05/12/2026
Many people around the world are calling for the government of Pakistan to release the leader of the Awami Action Committee now, along with all of his unjustly-imprisoned colleagues.
I had never heard of Ehsan Ali, or the Awami Action Committee, or, to be honest, the region of Pakistan known as Gilgit-Baltistan, where Ehsan Ali is from.
After Ali's arrest, two months ago now, I began to hear from his supporters, who have embarked on a serious campaign to bring international attention to the state repression Ali and the Awami Action Committee are currently facing, with so many of the movement leaders having been jailed, and held in deplorable conditions, with Ali being denied vital medical care.
No one who is protesting and engaging in civil disobedience on behalf of their people's ability to afford to eat should be persecuted like Ali is being persecuted. I was glad to see that people around the world are taking up this cause, and once they brought it to my attention, I wrote this song in the hope that it might help amplify their efforts.
