by the other.
general was ever pocket' of any civilian politician. But this story, which is not apocryphal, reveals Bhutto's over-confidence. He genuinely believed that Zia was a safe bet because he was both extremely stupid and cultivated a facade The general's low cunning ultimately defeated Bhutto.
Zia lied incessantly. He promised elections within six months when he first seized power. He has since made three other promises in order to keep the politicians dangling in mid-air. ASICO Del he announced an postponement of the and banned all political closing down a number This was the arrest of activists of Bhutto's Party and the which is led by the veteran Baluchi leaders Bizenjo and Today Zia has been given a new lease of life by the Soviet intervention He is now being stable and efficient defender of Western interests. It is true that the army is the only effective instrument the West has in Pakistan. But Zia and his regime are hated people. Not all the aid of the IMF/World Bank or the military might of the United States will save him for long. • He is hemmed in by Babrak Kemal, Khomeini and Indira Gandhi. And we would venture attempi into Saudi Arabia without oil will fail sooner the utmost regret that the internal crisis which people are now going throu complicațed by antagonisms of a national, rac is being prolonged. country which for the ten years of its existenct a made great progress. been in a state of aii thanks to the opposition of reactionary forces "I must also direct your alteation to the tan certain was reiterated by the Vice-Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Litvisor:
the Afghans have. borne this year. Afghanistan convulsions which have caused anxiety, interested as we are in the Afghan people fully preserving their independence. Faithfal to of our policy tie have refrained from the slightest intervention in the bitter internal struggles taking place in that country, and from supporting one group againsi Socialist Challenge 17 January 1980 Page 5
the convenor of factory, He was also BL Combine unofficial