The communist movement in Pakistan was not always underground. There was a time when Karachi echoed with the slogans of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP), and the streets of Lahore were filled with student union activists marching for their rights and demands. Poets like Faiz and Jalib graced us with their writing, contributing to the progressive cause from behind bars and under state oppression.
Pakistan’s political landscape wasn’t solely populated by neoliberal and right-wing parties; it also held vibrant progressive ideologies. Although short-lived, this chapter has largely been lost within the country’s history.
The origins of Pakistan’s communist history lie in the pre-Partition era. The Communist Party of India (CPI), formed on 26 December 1925, drew inspiration from the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and October 1917.
India was long considered a ‘good future ally’ by Karl Marx. Later, Lenin recognised the subcontinent’s potential for spreading progressive ideology. There was, therefore, always the possibility of a communist state in the region.
However, the communist idea never flourished; it remained a dream for CPI comrades. The issue wasn’t one of public compatibility—the left faced little resistance from the people. The challenge was political and structural.
The CPI faced its first major backlash during the later stages of the Second World War, when the Soviet Union joined the Allied forces alongside the British. Consequently, the CPI—ideologically aligned with the Soviets—supported Britain’s deployment of Indian soldiers in the war.
This stance was unpopular. Other parties and the public opposed Britain’s involvement of Indians in a foreign war with no clear national interest.
When the CPI eventually joined the independence struggle, it aligned with the All-India Muslim League (AIML).
In doing so, the CPI adopted the idea of forming a separate state based on religion and Muslim nationalism—an approach that contradicted its own secular, communist ideology.
Leaders who would later form the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) were former CPI members affiliated with the Muslim League (ML). But the ML, dominated by feudal lords and lenient towards the feudal system, was ideologically misaligned with communist values. The coalition was never meant to last.
The break came when communist leaders like Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din advocated land reforms in newly formed Pakistan. The ML refused, owing to its ties with feudal backers who had supported it during the independence movement. The reforms were denied.
In response, Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din broke away to form his own leftist party, the Azad Pakistan Party (APP). Similarly, the CPP was formed in 1948, inheriting CPI’s two-stage theory of revolution.
This period saw a rise in public support for progressive ideology. The CPP gained momentum, rivalled only by other leftist parties. It was even claimed that the Muslim League was outstripped by the CPP, particularly in Karachi, Lahore, and Dhaka.
A communist Pakistan began to seem like a real possibility. Among leftist circles, it is believed this rising popularity prompted the state’s reaction in the form of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case of 1951.
The Democratic Student Federation (DSF), CPP’s student wing, became Pakistan’s largest student organisation by 1952, leading major mobilisations such as the University of Karachi protest in 1953. Both the CPP and DSF were banned in 1954.
Initially, leftist organisations dominated the political landscape. After the ban was lifted, the National Awami Party (NAP) was formed in 1958 as the CPP’s successor.
The decline of communist ideology began in 1965, when NAP split into pro-Moscow and pro-China factions. This division triggered internal conflict. In 1968, NAP (Wali) further fractured into the radical Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP), which adopted violent methods that failed to resonate with the public.
The movement then appeared dispersed and internally disorganised. Despite a rise in industrialisation, communists failed to organise around the new proletariat class, instead looking to bourgeois leaders for direction.
Both communist factions supported Ayub Khan for his pro-China pivot after breaking from the US. Around the same time, Bhutto emerged as a socialist leader, backed by the masses, with slogans like “Food, cloth, shelter” and “Islam is our religion; democracy is our polity; socialism is our economy; power lies with the people.”
Again, the communists miscalculated by not aligning with Bhutto when his agenda appeared to match theirs. By the time they did, Bhutto had shifted toward the political centre, courting right-wing and religious support to remain in power. He eventually transitioned from socialism to nationalism.
The decline of communism accelerated after Bhutto’s era. The political influence of the left weakened drastically and never recovered following the transition to Zia’s regime.
In the 1980s, communism lost global appeal, and Pakistan was no exception. The US-funded jihad in Afghanistan further delegitimised communism, framing it as an enemy of Islam.
Zia’s regime entrenched a national ideology that saw communism as a vice. Since then, communism has been widely viewed as incompatible with Pakistani society. There are no registered communist parties left today.
Left-leaning parties do exist, but they lack sufficient public support to gain parliamentary representation. All such parties collectively received around 50,000 votes in the 2018 general elections.
So, was communism ever compatible with Pakistani society?
Yes—there was a time when a socialist or even communist Pakistan seemed possible. Today, that vision is a lost dream—undone by the left’s missteps, the rise of religious nationalism, and communism’s global decline. Pakistan remains a religious state, rooted in nationalism and Islam—both fundamentally at odds with communist ideology.