Pakistan's Pashtuns, looking for statehood, may look to Taliban

Pakistan's Pashtuns, looking for statehood, may look to Taliban
The Taliban could expand their influence to more Pashtun areas by merging its pan-Islamic goals with the long-suppressed dream of a Pashtun state.
Source:http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1008/p08s04-wosc.html

Peshawar, Pakistan - A long-dormant nationalism movement among ethnic Pashtuns shows signs of reawakening as Pakistan – at United States urging – has boosted military activity in their region and as political efforts for autonomy have stalled.

The most basic Pashtun demand, changing the name of the North West Frontier Province to Pakhtunkhwa ("Land of the Pashtuns"), was thwarted in September by dominant ethnic Punjabis. A new faction of Pashtun nationalists has protested in Peshawar, the capital of the NWFP. Leaders warn that younger cadres may abandon politics for arms.

Stemming widespread discontent among Pashtuns is important because they hold the keys to the war on terror. Their lands straddling the Afghan-Pakistani border are a haven for the Taliban and top Al Qaeda figures like Osama bin Laden.

Many Pashtuns are frustrated with the Islamic militants' presence and the military offensives they have brought – anger that secular leaders, who have traditionally led the push for autonomy, can channel against religious extremism.

But a peril also exists: Islamic militants may become the force seen as best able to deliver autonomy for Pashtun regions.

"The danger of the [largely Pashtun] Taliban overtly using Pashtun nationalism to justify an independent Pashtun state is small because they are operating with financial support of jihadi forces," says Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy in Washington and author of a recent report on Pashtun nationalism.

"But what could emerge, if the Taliban were to get control over large areas of the border districts in Afghanistan, is some sort of Islamic emirate which would in fact be a Pashtun state."

That could expand to more Pashtun areas by merging the appeal of pan-Islamic ideas and the long suppressed dream of a Pashtun state, he argues.

US troops in Afghanistan and the Pakistani military would then be fighting Pashtun pride on top of other passions fueling the insurgencies.

Two million Pashtuns flee Swat fighting

Since 2001, Pakistani, Afghan, and NATO troops have rushed into Pashtun lands. US drones fill the sky. This year has been especially rough for Pashtuns in Pakistan, with more than 2 million forced to flee military offensives in Swat and nearby areas.

"It's like a Pashtun genocide," says Ayeen Khan, of Swabi, NWFP, echoing a phrase heard across the region. "In different areas a lot of Pashtuns are being killed. They need someone to stop the killing."

Many who fled the fighting said they want neither the Taliban nor the Army in their lands. They say the Punjabi-dominated security agencies control both forces, with the Army periodically fighting the militants, then receding and letting the Taliban reimpose their terrorizing rule. Pashtun civilians say they are caught in the middle of this "double game."

Whether that remains the case is debated, but for years Pakistan's intelligence agencies supported the Taliban and other Islamic militants to counter secular Pashtun nationalists.

"After 9/11, Pakistan announced itself as an ally of the world, but actually they kept on continuing their policies," says Said Alam Mehsud, head of a newly revived nationalist group called the Pashtun Awareness Movement. "If this [Pashtun] nation is able to convey its actual feelings to the world and the world understands, we will not only be able to defeat terrorism, we can achieve those [nationalist] goals as well."

Pashtuns want an end to the Taliban, says Dr. Mehsud, but it should be Pashtuns who flush them out – not the Army backed by the US.

"The Punjabi military presence … in these Pashtun areas has been poison, because historically you had conflict between Pashtuns and Punjabis," Harrison says. The result has been Pashtuns becoming "politicized and radicalized."

After 9/11, Pakistan did try to compel Pashtun tribesmen to tackle militancy through traditional councils (jirgas) and tribal militias (lashkars). But both proved ineffective. Meanwhile, Pashtuns are making political demands that, if met, could perhaps win some goodwill.

Mehsud says 300 members of his Pashtun Awareness group this spring took to Peshawar's streets for Pashtun rights, such as creating a province for Pashtuns that includes NWFP and the neighboring Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and allowing it to keep more of its resources.

Lack of respect in media

Some respect would be nice, too, he suggests. "They present our culture in films, TV, drama, writing as if these people are the most backward."

After almost two years in office, the predominantly Pashtun Awami National Party, which rules the NWFP and has ties to the government in Islamabad, has found that working within the system has not helped it win greater autonomy for Pashtuns.

Despite promises, President Asif Ali Zardari has not signed an order to allow democratic representation in FATA. Nor has a collective punishment law there been amended to exclude women and children. The military and intelligence establishment are blocking efforts to merge FATA into the NWFP, says Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani journalist.

Mr. Ali warns these setbacks mean the secular ANP may lose in the next elections – to Islamic parties that oppose NATO in Afghanistan.

The ANP leader tasked with FATA issues, Lateef Afridi, does not dispute that progress is slow. He worries the original generation of nationalists will be replaced by more volatile youths.

"There is a bit of thinking that the possibility of getting these rights through normal means is not there and therefore we have to adopt other means," including "the question of taking up arms," says Mr. Afridi.

But like many US experts, he doesn't think the Taliban will attract the youths. The militants have waged war on ANP workers and secularists.

Christine Fair, a regional expert at Georgetown University, says Islamabad ought to rename the province and share power and resources more equitably. "[The US] should be promoting constitutionalism, and the Constitution does call for devolution," she says.

Harrison urges more US action, including withholding aid until Pakistan merges FATA into the NWFP and allows the money to flow through the provincial government. He also argues the US should curb the use of drones. But Mehsud, Afridi, and some other secular Pashtuns feel the drones have helped pin down militants. "I openly support drone attacks," says Mehsud. "These are very well targeted."

