COMMUNITY

The Pakistani Left, Separatism & Student Movements

Activist Ammar Ali Jan in conversation with Kamil Ahsan.

Ammar Ali Jan

We worry too much about divisions within the left. It can be very productive if people engage in a decent, intellectual conversation. Actual disagreements shouldn't be repressed for the sake of some mythical unity.

Editor's Note: Throughout the Baloch student long march & the #PashtunLongMarch2Karachi, the Pakistani state cracked down on activists—including Ammar Ali Jan—and continues to. This conversation took place in September 2020. A detention order for Ammar Ali Jan was issued in late November 2020. It was far from the first time he had faced detention, intimidation, or threats from the state. Granted pre-arrest bail, the detention order was lifted in December by the Lahore High Court, with LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan saying: “In Pakistan, influential people will not let their rivals to move freely by misusing ‘detention orders’."

We worry too much about divisions within the left. It can be very productive if people engage in a decent, intellectual conversation. Actual disagreements shouldn't be repressed for the sake of some mythical unity.

Editor's Note: Throughout the Baloch student long march & the #PashtunLongMarch2Karachi, the Pakistani state cracked down on activists—including Ammar Ali Jan—and continues to. This conversation took place in September 2020. A detention order for Ammar Ali Jan was issued in late November 2020. It was far from the first time he had faced detention, intimidation, or threats from the state. Granted pre-arrest bail, the detention order was lifted in December by the Lahore High Court, with LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan saying: “In Pakistan, influential people will not let their rivals to move freely by misusing ‘detention orders’."

SUB-HEAD

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A Dhivehi Artists Showcase

Shebani Rao

A Freelancer's Guide to Decision-Making

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Interview

Pakistan

Student Movements

Baloch Students Organization-Azad

Haqooq-e-Khalq Movement

Student Solidarity March

Baloch Student Long March

Pashtun Tahafuz Movement

Shehri Tahafuz Movement

Zaigham Abbas

Universities

State Repression

Repression in Universities

Partha Chatterjee

Subaltern Studies

Karl Polanyi

People's Solidarity Forum

Neofeudalism

Neoliberalism

Constitutionalism

Pashtun Long March

Trade Unions

Electoral Politics

Elections

AMMAR ALI JAN is an activist, historian, and educator. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Cambridge, where he worked on communist thought in India. His work explores the intersection of communism and nationalism in Colonial India by examining how European ideas are extended and reshaped as they circulate in the non-European world. He is also a member of the Haqooq-e-Khalq Movement (HKM), a civil rights campaign dedicated to safeguarding the constitutional rights of Pakistani citizens. He is a regular contributor to The News International, and has taught at Government College, Punjab University, and Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan.