Pakistan’s early communists

BY BASHARAT HUSSAIN QIZILBASH , (LAST UPDATED MAY 27, 2018)

The dream of a socialist Pakistan

Celebration of birthdays of living and dead leaders is a norm in Pakistan, however, Karl
Marx’s birthday, which was celebrated worldwide, passed unnoticed, here. Marx’s idea
of communism revolutionised whole societies in Russia, China, Cuba and North Korea,
to name a few; little is known as to how Marxism affected Pakistan after its creation in
1947, especially when that time was the heyday of the global communist movement.

Communism did ‘infect’ Pakistan, nonetheless, its beginning was inauspicious in some
ways according to the research by Himayatullah Yaqubi, a Research Fellow at the
National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Islamabad. Ironically, the need to
set up a communist party in Pakistan was not felt by Pakistanis but by the Communist
Party of India (CPI) at its Calcutta conference in March 1948. Within six months of
Pakistan’s creation, the Indian communists had come to the conclusion that the ruling
Muslim League which had spearheaded the movement for Pakistan was a reactionary
organisation upholding the interests of landlords, princes and capitalists and their
policies were suppressing the genuine demand of self-determination of ethnic
nationalities such as the Bengalis, Pashtuns, Sindhis and the Balochis as well as pushing
the toiling masses to poverty and serfdom.

The CPI sent Sajjad Zaheer from UP, India, with the mission to form the Communist
Party of Pakistan (CPP) in 1948. The CPP was not an independent entity as it depended
upon the instructions of the CPI regarding its policies and operations. Sajjad Zaheer did
raise a team of active comrades, prominent among whom were Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sibte
Hassan and Ferozuddin Mansur. In addition to the constitution of a party structure, they
tried to organise workers and intellectuals through Pakistan Trade Union Federation and
Progressive Writers Association, respectively. The chief objective of the CPP was to
revolutionise Pakistan into a secular socialist state. This was profane for many
Pakistanis then as it is now. Despite strong economic and political reasons behind the
creation of Pakistan, the League had successfully built the ‘Two-Nation’ narrative which
promised a homeland for the Muslims where they could live their lives according to the
pristine precepts of Islam. This narrative had sold successfully even in the Muslim
majority provinces that became Pakistan despite no threat from the Hindu or Sikh
minorities. While the euphoria of religious nationalism was still high, the prospect of a
socialist Pakistan propagated by a bunch of communists taking instructions from India
was least attractive at best and a ‘conspiracy’ against the ‘religious basis’ and ‘integrity’
of the nascent state at worst. Overall, there were few buyers of socialism but in relative
terms the takers were more in east Bengal than the western provinces.

“
The last meeting of the CPP members, who escaped imprisonment, was held in Karachi in
May 1951 in which some disheartened members proposed to dissolve the party

Added to this was the problem that the CPP leadership itself lacked deep understanding
of the Marxist doctrine and training as to how the communist movements worked in
Soviet Russia and China. It is true that there was abject poverty as well as exploitation
and oppression of the toiling masses; the Pakistani communists just failed to tap this
potential to their advantage.

The prospect of a communist awakening doomed when the CPP got involved in the
Rawalpindi Conspiracy in 1951. When Latif Afghani, the CPP person, in charge of
cultivating contacts among the ‘progressive’ elements in the army reported the
resentment of Major General Akbar Khan regarding the Kashmir policy and
subservience of Premier Liaquat’s government to the Anglo-American policies, the
Communist Party convened an emergency meeting of its top leadership in which on the
insistence of its secretary general, Sajjad Zaheer, it was decided to join hands with
Akbar Khan to overthrow the government. As a price for supporting the coup as well as
the new government under Akbar Khan, not only the arrest warrants against the CPP
members were to be withdrawn but the party was to enjoy full freedom to organise
peasants, workers, students and professional classes on socialist lines, however, the
conspiracy was busted by Liaquat’s government. The core leadership of the CPP was
thrown behind the bars on charges of high treason, the party apparatus was smashed and
its secret documents were seized. Thus ended the dream of a socialist Pakistan.

The CPP vanished into thin air well before it was officially banned by the state of
Pakistan in 1954. The role of the top leader is the key to the success or failure of any
organisation. The last meeting of the CPP members, who escaped imprisonment, was
held in Karachi in May 1951 in which some disheartened members proposed to dissolve
the party altogether and put the entire blame of the failure of the CPP on its leader
Sajjad Zaheer. Success has many fathers while defeat is always orphan! Had Sajjad
Zaheer been successful, the history of the CPP could have been different? But why did
he choose the undemocratic way over the democratic way of electoral politics to secure
power? The answer lies with Sajjad Zaheer’s Indian handler, BT Ranadive of the CPI,
who pushed him to adopt a militant approach to grab power.

After the ban, the CPP leadership as well as the rank and file went hither and thither. On
release, Sajjad Zaheer went back to India while Ashfaq Beg and Muhammad Afzal
escaped to Moscow and London, respectively. Those who remained in Pakistan joined
other parties. The Bengali communists gathered around the ‘Red Mullah of Bengal’
Maulana Abdul Hameed Bhashani in the Awami League; the Punjabi communists
flocked around Mian Iftikhar ud Din’s Azad Pakistan Party (APP); the Pashtun
communists sought refuge in Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgar Movement and
later on played a significant role in the formation of the National Awami Party (NAP) in
1957; the Sindhi comrades found a new life in the Hari Committee while a group of
loose communists continued to survive in Karachi.

Basharat Hussain Qizilbash

The writer is an academic and journalist. He can be reached at qizilbash2000@yahoo.com.