Documentry Film on Bacha Khan will be shown in Marina Mall Abu Dhabi.

The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, A Torch for Peace
The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, A Torch of Peace

at 9th Middle East Internatioanal Film Festivel ABU DHABI
10/13/2009 6:45 PM
10/15/2009 3:30 PM


For many, Mahatma Gandhi embodies nonviolent protest, but few know the even more dramatic story of his South Asian compatriot, Badshah Khan, born into the fierce Pashtun warrior society of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier. At the same time as Gandhi in India, Khan founded a nonviolent resistance organization up to 300,000 people strong, culled from the region's myriad religious and ethnic groups, to oppose British colonial rule. Nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, Khan died in 1988 at the age of 98, having influenced generations of thinkers, leaders, politicians, and citizens. Filmed across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (and in several frontier areas still considered "off-limits" to most foreigners), Frontier Gandhi illuminates the little-known story of this remarkable man through interviews with several surviving participants (all more than 100 years old) and politicians like Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf. Indian acting legend Om Puri contributes interpretations of Khan's writings.

---Jason Sanders

--------------------



Director Bio:
T. C. McLuhan
T. C. (Teri) McLuhan is the daughter of famed media theorist Marshall McLuhan. A native of Canada now based in New York, she has had a notable career in her own right as a filmmaker and author specializing in ethnographies, intercultural studies, and mysticism. Her films include The Shadow Catcher (1974), a documentary about anthropologist and filmmaker Edward S. Curtis, and The Third Walker (1978).

A Crippled Revolutionary

Dr. Waris Khan
A Crippled Revolutionary

“Bring forth whatever lies in your hear”
(Allama Iqbal)
Dr. Fazal-ur-Rahim Marwat

Source : http://www.rscaf.com/mag/home%20studies%20027.htm



Writing biography is an art. Like other arts, it too needs adeptness and proficiency of language. The term biography is used for a comprehensive account of a person's life, and is regarded as a branch of history. Dyrden defined it as “the history of particular men's lives”.[i] As a literary form it has become increasingly popular since the second half of the 17th century.

Writing about one's own life in the form of autobiography is a fascinating task, because it is particularly difficult to speak the truth, or even to hear truth in our society. When Josh Malhi Abadi's "Yaddow Kee Barat"[ii] was published in 80's. There was uproar in our country, particularly in the religious circle. It was dubbed as anti-Islamic, vulgar and disgusting and demanded from government to ban it.

There is Chinese proverb: “It is natural that when you drink water, think of its source”.[iii] So it is but natural that one should know about Dr. Waris Khan his social milieu and his struggle before going through his book ‘Da Azadae Tehreek’ (Struggle for Independence).

Dr. Waris Khan has fully established his proficiency and competence in his biography ‘Da Azadae Tehreek’. His language is fluent and style of writing is impressive. He writes with ease, elegance and sensitivity. One finds no discrepancy in his mind, thoughts and writing. He builds up a picturesque picture to present an event, like a scene on the screen. His description of friends, fellows, persons, places and events is explicitly attractive, natural and alive. He has tried effectively to avoid exaggerations and self-praise. In between, he has quoted couplets and parts of Pashtu and Urdu verses, and anecdotes, to adorn description.

Dr. Waris Khan was not a medical doctor, nor was he a doctor of philosophy. His own disability, rural life without qualified doctors except some Unani Hakims and Saniasi forced him to look after his own health. Even Dr. Taizai was of the opinion that “in this way he [Waris] got knowledge of diseases and their treatment and he then used to help his ailing colleagues in absence of competent physicians. Thus he was called doctor”.[iv]

On 30th of June 1993, Dr. Waris Khan wrote a letter to Dr. Sher Zaman Taizai (the then editor of literary pages of the daily The Frontier Post, Peshawar) to clarify his position by writing: “Dear doctor Sahib! I was highly delighted to read your review on my book Da Azadae Tehreek in The Frontier Post of April 17, 1993. It speaks of your interest in, and knowledge of the subject. You have bridged the vast ocean. I am obliged to thank you that you selected my book for review. However, allow me to clarify a point. You have mentioned:”... In fact I have been a registered homeopath since 1965. My registration number is 8158. I am, therefore, entitled to be called a doctor. I may add that I have the honour to be affiliated with the movement of Khudai Khidmatgars, which does not allow quackery.[v]

Dr. Waris Khan has taken an alluring start in a single paragraph with winsome words: “The children tell stories to each other in the night. I was asked by one to tell him a story. I said to him that I would write true stories about my ancestors and myself. When you grow old, read them. I am now too old to remember every thing. Many events might have been forgotten. Memory exhausts in this age. But whatever I remember I would write it. Some events are just unforgettable. They remain intact in the faculty of the mind. Nevertheless, fresh events do not rest in memory. My story has such elements of events, which can not be forgotten. I dare start writing.”[vi]

Waris Khan was born at Ghaladher in 1914 and was attacked by polio at the age of 10 months. What this crippled man has recorded in the book might not appeal to the sound mind to be true. But many eyewitnesses to his struggles and active participation in the freedom movement under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan[vii] are still living.

