Awami Tehrik rally and IS Pakistan meeting

With a small group from PILER, we set off to Saddar, the old commercial centre of Karachi, where overlooked by some rare, fine stone buildings, there is a rally of a thousand greeting the People’s Movement’s marchers. It’s very colourful as there are lots of Sindhi women wearing bright reds and yellows and greens. Two of the speeches are by women. After it’s over, I’m briefly introduced to Palejo, the tall, elderly, austere leader. As I understand, they are on the radical wing of the Sindhi nationalist movement, fighting for provincial autonomy but not fighting for the full land reform which would mean confronting the Sindhi landlord class, often called ‘feudals’, a brutal bunch.
From the rally to the regular International Socialists branch meeting. Ten comrades. After the meeting proper we talk about Afghanistan and much else. Almost two before I get to bed. Fortunately these sessions are alcohol free. Two comrades had just come back from a few days in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, the largest and poorest province, always oppressed. There is an ongoing low intensity insurrection against government rule. Not a safe place to talk socialist politics I thought but it becomes clear I’m wrong. One of the new IS comrades worked for a couple of years in a street market in Moscow. We manage to converse a bit in Russian, his being better than mine.
People are fairly amazed to see me. Not surprisingly, foreigners seem to have largely stopped coming though most places aren’t any more violent than before. Peshawar, capital of NWFP, and Swat and Waziristan, NWFP, where the army is in occupation, definitely are but they seem to be the exception.
Everywhere people talk about the Taliban whose cruelty is extreme. There is a lot of support for the army attacks on the Taliban strongholds in Swat in early summer and now in Waziristan. But there is no support for the closer and closer relations with the US. On the contrary, there is a real fear of becoming a neo-colony. Quite a paradox as the attacks on Swat and Waziristan were effectively following orders from Hillary Clinton. The widespread fear of ‘Talibanisation’ is strange as the polls show consistently the great majority of Pakistanis have no time at all for the mullahs.