LAHORE, Pakistan — On May 26, Rawalpindi police arrested well-known railway worker leader and president of Labour Unity Rawalpindi, Bashir Botter. The police are searching for seven other railway workers, and for the Labour Party Pakistan's (LPP) Punjab vice-chairperson Abida Bashir Botter whose only "crime" is that she is Bashir Botter's wife.
Earlier in May, Bashir Botter had been sacked by the railways administration on charges of organising illegal strikes and demonstrations. The police have charged him under the Pakistan Penal Code with intimidation, rioting and abetment, and under the Railway Act with destroying the peaceful atmosphere at railway premises.
On May 15, an army officer deployed at the railways ordered a security guard at the railway factory to shoot Botter if he came onto the premises. The security guard refused to do so and was then threatened with the sack.
These nine activists are paying the price of organising a movement of railway workers and their families against the demolition of railway workers' homes, the cancellation of piece work and the withdrawal of facilities for railway workers.
A peaceful demonstration was held on May 22 in front of the administration office of the railway carriage factory in Rawalpindi involving more than 1000 men, women and children. The action was organised by Labour Unity, an alliance of several trade unions and community-based organisations and supported by the LPP and other progressive political parties.
The demonstrators' main demands were for the restoration of piece work and the withdrawal of the notices to demolish railway workers' houses. The protesters also demanded Bashir Botter's reinstatement and real accountability within the railway administration.
The demonstration forced the deputy chief mechanical engineer to announce, at the protest action, that the railway administration would not demolish the houses and would restore piece work. However, the administration proceeded with criminal charges against Bashir Botter, Abida Bashir Botter and the other Labour Unity leaders.
After Bashir Botter was arrested he was taken to the woods about 30 kilometres from Rawalpindi and told to run away. It is a normal practice of police in Pakistan to shoot at any person escaping from police custody. Botter refused to try to escape.
The next day he was brought before a magistrate and his advocates, Aftab Ahmed Abbasi and Jehangir Awan (both LPP leaders), asked the magistrate for bail. All the offences Botter is supposed to have committed are bailable.
Surprisingly, the police's request for two days' physical remand of Botter was granted. The police argued that remand should be granted because they were attempting to arrest Bashir Botter's wife.
Aftab Abbasi's argument, that physical remand could be granted only in non-bailable cases in which some weapon or other item relating to the offence is to be recovered, not in order to help the police arrest another person, was rejected.
Most of the trade unions and political parties in Pakistan have demanded Botter's immediate release and the withdrawal of the cases against the other workers. Please support their demands by sending an appeal and/or protest message to <ce@pak.gov.pk>.
BY FAROOQ TARIQ
[Farooq Tariq is the general secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan.]