Haji Ghazi Khan of Pabbi says that during the martial law of Ayub Khan, the Khudai Khidmatgars decided to court arrest in protest against the arrest of their leader. Khan A.Ghaffar Khan, who was in prison, nominated Ghazi Khan to carry on the movement. He used to go every day to the courts to receive volunteers from different places. These volunteers were garlanded and followed by processions. Before the arrest, they would address the gathering. One day, Ghazi Khan saw Dr Waris Khan, with garlands hanging around his neck on his chest, riding on the shoulders of another Khudai Khidmatgar. They exchanged greetings. Waris Khan had volunteered to court arrest. But Ghazi Khan did not approve his request due to his disability.[viii]

When Dr.Taizai accompanying the same Haji Ghazi Khan, called on Dr. Waris Khan at Rashakai (district Nowshera) in February 1993, he was sitting against the support of pillows. His old age and weak frame of body with crippled legs and hand had not been able to delude the charm and grace - of this man of character. His two sons served them with tea and biscuits. On their introduction, Waris Khan said: “I know you; I have read your novel”. He had forgotten the title but remembered the story. Such sharp was his mind and intellect at the age of 80. When Dr. Taizai mentioned to him his biography, he smiled and said: “This is our main weakness. We don't put our achievements in black and white. If someone takes the labour, it does not find the readers”.[ix] He was very right because in an illiterate society the preferences of our people are other than reading. His book has been published in June 1988 and this great son of Pakhtunkhawa died on April 23, 1996.

Haji Muhammad Asam of Akora Khattak in the preface of the book comments:

"...I had been a witness to all that has been recorded in this book. Dr. Waris Khan deserves Compliments for reanimation of our spirit with the past reminiscences. It was a time that we used to be tired of his stories and discussions. But then we could not imagine that these national struggles would constitute valuable part of our history. Now we are constrained to offer our heartiest tributes to Dr. Waris Khan for his wisdom and prudence... "[x]

Commenting on his style of writing, Haji Muhammad Asam wrote,

“Dr. Waris Khan has not introduced only his own- self but his whole family in a candid style. But still I would like to say something pithy about his political career”.[xi]

He further says: “The doctor was attacked by polio in his early age, and both the feet and one hand of this handsome and charming boy were paralysed. He had to walk on crutches. But his fair complexion and graceful features made him attractive. Sometimes, he would take ride on a bicycle. When he grew young, then he would ride a white or brown horse. I still remember that he used to wear a typical headdress; an embroidered cap with Peshawari turban around and the crest sticking out of it. When out on errand, the small children would like to have a look at him with awe.”[xii]

In his youth, Dr.Waris was inspired by the Pakhtun journal of Bacha Khan and Urdu newspapers Millap and Pratap[xiii] getting from his friend Baghat Ram.

My friend Dr. Professor Syed Wiqar Ali Shah Kaka Khel (Quad-i-Azam University Islamabad)[xiv] in his introduction to Dr. Waris book writes that when he called on Dr. Waris Khan on June 3, 1986, he was on the bed. Dr. Wiqar has drawn an excellent profile of Waris Khan, out of the detailed account given by the author in his book. His grand father Payo Khan had left his village Lahore in Tehsil (now district) Swabi, along with all his tenants, craftsmen and imam, and settled at Ghaladher in the same Tehsil. On his death his eldest son Buland Khan was recognised as the Malik. He was killed by dacoits who had raided the house. Buland Khan was succeeded by his son Waris Khan.

The book contains valuable information about the cultural, social and economic aspects of the Pakhtuns' life, their free nature, religious attachment, and fondness for music, ignorance and blood feuds, their weaknesses exploited by vested interests in favour of the British lords. The basic theme is the freedom movement of the Khudai Khidmatgars under the leadership of Bacha Khan in which Dr. Waris took an active part in spite of his disability. He has mentioned a number of other colleagues and non-Muslim friends, even those who later migrated to India.

Dr. Wiqar Ali Shah in the introduction of the book says that" Azadi (freedom) is an ordinary combination of five letters, but when considered, it becomes a very bright and attractive word. Today, nobody understands its meaning. The rulers of this generation do not conceive its meaning and charm, because it has come down to them without any struggle. It is but natural that any achievement without struggle does not carry its value. Those born in a free country would not know what struggle their ancestors had exerted for this cause, how much difficulty had they suffered and what they had sacrificed? And after that “this Laila has been brought to home”.[xv] Akbar Shah Mian of Badrashi (an eminent freedom fighter and writer) said: “Freedom is not an earthen toy which could be bought for a loaf of stale bread.”[xvi]

Many young, old, men and women had put at stake their lives and had abandoned comforts of life for the sake of prosperity of their nation. It is all due to their sacrifices that we breathe in a free atmosphere. Late Khadim Mohammad Akbar Khan (poet and Writer) has drawn a picture of this struggle in one line of a poem:

Years of bondage of the life of a slave, (Can’t be compared with) a moment of freedom, even on the brink of the grave.[xvii]

Dr. Wiqar tried to highlight the British rule and the Pakhtuns by writing: A cursory study of the history of the Indo-Pakistan (subcontinent) reveals that the British had ruled this land for over a century. During this whole length of period, if they were harassed, that was only at the hands of the Pakhtuns who did not yield to their filthy presence on this sacred soil. Sometime, they encountered them at Ambala,[xviii] and sometime on the peaks of Malakand. Sometime Umara Khan of Jandul[xix] fought against them, sometime the Mullah of Hadda.[xx] The struggles of 1897 had almost compelled them to recede. But it was sheer luck that favoured those [British] and restrained Pakhtuns from the goal at a gait distance. That ensued a series of coercive and vengeful actions perpetrated by the British rule against the Pakhtuns.

