Over two dozen candidates from LDF component parties — 2 from the HKP, 9 from the AWP, 10 from AT, and one from the MKP — are contesting polls.
News Desk
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) will support its component parties’ candidates in the forthcoming general elections slated for February 8, 2024.
This was by the LDF leaders while addressing a news conference at the Lahore Press Club after holding an important meeting of the Front at the Research and Publications Centre on December 28.
Those who spoke at the press conference included LDF secretary Taimur Rehman (Mazdoor Kisaan Party), Noor Ahmed Katyar, General Secretary, Awami Tehreek, Dr Bakhshal Thalho, General Secretary, Awami Workers Party, Farooq Tariq, President Huqooq-e-Khalq Party, Baba Jan, Chairman, AWPGB, and Abida Choudhry, General Secretary, AWP-Punjab
Currently, 22 candidates are running in elections from LDF parties. Two from the Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP), Nine from the Awami Workers Party (AWP), 10 from Awami Tehreek (AT), and one from the Mazdoor Kissan Party (MKP).
The meeting examined the political and economic situation in the country and passed various resolutions, according to a statement issued by the LDF general secretary.
Establishment’s meddling in politics, economy
The LDF urged the people to resist the continuous interference of the establishment in the political processes. The meddling of the establishment in politics and the economy has always yielded negative results for society.
“We stand against the persecution of any political party by the establishment. Despite our strong misgivings about the authoritarian policies of the PTI during its tenure, we oppose attacks on the PTI by the establishment…”
The statement stated that the elections must be held on time and ought to be free, fair, and without any interference from the establishment.
We also feel that the 18th Amendment was a positive step, although it remains incomplete, and must be defended to safeguard Pakistan’s federal and multinational nature.
Left Democratic Front leadership insession at the Research and Publication Centre, Lahore, Dec 28, 2023
In the coming elections, the LDF component parties will support each other in all constituencies. Wherever a candidate from one of these parties is standing for election, the members of the other LDF parties will support that candidate, it read.
Economy imperialism
The LDF appeals to the people of Pakistan to stand against the economic imperialism of IMF which has resulted in rising cost of living and the de-industrialisation of Pakistan.
The policies of privatization, liberalization, and deregulation pursued since the 1990s have yielded no significant positive results in redressing the balance of trade and balancing the budgets.
LDF will resist the privatization of power distribution companies (DISCOs), PIA, Railways, and Steel Mills and will present an alternative plan to revive these units.
SIFC
The formation of the Single Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) is a problematic initiative because it eliminates any possibility of democratic or civilian supremacy over economic policymaking.
The LDF feels that Pakistan must struggle for its economic independence against such forms of economic imperialism. Only the Left has the programme for true economic independence of a federal democratic Pakistan.
The LDF opposes the decision to give thousands of acres of land to military-related companies and multinational companies. Instead, this land should be given to the landless peasants to help bring rural people out of poverty.
LDF member parties have been struggling against this loot and will continue to organise the peasants against land grabbing by the military and the real estate mafia.
How the natural resources of Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, Balochistan, Sindh, and Punjab are being given away to the MNC has not only destroyed people’s livelihoods but also constitutes enormous environmental degradation and destruction.
Instead of these corporate farming solutions, LDF demands a comprehensive land reform to eliminate feudalism and capitalism from Pakistan.
Baloch March for Missing Persons
The mistreatment of the Baloch marchers led by Mahrang Baloch in Islamabad was a grave and criminal act that has demonstrated that the state is unwilling to negotiate with the Baloch.
The suppression of the peaceful protest has further alienated the Baloch and caused protests to erupt in the whole of Balochistan. The state must immediately cease military operations, produce the missing persons, stop enforced disappearances from all national units, and stay strictly within the ambit of the law and constitutional safeguards of all citizens. There is no military solution to this conflict.
Climate Change
The world is confronting an existential crisis in the form of climate disaster. The people of the Third World have been made to suffer the environmental consequences of the capitalist industrialisation of the North. Climate change caused devastating floods in Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan and 90% of those affected by these floods in Sindh and Balochistan have still not been compensated, the statement read.
Instead, South Asian countries are chained in debt, with rising taxes on the poor, and rising cost of living. The global South demands reparations, debt cancellation, taxes only for the rich, and welfare for the poor. Global justice must prevail and the capitalist-imperialist system that is causing this crisis must be eliminated.
Genocide in Ghaza
The LDF noted that Israel’s bombardment and attack on Gaza had destroyed the infrastructure of that society which constitutes genocide. With over 21,000 deaths and counting, the war situation is not merely against a specific party but against the general Palestine population.
We call on the people of Pakistan to support the BDS campaign against all those companies that are supporting the death and destruction of the people of Palestine.
LDF supports the freedom and dignity of all Palestinians. We affirm that the Palestinians are struggling against the last vestiges of settler-colonialism in the third world. In other words, this is a national liberation struggle.