By Farooq Tariq, general secretary Awami Workers Party, Pakistan

June 11, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- It was one of best votes for any left candidate during an general election held in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan for decades.

Imprisoned Baba Jan, candidate of Awami Workers Party (AWP), won 4641 votes and came second during the Gilgit Baltistan legislative assembly election held on June 8, 2015.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) candidate got 8245 votes and won the seat. The winning candidate is the former ruler of the Hunza estate who had with billions of rupees at his disposal.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which won the seat in the 2009 election, trailed behind Baba Jan with 3201 votes, while the newly established bourgeois party of cricketer Imran Khan, Tehreek Insaaf (Justice Movement), was in fourth position with 2291 votes. The religious Shia party Majlis Wahadat Muslimeen (MWM) came fifth with 1041 votes, and the candidate of the party of former dictator General Musharaf, the All Pakistan Muslim League, was last on 254.

Political prisoner

Baba Jan has been in jail since September 2014 and is serving a life sentence announced by an "anti-terrorist" court. His real crime was to help the victims of climate change who had protested for fair compensation for the collapse of the Atta Abad artificial lake that was created by a landslide on the River Hunza in 2010. As leader of the Progressive Youth Front, Baba Jan had led a mass movement that took control of the town of Ali Abad for four days. They were demanding the registration of a murder case against a police officer who had killed a protesting father and son.

Baba Jan was arrested in 2011 and spent two years in jail before being released on bail. He was arrested again after a brief period and a life sentence was imposed on him. A second life sentence was imposed a few days later. The appellate court (the Supreme Court Gilgit Baltistan) has acquitted Baba Jan and his 12 comrades in one case and an appeal is being launched against the second life sentence.

Baba Jan was allowed to take part in the election of 35-seat Gilgit Baltistan legislative assembly; 24 seats were contested directly and the rest filled through quotas.

Baba Jan hails from a working-class family. He did not have billions of rupees to spend on the election campaign. However, he had led mass movements and was known throughout the scenic Hunza valley, which borders China, India and Afghanistan.

When Baba Jan and his comrades decided to take part in the election, there was no formal structure of the Awami Workers Party. The AWP had decided not to build AWP in the valley because constitutionally Gilgit Baltistan is not part of Pakistan. The AWP respected the independent views of the comrades residing in the valley who are fighting for greater autonomy and rights.

However, if comrades in the valley decided to build a party with the name of the Awami Workers Party Gilgit Baltistan, we had no objection. It was already decided by Baba Jan and other comrades in the valley to name their new party AWP GB but the process to establish the formal structures was still underway .

At the founding congress of the AWP in September 2014, two slots on the federal committee were allotted to the comrades of Gilgit Baltistan. The two elected included Baba Jan, who was in jail, and another who was residing in Islamabad for professional reasons.

Who would run the campaign? A comradely discussion started within the AWP about what to do. The view that without the party, the election of Baba Jan would not have much benefit had quite a weight. The other view was “let’s build the party during the election campaign”.

To start with, we established an organising committee of the AWP in Hunza. It was elected at the first AWP membership meeting in Hunza at the beginning of May, a month before the election. A broader election campaign organising committee was established with nationalists, progressives and AWP comrades, led by veteran left activist and engineer Aman Ullah.

Baba Jan is a towering left activist with no hint of sectarianism. He had built great respect among all progressive with his full-time revolutionary work over a decade. As a student leader, he was the top leader of PPP youth. He left them to join Labour Party Pakistan in 2001 and became part of the top leadership of the party. His main contribution was to build the Progressive Youth Front, a youth organisation started by supporters of the LPP. The LPP merged to form the AWP in 2012 and Baba Jan became the first vice-president of the AWP.

Now after the election, we have an AWP organising committee and 1000 membership forms have been distributed among the youth. We hope to expand the network to other areas of the valley as well.

Personalities do matter

Baba Jan participated in all the mass movements in the valley along with the nationalist forces but still kept his socialist ideas intact and never joined a nationalist group. He took up the issue of the artificial lake and toured Pakistan addressing press conferences and organising youth meetings to warn about the great dangers of the climate change. The Atta Abad Lake became a national issue because of Baba Jan's great personal initiatives.

He was also one of the main leaders of Awami Action Committee that organised a mass movement against the withdrawal of the state subsidy on wheat. He was part of the sit-in for weeks and addressed thousands every day. He is a great orator. The movement forced the PPP government in 2013 to withdraw the suggestion of removing subsidies.

Baba Jan was always for the organisation of a left party, and is not an individual who is keen to promote himself above the party-building process.

Baba Jan’s name is very sweet, Baba literally means old wise person and Jan means life. During the election campaign the most popular slogan with a great rhythm was “Teri Jan Meri Jan Baba Jan Baba Jan”. It means your life and my life is Baba Jan.

Campaign

We had no funds in our party account for elections. The sudden announcement by PMLN government to go to an election had surprised everyone. The PMLN government had just signed a $140 billion agreement with the Chinese government to build an economic corridor from Gwader port to China that would pass through Gilgit Baltistan. An impression was created that the valley would be the main beneficiary. The PMLN wanted to be on the receiving end of this political mileage.

The AWP sent an immediate donation appeal to all friends and comrades inside and outside. However, the AWP had been raising funds on several initiatives during the year, so there was not much hope.

Posters and party flags were printed and sent from Lahore. It takes nearly 48 hours to send things to Gilgit from Lahore. Several students from Gilgit who had been working along with Baba Jan had already announced they would go back home to take part in the election campaign. This was a great beginning. Young students from elite private universities opted to carry all this printed matter with them all the way to Gilgit. As the first batch of students with printed matter arrived, it was snatched up by supporters who wanted to take them to their own areas.

The constituency is spread over hundreds of kilometres around the mountains and valleys; it is one of the largest constituencies, with 36,000 voters. “Send us another 1000 AWP flags and 10,000 posters” was the call we received.

Flag making also takes time. Within three days another round of printed matter was sent. The first great rally was taken on May 24, which surprised everyone. People of the area brought their own vehicles, motorcycles and tractors for the rally. The second rally that I participated in on May 31. Never in the history of this constituency had so many people with hundreds of cars, motorcycles and tractors participated in a very charged rally. We had the largest public meeting in the home town of the PMLN candidate and challenged his royal authority.

Here is what one young socialist and member AWP Islamabad, Ammar Rashid, accurately wrote about the election campaign after his return from the area: