Mazdoor Kissan Party
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The Mazdoor Kissan Party (MKP) was a communist party in Pakistan struggling for democracy and social justice.
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[edit] History
Creation
At the end of 1967 the National Awami Party (NAP) in Pakistan split into the factions of Bhashani and Wali Khan. The leftist members of the NAP, many of whom were active in a Peasant Committee, decided to follow the Wali Khan faction. Soon after, the leadership of the Wali Khan, being landlords, decided to put a ban on the Peasant Committee. The leftists, led by Afzal Bangash, decided to leave the NAP rather than shut down the Peasant Committee and furthermore establish the MKP. On 1. May 1968, at a meeting in Peshawar, the Mazdoor Kissan Party was formed with Afzal Bangash as leader.
Early History
The MKP soon started to work together with several factions in Pakistan including the Major Ishaque Mohammad group in Punjab and leftist groups in East Pakistan. In 1970 the Ishaque group merged with MKP. The party's main focus was on the peasantry, inspired by the struggles of the Chinese, Vietnamese and African people. It achieved immediate success in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, where spontaneous struggles between peasants and landlords were already taking place due to Ayub Khan's land reforms and imposition of farm machinery. The MKP provided the organisation and leadership needed by the peasant rebellion and in turn the movement gained tremendous following in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movement was not only facing the private armies of the landlords but also attempts by the state to stop it by force. The fight continued through three governments: Yahya Khan's military regime, the NAP-JUI government and the provincial government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Soon even the landlords belonging to the different parties banded together in the Ittehad Party in order to crush the rebellion.
The provincial NAP-JUI stood firmly behind the landlords in the struggle and, failing to get the central government to establish a ban on the MKP, tried to smear the party by putting forward the notion that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had initiated the peasant movement. Still, the government of NAP-JUI fell and the MKP continued on, now facing the PPP.
One of the greatest clashes between the peasantry and the state took place in July 1971 at Mandani. In a daylong pitched battle an army of 1500 heavily armed policemen were routed with a casualty rate of about 20 peasants and party cadres. Another struggle took place at the end of the NAP-JUI government period. Around 8000 militia and Rangers were deployed in the Malakand Agency in order to stop the MKP. During this time the party's vice-president Maulvi Mohammad Sadiq was assassinated.
The MKP ignored parliamentary and bourgeois forms of democratic struggle and did not participate in the general elections in 1970. It condemned military action against Bengalis during the emergence of Bangladesh and at the same time struggled for the breaking op of One Unit in West Pakistan. The question of nationality in Pakistan was not addressed properly by the MKP, and it also failed to organise in the Sind and Baluchistan. Still, the MKP had strong support among the peasantry of the Peshawar and Mardan districts, the Malakand Agency and the former states of Swat and Dir. It also built support in parts of Hazara and Punjab.
The first national congress of the party was held in May 1973 at Shergarh in the Mardan District. Armed security guards were placed around the area, and a strike of bus owners was set off in order to prevent people from attending. This failed though as 5000 delegates, helped by disobeying drivers and MKP militants, attended the congress. An energetic debate took place during which Ishaque Mohammad was elected as president of the party and Sher Ali Bacha as General Secretary.
Elections and internal differences
[edit] Political program
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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