Ammar Rashid (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Awami Workers Party The Awami Workers Party ( ur, عوامی ورکرز پارٹی) is a left-wing socialist political party in Pakistan. The party seeks to unify the struggles of workers, peasants, students, women and ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan und ...

. He has written many columns for

Daily Times (Pakistan) The ''Daily Times'' (''DT'') is an English-language Pakistani newspaper. Launched on April 9, 2002, ''Daily Times'', is simultaneously published from Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. The newspaper was owned by Governor of Punjab and Pakistan Peo ...

and

Dawn News Dawn News is one of Pakistan's 24-hour Urdu news channel. Based in Karachi, the station is a subsidiary of Pakistan Herald Publications Limited (PHPL), Pakistan's largest English-language media group. The test transmission of the station occu ...

. He has taught as faculty of Centre of excellence for Gender Studies in

Quaid-i-Azam University Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad ( ur, ; commonly referred to as QAU), founded as University of Islamabad, is a ranked 1 public research university in Islamabad, Pakistan. Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967, it was initially dedi ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and

Pakistan Institute of Development Economics The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (popularly known as PIDE) () is a post-graduate research institute and a public policy think tank located in the vicinity of Islamabad, Pakistan. Founded in 1957 by the Government of Pakist ...

. He ran for the National Assembly seat NA-53 in the

capital territory for

2018 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Wednesday, 25 July 2018 to elect the members of 15th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Muslim ...

. He is senior researcher at Heartfile.

Early life and education

Rashid got his early education from schools in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

. He did BSc (Hons) in Economics and Social Sciences in 2008 from

Lahore University of Management Sciences Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) () is a private research university, located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. In 1983, Syed Babar Ali, a renowned businessman in Pakistan, recognized the shortage of qualified managers in the countr ...

and a master's degree in development studies in 2012, from

Institute of Development Studies The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is a think tank affiliated with the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, and based on its campus in Falmer, East Sussex. It delivers research and teaching in the area of development studies, an ...

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, UK. In LUMS, he was student of

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar Aasim Sajjad Akhtar is a teacher, left wing politician and columnist based in Pakistan. Akhtar is associate professor of political economy at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He served as the president of the Awami Workers Party's Pun ...

Career

Rashid, as a professional has been involved in teaching and research work on areas ranging from health reform to public education, gender and development, public policy, political economy, tax reform, sub-national governance etc. His research interests include political theory and collective action. He also taught at Centre of excellence for Gender Studies department at Quaid-i-Azam University and at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad. He worked as programme officer of Social Sector in

National Disaster Management Authority (Pakistan) The National Disaster Management Authority ( ur, , abbreviated as NDMA), is an autonomous and constitutionally established federal authority mandated to deal with the whole spectrum of disasters and their management in the country.Federal Board of Revenue The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) ( ur, ), formerly known as Central Board of Revenue (CBR), is a federal law enforcement agency of Pakistan that investigates tax crimes, suspicious accumulation of wealth, money-laundering make regulation of ...

and

Alif Ailaan Alif Ailaan ( ur, ) was a nonprofit organization working in the field of education in Pakistan from 2013 to 2018. Launched by a team of media and communications specialists, the program aimed to highlight education on priority basis in Pakistan ...

Political beginning

Ideology

Rashid follows the political ideology of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

The Emergency Times

Rashid's political struggle started in 2007, when he was a student in LUMS, during

Lawyers' Movement The Lawyers' Movement, also known as the Movement for the Restoration of Judiciary or the Black Coat Protests, was the popular mass protest movement initiated by the lawyers of Pakistan in response to the former president and army chief Pervez Mus ...

, initiated by lawyers of Pakistan against the military dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf. On November 7, 2007, he along with 1,000 students of his university, gathered to protest the emergency rule imposed by Musharraf's televised emergency announcement on November 3, 2007. After his teacher's (

) arrest, he along with other students was also got arrested during the protest. Major Pakistani news networks were not allowed to cover the student protest at LUMS, so Rashid took the initiative to start a newsletter named as “The Emergency Times” (November, 2007 - June, 2008) to narrate the protests’ details, to help students speak about democracy and organize against emergency rule. The newsletter described itself as “an independent Pakistani student information initiative providing regular updates, commentary, and analysis on Pakistan’s evolving political scenario.”

