President Fanoos Gujjar Vice President Abida Chaudhry Senior Vice President Yousuf Masti Khan | General Secretary Akhtar Hussain Deputy General Secretary Ismat Shahjahan Finance Secretary Shazia Khan (AWP) | |
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The Awami Workers Party or People's Workers Party (Urdu: عوامی ورکرز پارٹی) is a left-wing political party in Pakistan. The party’s programme was designed to bring together the disparate struggles of workers, peasants, students, women and ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan under the banner of a genuinely democratic and socialist politics.
Contents
Genesis
It was formed in November 2012, as a merger of the Labour Party Pakistan, the Awami Party Pakistan and the Workers Party Pakistan. This merger reflects recognition within leftist circles, both of the growing contradictions within the prevailing structure of power and the need for unity and maturity so as to take advantage of these contradictions. The merger process was impelled by younger activists within these three parties, and some outside of them, that do not carry the baggage of Cold War sectarian conflicts (read: Stalinists, Trotskyists, Maoists, etc.).
While not the first attempt to forge Left unity, the formation of the AWP generated a great deal of excitement amongst progressives both within and outside the country due to its promise of building upon the best traditions of the twentieth century left and making ideological and organizational adaptations necessary for a viable leftist project in the present century.
In the first 20 months of AWP’s inception, as the cauldron that is Pakistani politics has become even more explosive, the fledgling party confirmed its credentials as the only meaningful Left alternative to the status quo in Pakistan. As the contradictions of state, imperialism, patriarchy and combined and uneven development in a multi-national country grow increasingly acute, reactionaries of all hues have consolidated their monopoly over political discourse, aided by a complicit corporate media.
The party held its First Congress on Sept 27–28, which consolidated the first phase of party-building, with the election of its national leadership following sub-national party elections around the country.
AWP continues to work towards becoming a genuine progressive and socialist political alternative to the material and ideological status-quo in Pakistan that is equipped to deal with the challenges posed by the forces of capital, imperialism and reaction in the contemporary era.
This merger reflects recognition within leftist circles, both of the growing contradictions within the prevailing structure of power and the need for unity and maturity so as to take advantage of these contradictions.
At the party's founding congress, Abid Hassan Minto was elected president, Fanoos Gujjar chairman and Farooq Tariq general secretary.
General elections 2013
In the Pakistani general election, 2013 the party received 18,650 votes or 0.04% of the national share.
AWP in Gilgit-Baltistan
AWP is active in politics of Gilgit-Baltistan. It has taken interest in protests against government of Pakistan, for it is lacking in Gilgit Baltistan. AWP is accused of being anti-Pakistani, but party has rejected all such claims.
AWP took part in elections of 2015. Baba Jan was AWP's candidate, in GBLA-6 constituency. Jan bagged most votes after PMLN's Mir Gazanfar Ali. New elections in GBLA-6 are expected to be held in September 2016 after the seat became vacant on Mir Gazanfar's appointment as Governor of Gilgit Baltistan.