Over 100 delegates of Labour Party Pakistan gathered at Aiwan Iqbal on 10th November at a special congress to approve the merger process and formally dissolve LPP. Established in 1997, LPP will now be part of a new party AWP.
Star of the event was Baba Jan who came from Gilgit Beltistan after spending over one year in jail. He was awarded a rousing welcome by the delegates and a standing ovation with revolutionary slogans was a spontaneous reaction to Baba Jan entrance at the congress hall.
A one minute silence was observed for the 300 workers who lost their lives on 9th September in Karachi after a fire in a textile factory.
On an other occasion, a minute’s silence was observed for all those comrades of Labour Party Pakistan who gave their lives while working for the party and for the working class. They included Gulzar Hayat Gilgity (killed by robbers in 1996 at party office), Mushtaq Goraya (died at a summer camp of LPP in 2004), Abdullah Qureshi (killed by suicidal attack in Swat in 2007) Abdul Salam, Rehana Kausar, Najma Khanum and Wahid Baluch (killed in a traffic accident in Baluchistan after coming back from a trade union meeting in 2009).
LPP formally agreed to dissolve itself and to establish the new party at the congress. It approved the names of 19 members who would be part of the federal committee of Awami Workers Party.
At the central committee meetings of Awami Party and Workers Party held yesterday and on 9th November, the two agreed a similar process.