Politics

Awami Workers Party

Rashid is a senior and leading member of the

(AWP) since the party was founded in 2012. He served as general secretary and information secretary AWP

in 2014–2015. As political worker of AWP, Rashid has been involved in struggle for the right to affordable housing and shelter in Islamabad in 2015. He organized legal and political resistance to the inhumane and illegal evictions of people from Katchi Abadi (

informal settlements Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state. As such, the inform ...

) driven by

Capital Development Authority A Capital Development Authority is a special sort of entity found in various countries that is concerned with the municipal development of the capital city or capital territory of that country. Examples include: *Capital Development Authority (Isla ...

(CDA). While working with All Pakistan Katchi Abadi Alliance, Rashid talked about the flaws in system about rights to housing by people from informal settlements. He said, “Under the Urban Shelter Program the CDA legalized a few slums and left the rest out in the lurch, because the national policy dictated that any slums setup after March 1985 were illegal. We have in our possession voter lists consisting of thousands of people living in the I-11 and other

katchi abadi Squatting in Pakistan is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. Squatted informal settlements formed following the Partition of India, creation of Pakistan in 1947. They were known first as "bastis ...

s as far back as the 1985 General Election.” On July 30, 2015, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) along with police, local administration and rangers, demolished dwellings of ‘Katchi Abadi’ (informal settlements) in sector I-11/1,

destroying dozens of houses built since last 30 years. On August 2, 2015, to stop these forceful evictions and fight for solution of this urban housing crisis in informal settlements of I-11/1, Rashid along with

and residents from Kachi Abadi, filed a petition in the Supreme Court for the case on the right to housing. It was requested in petition that the court declare the residents of katchi abadis of the federal capital entitled to the benefits conferred under Articles 9, 10A and 25 of the Constitution.“It should be declared that the state is bound to provide the residents of katchi abadis shelter and other amenities as per the Constitution and the National Housing Policy 2001.” On August 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the federal government and other departments to stop further demolishing of houses in katchi abadi I-11, Islamabad. In a court filing, CDA claimed it needed to demolish informal settlements as their growing Christian population would threaten the city's Muslim majority. CDA stated: “It seems this pace of occupation of land by Christian community may increase… removal of katchi abadies is very urgent to provide better environment to the citizen of Islamabad and to protect the beauty of Islam.” Rashid told the newspaper, “The move was old-fashioned bigotry against minorities and working classes. The administrative body has no right to be making decisions about the religious demography of Islamabad.” Rashid was elected as president of Awami Workers Party Punjab unit in its third congress held on January 17, 2020 in

Faisalabad Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur ( Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pak ...

. On 28 January 2020, Islamabad police arrested Rashid, along with three other members of the Awami Workers Party,

Ismat Shahjahan Ismat Raza Shahjahan (Pashto/Urdu: عصمت رضا شاہ جہان; b. May 6, 1963) is a socialist-feminist political leader from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. She is the president of Women Democratic Front (WDF), the deputy general-secretary of t ...

, Nawfal Saleemi and Saifullah Nasar, one member of Progressive Students Federation, PTM leader and member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

Mohsin Dawar Mohsin Javed Dawar ( ps, ) is a Pakistani politician who is the chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM). He has been a member of the National Assembly since August 2018. He is the co-founder of a human rights movement, Pashtun Tahafu ...

, and 23 other protesters while they were holding a peaceful protest demanding the release of Pashtun peace activist

Manzoor Pashteen Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen (Pashto: منظور احمد پښتين, Urdu: منظور احمد پشتین) is a Pakistani Pashtun human rights activist from South Waziristan. He is the chairman of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). ("Pashtun Protection ...

, in front of the National Press Club, Islamabad. They were accused of entirely concocted charges of sedition against the state. Ismat Shahjahan and Mohsin Dawar were released on 29 January but the Additional District and Sessions Judge refused to grant post-arrest bail to 23 protesters and sent them to jail. The protesters appealed in the

Islamabad High Court The Islamabad High Court is the senior court of the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, with appellate jurisdiction over the following district courts: * Islamabad District Court (East) * Islamabad District Court (West) Justice Aamer Far ...

where they were granted bail by chief justice

Athar Minallah Athar Minallah (; born 30 December 1961) is a Pakistani jurist serving as a judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan since 11 November 2022. Prior to that, he served as the 5th Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court from 28 November 2018 to 10 Novembe ...

on February 3, 2020. The chief justice

, summoned the Islamabad City Magistrate, asking an explanation for first placing sedition charges on peaceful protesters and later turned them into terrorism charges in the first information report (FIR). On February 17, 2020, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat told Islamabad High court that all charges against the 23 protesters had been dropped by Islamabad administration. Manzoor Pashteen was also released from jail on 25 February. As president AWP, Punjab, he supported

Aurat Azadi March The Aurat Azadi March ( ur, , lit=Women's Emancipation March) was started in 2018 in Pakistan by members of Women Democratic Front (socialist-feminist organization), other organizations like Women's Action Forum (Women's rights organization), Elimi ...

2020 held in Islamabad.

General Elections 2018

Rashid contested for the

on National assembly seat NA-53 in federal capital Islamabad. Out of 312142, he secured 912 votes. His electoral campaign included the agenda of “social justice, democracy, gender equality, secularism and environmentally sustainable development”. Rashid vowed to revive left-wing politics by bringing back ideological strength to politics. His election manifesto focused to solve water problem, Rs. 30,000 as minimum wage with continuous increase in proportional to the price hike, allocation of 10% of the total GDP for education and free education to everyone. During the 2018 election campaign, Rashid along with his party workers, due to security concerns, were not allowed to enter Islamabad with election material, which included relevant banners but he said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) banners could be seen across Islamabad. According to him, this certainly strengthens the narrative that these elections are engineered and Pakistan cannot afford these allegations at this point."

Student politics

Rashid is strong supporter of potential of country's youth to carry out political struggles and voice their opinion against all odds by thinking and differentiating between the wrong and right and will always continue to stand for the right. Rashid, on social media expressed solidarity with the campaign organizers of Students Solidarity March, 2018 along with other notable personalities like Iqbal Lala (father of the late Mashal Khan,

Bushra Gohar Bushra Gohar ( ps, بشرا ګوهر; ur, بشریٰ گوہر) is a Pakistani Pashtun politician and a senior leader of the National Democratic Movement (NDM). She has served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013. S ...

Jalila Haider Jalila Haider (Urdu/ fa, جلیله حیدر) is a Pakistani human rights attorney and political activist from Quetta in Balochistan, Pakistan. She is known to be the first woman lawyer from Quetta's Hazara minority, and an advocate for the rig ...

, Nida Kirmani,

Jibran Nasir Mohammad Jibran Nasir ( ur, ; born 10 February 1987) is a Pakistani civil rights activist, and lawyer. Early life and education Nasir was born on 10 February 1987 in Karachi, Pakistan. He completed his O-Levels from Saint Michael's Convent ...

Farooq Tariq Farooq (also transliterated as Farouk, Faruqi, Farook, Faruk, Faroeq, Faruq, or Farouq, Farooqi, Faruque or Farooqui; ar, فاروق, Fārūq) is a common Arabic given and family name. ''Al-Fārūq'' literally means "the one who distinguishes b ...

. The Charter of Demands presented by students in march included restoring student unions, student representation in decision-making on campuses, functional sexual harassment policies on campuses, freezing the fee hikes, increasing the budgetary allowing for education to 5% of GDP and improving the quality of research and teaching. On April 13, 2019, Rashid urged students and progressive people to join the Mashal March, to honor Mashal Khan who was killed by his fellow students in university campus on false accusation of blasphemy. Rashid said that the march would call for structural reform of what he described as rotten education system that produced Mashal's killers. On October 24, 2019, a large number of students, political workers and activists gathered for Student Housing Rights March (Talba Haq-e-Rihayesh March) in Islamabad, protesting against CDA for its forceful eviction of students from private hostels in Islamabad. The march was organized by Progressive Students Federation (PRSF), Student Hostelites Association (SHA), supported by Awami Workers Party (AWP). Rashid, as an organizer of the march, addressed to the occasion, "the broader crisis in higher education which includes funding cuts for the HEC, fee hikes, endemic and widespread harassment as evident from

University of Balochistan The University of Balochistan (UB) (Urdu: جامعہ بلوچستان; Balochi: بلوچستان ء یونیورسٹی ), also known as Balochistan University, is a public university located in the downtown area of Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. ...

’s case and management high handedness, which led to Inam’s death at

COMSATS University Islamabad The COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), formerly known as COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), is a public university in Pakistan. It is a multi-campus university with its principal seat located in Islamabad. Comsats was envisio ...

." On November 29, 2019, Rashid organized and performed in the Students Solidarity March, 2019.

Revolutionary Music

Rashid is also a musician. His music is a mix of acoustic, classical and folk and he regularly performs revolutionary songs and poetry at political events organized by his political party. On Women's Day, 2015, Rashid, as information Secretary AWP Rawalpindi-Islamabad, performed in the conference arranged for gender equality. On May 9, 2015, under the banner of Rashid's party, AWP and

National Students Federation The National Students Federation Pakistan (NSF) is a left-wing students federation in Pakistan. In the late 1960s, NSF adopted the political line of Marxism–Leninism and Mao Tse-tung Thought Its predecessor, the DSF (Democratic Students Federa ...

(NSF), a concert titled as Songs of Freedom-2015 was held at the Aabpara Community Centre, Islamabad to raise awareness of student politics and political rights in city's youth and to make them appreciate revolutionary music and art. As information secretary of AWP Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Rashid played guitar and sang the revolutionary songs: “Hum dekhein gay”, “Aaj bazaar main” along with Kalaam of Khawaja Ghulam Farid and other classical Sufi poets. On May 6, 2016, at the event of Songs of freedom-2016, Rashid played revolutionary songs to lift ban on student unions, to reignite the progressive and democratic spirit among students. and stressed heavily for the right for students to unionise along with other NSF's organisers and performers during the event in Islamabad. Student unions were banned by Gen Ziaul Haq in 1984 in an attempt to suppress expressions of dissent against his dictatorship. During campaign of

, Rashid released an official Election Campaign Song along with an explosive music video to boost popularity of AWP among Pakistanis. The song titles as ‘Chehre Nahi Samaaj Ko Badlo’ (Change the society, Not just faces). The powerful lyrics of song demanded people to change themselves in order to bring about an overall change in society. Rashid performed the song with another Pakistani singer and economist Shahram Azhar. For Aurat Azadi March 2020, Ammar composed the anthem song “Hum Inquilab Hain” (We are Revolution) written by

and sung in chorus with Ismat Shahjahan, Shahzadi Hussain, Huda Bhurgri, Areej Hussain and Ayesha Khan.

Study Circles and Political Schools

Rashid, along with his other party workers helps in organizing political schools and study circles to raise awareness about understanding of social, economic and political structures of inequality and oppression along with methods of organizing progressive political resistance and ideological strengthening in Pakistani people. The agenda of this initiative is to act like a modern alternative to Pakistan's age-old curriculum, focusing on a radicalized concept of ‘dismantling systems of oppression’, to target the root of issues plaguing society so that, effective solutions can be designed. On September 2, 2018, the second day of political school, Rashid delivered a lecture on `Capitalism: On the Roots of our Economic Crisis'. He gave a detailed examination of colonialism, industrial capitalism and world economic history, the developments and changes causing decline in feudal mode of production through merchant capitalism.

Articles

Rashid has published and continues to publish regular articles on student politics, development, feminism, political economy, environment etc. in newspapers and magazines (

The Express Tribune ''The Express Tribune'' is a daily English-language newspaper based in Pakistan. It is the flagship publication of the '' Daily Express'' media group. It is Pakistan's only internationally affiliated newspaper in a partnership with the ''Interna ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

Pakistan Today ''Pakistan Today'' is a Pakistani English-language daily newspaper, published by Nawa Media Corporation from three Pakistani cities Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab; Karachi, Sindh; and Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory. The newspaper late ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rashid, Ammar Living people Pakistani Marxists Awami Workers Party politicians Pakistani socialists 1986 births