Memoirs of a Life in the Pakistani Labour Movement TUFAIL ABBAS TRANSLATED BY ASMA ABBAS Struggle for Freedom After Freedom Memoirs of a Life in the Pakistani Labour Movement TUFAIL ABBAS TRANSLATED BY ASMA ABBAS ii Struggle for Freedom After Freedom iii Struggle for Freedom After Freedom CONTENTS List of Abbreviations Used V Early Years in Undivided India 1 In Pakistan: A Voyage of Hope and Discovery 4 First Formal Lessons in Class Struggle 7 Initiations into the Labour Movement 9 Setting Political Course 13 The Long 1950s 16 Martial Law Comes to the Airline 26 Piecing Together a Struggling Movement 37 The 1965 War and After 43 PIA As Arena For Dangerous National Politics 61 Another War and a New Political Stage 69 Bhutto’s Days of Wine and Roses 89 The End of an Era 119 After the Tragedy 131 The Eleven-Year Rule and Its Undoing 143 Index 156 iv Struggle for Freedom After Freedom List of Abbreviations Used AEU Airways Employees Union APSO All-Pakistan Students Organization ARD Alliance for the Restoration for Democracy AL Awami League ANP Awami National Party APP Azad Pakistan Party BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation CBA Collective Bargaining Agent CIA Central Investigation Agency (US) CID Criminal Investigation Department (Pakistan) CMLA Chief Marshal Law Administrator DSF Democratic Students Federation DSP Deputy Superintendent of Police FENA Flight Engineers National Association IB Intelligence Bureau IJI Islami Jamhoori Ittehad JI Jamaat-e-Islami KPT Karachi Port Trust MRD Movement for the Restoration of Democracy MQM Muhajir Qaumi Movement ML Muslim League MMA Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal NAP National Awami Party NLRB National Labour Relations Board NSF National Student Federation NWFP North-West Frontier Province PIA Pakistan International Airlines PIAC Pakistan International Airlines Corporation PIACE Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Employees Union v Struggle for Freedom After Freedom PMM Pakistan Mazdoor Mahaz PALPA Pakistan Airline Pilots Association PML Pakistan Muslim League PML-N Pakistan Muslim League—Nawaz Group PML-Q Pakistan Muslim League—Quaid Group QMM Qaumi Mazdoor Mahaz SSA Senior Staff Association SAEP Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan SP Superintendent of Police TI Tehreek-e-Istiqlal UPIAE Union of PIA Employees US United States USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics vi Struggle for Freedom After Freedom Chapter 1 Early Years in Undivided India e are truly alive only in struggle, and memories from this struggle are W the fruit of one’s life. My earliest recollections are steeped in the terrifying shadows of orphanhood. My father, Akhtar Hussain, a young man in his thirties, died during my middle school exams. I must have been about ten then, the eldest of four children, with two sisters Zia Akhtar and Nargis, and a brother Zaki who was barely a year old. Part recollection, part imagination, I try to piece together what my mother, widowed at such a young age with four little children must have suffered, bereft of protection and position, with little preparation and few resources to confront the new reality. My paternal grandmother—dadi—and my mother—whom we called apa—wished for me to get educated and make a name for myself and the family, so that I could take on the responsibilities of the household as quickly as possible. But circumstances were not to allow for anything but the most barebones education. Making my way through secondary school, I passed the high school matriculation examination at 14 or 15 years of age, too early to get a real job. So that I could continue studying, my dadi sold a piece of her ancestral land, which was the sole source of our livelihood after my father’s passing. In 1946, I completed my Bachelor of Arts from Aligarh Muslim University. Had the second world war not ended, I would most probably have enlisted in the Army. The poverty and deprivation of those early years of my life also brought along a righteous urge to fight that sense of inferiority. An early infusion in the Shiite faith had made the battle between Hussainiyat and Yazidiyat a critical part of my genealogy, where we were with Hussain against anything that symbolized injustice, oppression, greed, and brute power. This persistent image of the aggressor and the unjust fed a fire of rebellion very early on. The year was 1940, and I was in grade VIII at the Muslim High School in Bulandsheher, United Provinces. There was a buzz about the Khaksars, a movement spurred by the effects of the Great Depression that targeted the British empire and wanted the formation of a Hindu-Muslim government. 