In 1901, this part of Pakhtunkhawa was separated from the Punjab in the name of the “North West Frontier Province”. But the torch lit by their progenitors was not let to extinguish. Very soon, other Mujahid arose; like Fazle Wahid alias Haji Sahib of Turangzai,[xxi] Mira Jan Kaka Khel, Maulana Uzair Gul,[xxii] Abdul Hameed Gul alias Fakhre Qaum Mian Sahib, and above all the towering personality of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who continued the epic struggle.

Ironically other provinces of India were granted reforms in 1919 but Pakhtunkhwa was left in the dusky dark. There was no law here. Whatsoever the chief commissioner and his surrogates wanted became the law. The British had imposed the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) under which many young Pakhtuns were executed in jails.

With the declaration of India as Darul-Harb (abode of war) by the Ulama in 1920, the Khilafatists launched the Hijrat Movement. According to various confirmed sources round about seventy thousand people migrated to Afghanistan. This also excited many Pukhtuns and in august 60,000 of them sold their homes and hearths and migrated to Afghanistan. The kind of oppression that was perpetrated against those refugees can not be imagined. But they moved with profound resolve and determination. Amir Amanullah Khan had also pledged that the government of Afghanistan would extend support to them because it was the most sacred cause of Islam.[xxiii]

The British government had managed to penetrate a great number of agents and informers among the refugees who indulged in subversive propaganda; that Amanullah Khan had promised to wage jihad against the British, but instead, he was now duping the migrants. Therefore the migrants should repatriate. Still, many anonymous graves on way between Kabul and Peshawar bear testimony to the hardships to which the returnees had been subjected. But most of the Indo- Pakistani scholars are perhaps ignorant of the fact that it was due to the Hijrat movement that new revolutionary ideas and tactics came to the British India from Moscow and Tashkent.[xxiv]

Henceforth the time takes a turn of significant changes. The Pakhtuns were waking up gradually. On return, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan formed Anjuman‑i‑Islah‑i‑Afaghena[xxv] with a view to bringing about social revolution among the Pakhtuns, to divert them from internal feuds and tribal jingoism. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan known as Bacha Khan made them understand the curse of slavery. His other companions in this mission were Qazi Attaullah, Mian Ahmad Shah, Abdul Akbar Khan Akbar, Khadim Mohammad Akbar, Haji Abdul Ghaffar, Mohammad Abbas Khan, Taj Mohammad Khan and Abdullah Shah. Under the aegis of this Anjuman they founded Azad schools. Amir Mukhtar Khan of Bannu dedicated his two sons Amir Mumtaz and Maqsood Jan to this cause; the latter was the first head teacher of the Azad Schools. They gave a start to these schools in a very difficult situation. In this connection, Bacha Khan says:

“We set out on village‑to‑village trips in those days to guide the people understand, develop affection, harmony, brotherhood and social consciousness among them, reactivate their feelings for education, eradicate evil traditions and outdated practices from the society, and muster support for national schools. And we reanimated the life and sensitivity of the people.”[xxvi]

This could not be tolerated by the British. They did not like those schools. Whosoever wanted to teach in those schools would first be scared, and then tempted to handsome salaries. When these tactics failed, then Bacha Khan was arrested and the schools were closed. But the time had changed. Many young people could arrange to receive dailies and periodicals from Punjab and other parts clandestinely, and their understanding was developing gradually.

In India, too, the freedom movement had got fresh vigour. The Congress had moved from its earlier demand for dominion status of a British colony. It raised the banner of complete freedom at the hands of Jawaharlal Lal Nehru at 00.30 hours on December 31, 1929 on the bank of Ravi in Lahore. It demanded the rule of India in the hands of the people of India. The meeting expressed opposition to the British rule. That resolution of the Congress was acclaimed throughout India.

In those days, another party of the youths, the Nawjawan Bharat Sabha emerged to wrest freedom of the country from the British. They pledged to offer any kind of sacrifice for this cause. This party was joined by Hindus, Sikh and Muslims alike. An activist of this party, named Bhagat Singh, assassinated the British DSP Sandruss of Lahore. He had placed a bomb in the train by which viceroy Lord Erwin was travelling to Delhi. The device exploded damaging one or two railcars but the viceroy escaped unhurt. Then he hurled a bomb in the central assembly hall causing injuries to many people. Bhagat Singh was arrested followed by arrests of many other revolutionaries. They were tried in Lahore Conspiracy case and executed.

Here, too, the revolutionaries of Pakhtunkhwa like Sanobar Hussain Kakajee and Maulana Abdul Rahim Popalzai[xxvii] formed a party in the name of the Nawjawanan‑i‑Sarhad, like the formed in India. It is worth mentioning here that Hari Kishan, son of Lala Gurdasmal of Ghala Dher (Mardan), like Bhagat Singh, had shot a fire at the governor of Punjab, Sir Jeffery, on December 23, 1930, on the occasion of the convocation of the Punjab University. The governor was hit on a hand and a police officer died on the spot. Hari Kishan was arrested and hanged like Bhagat Singh.

Bacha Khan, along with his companions, had attended the Lahore meeting of the Congress as observers. On that occasion, the Congress volunteers displayed military parade smartly which impressed the delegation from Pakhtunkhwa. They decided then and there to take a lesson from it. The Pakhtun leaders liked very much their organisation and display of the disciplined parade. On return, a meeting was arranged very soon at Utmanzai. Inter alia, it was also decided that a youth organisation should be formed and be called the Khudai Khidmatgars. They designed Khamta uniform for it. Bacha Khan, with a handful companions, toured the province and formed organisations at local level. Hundreds Pakhtun youths joined the Khudai Khidmatgars with the sole aim of awakening of the slumbering Pakhtuns. The Khudai Khidmatgars succeeded to a great extent in achieving the objective of bringing out the Pakhtun youths to serve the nation.

The people had already developed hatred against the British atrocities in Pakhtunkhwa. They got an opportunity in the civil disobedience movement of the All India Congress in order to express their hatred. By virtue of the activities of the Khudai Khidmatgars, political awakening was being galvanised rapidly among the Pakhtuns. They had developed the sense of discernment between the good and the bad. The Congress decided on violation of the Salt Act. The Peshawar Congress also followed under the leadership of Ali Gul Khan. They collected saline soil from Pabbi and a little salt was made of it. It was wrapped in small packets of papers and auctioned. The government ignored it. No arrest was made. The provincial Congress again decided to lay cordon around the bar houses, and invited Bacha Khan and his companions also.

It was the historic day of April 23, 1930, that the Congress leaders were arrested in Peshawar City. They included Agha Lal Badshah, Maulana Abdul Rahim Popalzai, Dr. Ghosh, Ali Gul Khan, Abdul Rahman Riya etc. Only two prominent figures, Ghulam Rabbani Sethi and Allah Bakhsh Barqi escaped arrest, having planned court arrest the next morning.

That day when Bacha Khan and his fellow companions, Mian Ahmad Shah, Abdul Akbar Khan Akbar and Sarfaraz Khan who were enroute to Peshawar, in response to the invitation from the Peshawar Congress were arrested at Nahaqi and taken back to Charsadda.

In Peshawar, many people gathered at the time of the arrest of Allah Bakhsh Sethi Barqi and Ghulam Rabbani Sethi and demanded removal handcuffs from their leaders so that they may go free to the Kabuli police station. They, thus, marched to the police station in a procession. The police informed the deputy commissioner on telephone due to fear and requested for security arrangements. The first armoured car drove in swiftly running over a Hindu youth was Wandhi Ram. It annoyed the people. At that time the people killed an Englishman riding on a motorbike and snatched his vehicle.

The rulers could not tolerate the courage exerted by their subject and opened indiscriminate fire for above five hours from 10 am to 5 pm. The toll of casualties, dead and wounded, exceeded thousands. Martial law was declared and the city was taken over by the army. The memorable event of this bloody occurrence was the refusal of Gharwal unit from firing at the unarmed people. Those disobedient troops were arrested, court‑martialled and sentenced to 10 to 20 years, some sent to black‑Waters (the Andaman Islands).

The Pakhtun poets wrote many poems and odes on the Qissa Khani massacre. Abdul Malik Fida says;

None might have shed so much chicken blood,

As the British had shed the innocents' blood.

Written in blood was the year of thirty,

Because, that day the blood was in plenty.

Of Qissa Khani Qasab Khana was made,

In its streets the human blood so said.[xxviii]

Another eminent writer and poet Mohammad Khanmir Hilali wrote:

April came with reminiscence of country's martyrs,

Handsome youths when put on country's altars

Chengiz Khan, by Ice Moonger, was thrashed,

The day when as Qasab Khana the Qissa Khani flashed.

A son was killed a woman widowed, a child made orphan,

And the homes were ruined by the Englishman.

The roses seen in the spring in garden,

Have the hues of the blood the youth had given.[xxix]

For the liberation of his motherland, Dr. Waris participated in almost all anti-British movements i.e. the Khudai-Khidmatgar Tehreek and Ghala Dehr Kisan movement and made contacts with revolutionaries and freedom fighters like Subash Chander Boss[xxx] etc. But his dream were shattered like others after independence in 1947 and he confessed in his book that those who struggled for the liberation of the country are still under suppression but those who were British stooges, traitors and serving the British empire became the rulers of Pakistan like Iskander Mirza who became the first President of Pakistan.

His book ends at the creation of Pakistan and the impact of the communal riots on the locality in which the author was living. It has been dedicated to anonymous soldiers of the freedom movement.






References and Notes


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[i] www.yenra.com/biography

[ii] Josh Malhi Abadi's original name was Shabir Hussain Khan. Born in 1894 in British India and died in Karachi in 1982. He was an eminent progressive Urdu poet and writer.

[iii] www.anglefire.com

[iv] The Frontier Post, Peshawar, dated, April 17, 1993.

[v] Letter of Dr.Waris Khan to Dr. Sher Zaman Taizai dated 30-6-1993. See also The Frontier Post, Peshawar, dated, July 10, 1993.

[vi] Dr.Waris Khan, Azadae Tehreek (Struggle for independence), Peshawar, 1988, P.7.

[vii] Khan Abdul Ghaffar, a renowned Pakhtun reformer and freedom fighter. For more detail see Abdul Ghaffar, Zama Zawand Aw Jadojuhed (My Life and Struggle), Daulati Matbua, Kabul, 1983.

[viii] Khan, op.cit., p.31

[ix] Interview with Dr. Taizai, Peshawar dated 10-11-1993.

[x] Khan, op.cit., p. 31

[xi] Ibid., p. 31

[xii] Ibid., p. 9

[xiii] Abdul Ghaffar Khan in May 1928 started a Pashtu journal the "Pakhtun", which was an organ and mouthpiece of his Khudai‑Khidmatgar Movement or as dubbed by the British the "Red Shirt Movement".

[xiv] Dr. Syed Wiqar Ali Shah Kaka Khel is Assistant Professor in Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He met with late Dr. Waris Khan and also wrote an introduction to his biography.

[xv] Khan, op.cit., p.9

[xvi] Mian Akbar Shah of Badrashi is one of those freedom fighters who first migrated to Afghanistan in the Hijrat movement and then to Soviet Central Asia. Later on he joind the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement of Khan A. Khan, Forward block of All India Congress etc. He wrote travelogue Da Azadai Talash (In search of Independence).

[xvii] Khan, op.cit., p. 15

[xviii] The battle of Ambela (1863) has been considered the second most important battle after the war of Independence (1857) in the history of the subcontinent. Da Swat Babaji, "Pashtu", monthly journal of the Pashtu Academy, University of Peshawar, Feb-March, 1982, p.49. Sir Olaf Caroe, The Pathans, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 1986, P.360

[xix] Umara Khan of Jandul was the chief of Jandul (Bajaur-Dir) attacked Chitral and besieged the British Resident Robertson in 1895.

[xx] Mullah Najm-ud-Din was the Pir (guide) of Haji of Turangzai, led several tribal uprisings against the British in the Mohmand area.

[xxi] Haji Fazal Wahid, commonly known as Haji Sahib of Turangzai (1858-1937) belonged to a religious family of village Turangzai, district Charsadda. He took part in the 1897 frontier uprisings. With Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan he established a number of Azad (independent) schools. In 1915, Haji left his homes for the tribal areas and settled among the Mohmands. There he preached Jehad against the British. He died on 15th December 1937.

[xxii] Maulana Uzair Gul, son of Mohammad Shahid Gul Kaka Khel was born in 1889 at Dargai. He was one of the active leaders of anti-British movement of Sheikh-ul-Hind Maulana Mahmood-ul-Hassan. Maulana Uzair Gul along with Maulana Mahmood-ul-Hassan and others was arrested by the British authorities and imprisoned in Malta. He died on November 16, 1989 and has left behind two sons (Abdul Rauf Zubair and Mohammad Zaheer) and three daughters.

[xxiii] The Hijrat Movement is one the significant events of Indo-Pakistan history. It developed out of internal and external political crosscurrents in the region including the Khilafat agitation in British India in 1920. Thousands and thousands of people migrated from India to Afghanistan. Contemporary writers and Muhajers have written many books and articles in Urdu, Pashtu and English with their own perspective and experience about this mass migration of the Indians. The second source which is comparatively objective is the British and Afghan government record. See James W. Spain, The Pathan Borderland, Mouton & Co., the Hague, 1963, p. 163. See also a letter of Dr. M. Naeem Qureshi, to Dr. Muhammad Anwar khan, Director, Area Study Centre, and University of Peshawar, dated November 6, 1985.

[xxiv] Those Pakhtuns who migrated to Kabul and later on to Soviet Central Asia and even Moscow brought with them new revolutionary ideas in politics, literature and dramas to their homeland.

[xxv] On 1st April 1921, the Anjuman-i-Islah-ul-Afaghana (the Society for the Reformation of Afghans) was formed with Ghaffar Khan as its President and Mian Ahmad Shah as Secretary. The stated objectives of the Anjuman included: promotion of unity amongst the Pakhtuns, the eradication of social evils, prevention of lavish spending on social events, encouragement of Pashto language and literature, and the creation of ‘real love’ for Islam among the Pakhtuns.

[xxvi] Sanobar Hussain Momand known as Hussain Kakajee was born in January 1897 at Kaga Wala village, Peshawar. He died on January 3, 1963. He was an eminent writer, freedom fighter with socialist leanings. Abdul Rahim Popalzai was born at Peshawar in 1980. He is one of those freedom fighters who were inspired by the philosophy of Shah Waliullah and the revolutionary tactics of Marxism - Leninism. He breathed his last at 02:00 PM on Wednesday, May 31, 1944.

[xxvii] Abdul Ghaffar, Zama Zawand Aw Jadojuhed, op.cit., pp 65-66.

[xxviii] The daily Frontier Post, Peshawar, March 28th, 1993.

[xxix] Ibid.

[xxx] Subash Chander Boss, a Bengali freedom fighter who raised Indian National Army (INA) against the British Raj in 1940s.

Reflections on Pakhtun Cause

Reflections on Pakhtun Cause
Pir Rokhan
Source:http://www.khyberwatch.com/forums


The days of using Afghanistan for strategic depth against India are gone. Afghanistan is and will remain to be a free and independent sovereign state despite of the malicious propaganda by the Punjabi media.

The sell-out Punjabised Pakhtuns on the payroll of ISI (Taliban) could not even divide it. The Non Pashtun Afghans are even against any division of the unitary Afghanistan which has been the graveyard for all those who tried to ruin and devastate it.As the Durand line is not acceptable to Pakhtuns hence the issue still remains between Pakistan and Afghanistan like the Kashmir issue.

The only way for the Pakhtuns to remain in Pakistan is to unite them within Pakistan in a united Pakhtunkhwa province consisting of NWFP, Northren areas, Attock Mianwali, Pakhtun belt of Baluchistan as demanded by the Pakhtun nationalist parties.

Provincial autonomy is the next step to make them really a part of Pakistan. This is the demand of all three provinces whose resources are being exploited by Punjab for the last 60 years plus. A true federation is the only way out for Pakistan.

Pakhtuns and other oppressed nations, if given their due share and rights in governance are not in favour of merging with Afghanistan unless the compulsive forces of history separate them.

The crux of the matter is that till Pakistan faces it natural death and continues to tread the way which leads to suicide, all the nations have to be given their due rights and share in power and atleast Pakhtuns are not in favour of getting separated from Pakistan.

It is life of dignity and honour which is what Pakhtuns demand which they don’t find in a rogue state like Pakistan which has become a symbol of dishonour, terrorism, fundamentalism, corruption and defacto rule of Punjabi army and the malicious intelligence agencies.

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Pakhtuns are more exploited ,humiliated and now killed along with a loss of language ,culture, identity ,history and glory than those who are "urbanized”.

We are already facing the music of Pakhtuns modernized and urbanized by PTV,ISPR and “Mutalia Pakistan” so much that they dont know who was Amir Karor, Mirwais Neka, Ahmed Shah baba,Abdul Ahad Momand, Khuhshal Khan Khattak, Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, Bacha Khan, Sanober Husain, Hamza Shinwari etc etc.

The Pakistanised Pakhtuns now only know those British puppets who were used by them to create a banana republic for the cold war using the name of religion or those Punjabis who offered their services for safeguarding the interests of Punjab etc.

The rest of Pakistan is urbanized at the cost of those innocent ,poor, exploited Pakhtuns,Balochis and Sindhi labour class who have been living below poverty line in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan due to the autocratic rule of Punjabi army who have been scaring the people of Pakistan with Indian and Sikh army - a people who are originally their cousins in race.

There is no difference between the Punjabis, Sindhis of India and Pakistan. Both have the same blood,color, culture, history. It is just some Arabic sentences and rituals which the Muslim Sikhs have adopted without knowing their meaning.

Pakhtuns neither were part of Indian civilization (ofcourse there is no such thing as Pakistani civilization) nor are part of it.

Pakhtuns dont even recognize the version of Punjabi Islam (which justifies killing millions of Afghans and devastating their state to safeguard their interest covering it under the cover of Fortress of Islam).

Pakhtuns are Afghans and they by their very emotional and mental make up cannot consider submission to be wisdom.

Pakhtuns do not hate any nation due to their color ,creed or race but expect treatment on egalitarian basis.

The Pakhtuns who were made a part of Pakistan as a result of the fraudulent referendum which all Punjabised Pakhtuns refer to in their writings are still facing the music. It is good that Khudai Khidmatgaars boycotted the drama which stamped misery and deprivation on the fate of Pakhtuns in Pakistan once and for all.

Now just check what we have gained and what we have lost after being a part of Pakistan.

Are your ears deaf not to hear the cries and miseries of those IDPs whose parents, kids, sons and daughters are killed by Punjabi army and air force to prove their efficiency in meeting the two weeks deadline given by the US to Pakistan after which they were going to invade Pakistan???

Are you blind not to see the exploitation of our water and power resources by Punjab? Will you give an inch of your land to any person of your own lineage and kinship? Here the situation is Punjab has got all the waters of your rivers and diverted them to make their lands fertile and left us jobless to beg for petty jobs in the streets of Punjab?

Don’t you see the revenue from tobacco being used just to make that Pakistan prosperous which means Punjab only.

Does the failure of Gadoon amazai by Punjabi industrialists and beaureocracy not ring bells in your mind?

Don’t you know that this entire Taliban factor is an ISI drama? Don’t you know that it is a strategy to malign Pakhtuns and to show it a real drama to the world to get dollars?

Don’t you know that Fazlaullah's radio was established, maintained and safeguarded by army captains. Do you want the names?

Are you not aware of Sufi Mohammad? Don’t you know he is an ISI pet who was used by ISI through major Amir in nineties?

Pakhtuns used to stand for their kith and kins, rights and nation and now look what we are taught that submission is wisdom.

Intellectualising your slavery, Justifying the occupation of your resources by Punjab, Pacifying the natural retaliation against the usurping of my property my resources. And then preferring to be a slave and being proud of it and calling it wisdom. The wisdom which people like you acquire after seeing the colour of the dollar in Punjab.

I have propose that Pakhtuns have three options contrary to Baloch, who have no other option but to get separate and Pakhtuns should support them to get rid of Punjabi imperialism.

1) They can live in Pakistan (anyway it was an Afghan colony under Ahmed shah baba's Afghanistan) but under the condition that there should be a united province called Afghania or Pakhtunkhwa or Pakhtunistan with provincial autonomy.

If Pakistanis want to run Pakistan affairs it has to be based on equal share in the right to govern. Otherwise the Pakistanis and Punjabi stooges and stalwarts who consider Pakhtuns' demand for their legal and legitimate right to be against Pakistan and a risk to the integrity and solidarity of Pakistan should go to hell along with their Pakistan. If my demands for my rights mean the breakup of Pakistan then Pakistan should break up sooner than later.

2) The creation of a separate state like Balochistan, Karachi city state (on the lines of Singapore), Sindho Desh, Bengal etc.

3) The merger of Pakhtun land with Afghanistan.

I do not mind the first option. My point is that the international scenario now needs the unification of Pakhtunland and I don’t see the balls and brains in Pakistan to oppose that agenda.

Pakhtuns in Afghanistan are much better off then those in Pakistan. It is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven as Milton had said.If your stereotypes col Imam and Col Zameer stop destroying the Pakhtun motherland as they have been destroying for the last 30 years then it will proposer. It is however a good omen that Taliban have turned against the Punjabi army and ISI and they are facing the music from their own brainchild. But this is what they say what you sow so shall you reap.

INFERIORITY COMPLEX OF PAKISTAN……… THE REASONS

INFERIORITY COMPLEX OF PAKISTAN……… THE REASONS
By Dr Khurshid Alam
London

Pakistan’s inferiority complex is an understandable. A country created out of blue, with no history of it’s own, no cultural back ground or a history of struggle for freedom. It was the joint political conspiracy of British and Indian national congress to deliver it, to the Muslim leaders. Both powers had its own political interest. Indian national congress was not ready to give in so much to Muslim demands and secondly to have such a huge minority of Muslims, always acting as a constant irritant.