1 Struggle for Freedom After Freedom One day, news reached the school compound that there was a Khaksar demonstration in town. I made my way to the rally with some other kids, only to find that the police had surrounded the activists and were shoving them towards the jail. When the activists resisted, the police opened fire. Within moments, many activists lay dead. We scuffled our way towards the jail and saw blood everywhere. This was my first experience of the battle between the colonizer and the colonized; it shook my entire being. By the time the Quit India movement, took hold, I was in college, a student at the Intermediate level. I went to a rally organized by the Congress Party. The rally was well-attended, mostly by college students like me. The country was in resistance against the British, and this was a small part of it. No matter how small that part, arrests happened in big numbersests, perhaps testifying to the power of the resistance. This further strengthened my anti- British sentiment. A few years on, in 1945, I was studying at Aligarh University during the heyday of the Muslim League. With no certainty about wanting to leave India, I was at least convinced that Pakistan was necessary. It was a matter of principle, I then thought, that Muslims should have a country of their own—perhaps this would also force the British to leave. Over time, I became got heavily involved in the movement for the creation of Pakistan. In those days a Collector by the name of Peter Dixon was in-charge of Aligarh, who was kept abreast of all political activities. One night I was with some friends at the railway station when the Chief Proctor of Aligarh University, Professor Omar Farooq, came by. When he saw us, he asked our names. Hearing my name, he took me to his nearby office and informed me of the twenty-two complaints against me. He told me that if I were honest about them, I would be forgiven, otherwise my fate would be in the hands of the Collector. I honestly admitted to all the complaints except for one, which was patently false: I never snatched a necklace from a prostitute in a railcar. He believed me, as he should have, and eliminated that accusation from the list. Muharram holidays intervened and I went home to Dibai. When I returned to the University after the break, the library personnel were preparing a notice. Meanwhile, Ijlal Hussain, a third-year student who was also a distant relative of mine (and went on to take an important position in the Bhutto government in the 70s), came up to me and said that I had been “sent down.” A sentence of “Send Down” meant that I was expelled from university for life 2 Struggle for Freedom After Freedom and would never be able to be back in it again. I felt the earth disappear under my feet; all I could think of was my mother’s face, my frail grandmother, my sisters, and my brother. This would be so disheartening and disgraceful for my family who had been counting on me for so much. It was surely the end to many dreams. I rushed to Professor Omar Farooq and reminded him that he had promised that I would be forgiven if I were to honestly accept the charges—instead I had been kicked out of the University. Obviously, he was aware of all the developments and added that Dixon was bent on arresting me, and it was due to Professor Ziauddin intervening on my behalf that the punishment was scaled down—and that instead of being put behind bars, I was asked to find my way out of the University. Thus began the tireless wanderings of my mother and grandmother, with me in tow in search of any open door. After much strife and with many tapped connections (notable among which was Fasahat Hussain), I was allowed back in the University. I took my exams and passed. I soon learnt that, in my absence, many complaints and allegations had been filed against me back in Dibai. Once back home, I was summoned to the police station many times—fortunately, a kind and fair police officer helped clear up my record. In Dibai, the atmosphere around the commemoration of the events of Karbala was intensely devotional and fervent, making it almost a truism that youths like us would be drawn to the lessons of Hussain against everything that Yazid symbolized. Our home was one of the central places where people gathered, with relatives and acquaintances coming from afar. One of these people was a gentleman by the name of Sibtain—lovingly called Munnay— who had a shoemaking business in Bombay. Whenever I met him in Majalis and Juloos, he told me many stories of Bombay workers, their unions, and the red flag. There was also mention of a workers’ party. It was he who told me about the Navy strike of 1946, how the workers were able to shut down all of Bombay in protest against the British.