For Britain it was important to have a country, which can toe their line even after their departure. They knew about the freedom fighter Indian leaders that they cannot be expected the same service.

Pakistan was a hollow country in its intrinsic nature. Soon after its creation they always tried to seek refuge in the history of others. They were using the history of Arabs, Indian Muslim Rulers and Afghan history. It was a search for self-identity, which was not really in existence. It was the craftsmanship of British to graft religion to the genesis of a country.

That proved to be wrong, not after a long time; but the country was split in two after 23 years of its creation. The graft of religion could not hold it to gather. It was an incompatible transplant in the globe. The rejection phenomenon could be delayed but not stopped. The process is still going on and the world has realised that the country is non viable, after all. But it is needed for some time, if not forever, by the global powers for their strategic interests.

It is up to Pakistani rulers to ignore it, but international fraternity cannot ignore deep cultural, historical and financial breeches in the body of Pakistan . The inflow of anti-rejection drugs, in this case; aid in the form of Dollars and Riyals, are being pumped in to the country to hold it together; till the strategic ultimate end is achieved in South West Asia and Central Asia.
Pakistan sensitivity is understandable. At times it starts screaming to be treated equally with India. At present they are gripped with fear by the terminology used by Mr.Obama, AfPak. They are grumbling that they have been equated with Afghanistan, being a nuclear power. They are forgetting that the nuclear facility holding by Pakistan , is the basic reason of anxiety and worry for the international powers, who matter in maintaining world peace. A non-viable country having non-viable state with nuclear facility; is always a threat to world peace, in case it falls in to irresponsible hands, as in the case of disintegration of U.S.S.R.

Pakistan is a Balkan state like Yugoslavia and others. The Soviet might kept them together, as the mentor melted away the Balkan states crumbled one after the other.

The international world has started to understand the difference between, ”WATAN” (the mother land) and a country. The counties are made and disintegrated by men. The motherland is more near to the nature and has the intrinsic strength of the Mother Nature.

Afghanistan is going through a bloody drama for the last three decades, completely destroyed having nothing except land, no infra structure or a system of government or an army like Pakistan of seven million men in uniform. It is the intrinsic strength of the Mother Nature, holding it together. In East Pakistan crisis it was the lack of this bond that the country could not be held together even for two years. Geographically also, if Afghanistan is restored to its originality, will be holder of the key to the stability of the region. Even now the present truncated Afghanistan is geo-politically more important to the world than Pakistan. As I mentioned in one of my article before that if Afghanistan is gateway to India, it is a gang way to central Asia. Afghanistan cannot be ignored any more. It was the US policy in early 50’s to ignore Afghanistan, and now paying the price for its folly. British always considered it, the Heart of Asia. It was the corner stone of their policy, that the peace in this region is closely intertwined with the peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistan with all its intrinsic contradiction is a liability for the world, not an asset. The liability has to be protected till it serves its purpose and this exactly US is doing to day. The aid flowing to Pakistan is to improve the chances to stabilize Afghanistan. The big or small powers are fighting the wars for economical interests and the hub of interest is Afghanistan not Pakistan. The logic lies in the peace and stability of Afghanistan,
No one has the treatment for Pakistan’s complex. It is a genetic disease they have to live with it.

khurshidalam52@hotmail.com

Afrasiyab Khattak wants timeline for action in Fata

Seeks end to terrorists’ safe havens

The News ,Monday, September 28, 2009
Tauseef-ur-Rahman

PESHAWAR: Provincial President of the Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Afrasiyab Khattak Sunday asked the federal government to give a timeline for the elimination of terrorists’ safe havens in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

“We want answer from the central government that for how long the terrorists would continue to rule Fata? Now is the right time for us to demand a timeframe from the government regarding the dismantling of the bases of terrorists in Waziristan,” Khattak said in his hard-hitting remarks while while speaking at a reference for the late Afghan president Dr Najibullah on his 13th death anniversary at the Bacha Khan Markaz.

“A decisive operation is required in Fata like the one in Malakand division. Let me be clear that the people of tribal areas have nothing to do with terrorism. In fact they are the victims of terrorism and have been made hostage by terrorists,” Khattak said.

He said that the terrorists had captured land from the people of tribal areas. Hundreds of their elders had been killed and time would prove that tribal people were the strongest opponents of the terrorists, he added.

He criticised the government for leaving the people of tribal areas in the lurch. “The tribesmen are helpless as the state is not fulfilling its responsibilities and the federal government has not devised a comprehensive strategy to deal with the situation,” Khattak said.

The ANP leader insisted that there was no war in Afghanistan. “There was chaos, warlordism, drug issues and many other problems in Afghanistan. The base of war, he believed, was on the Pakistan side of the Pak-Afghan border. I am sure of peace in Afghanistan if the masterminds of war ceased their game,” he argued.

“The masterminds of this war-machine are sitting across Attock. This is being run and controlled from Punjab. If the situation continues and the solution is not properly sought out, we will be correct to understand that this is genocide of Pakhtuns,” Khattak alleged.

He feared if the Fata problem was not addressed immediately, a roadmap could come from the United Nations or some country because the issue was of international magnitude. He warned the menace of terrorism would continue to exist until concrete and effective steps were taken for dealing with the militants in Fata.

Khattak, whose party is an ally of the PPP government both at the Centre and NWFP, said the vehicle of Tariq Azizuddin, former ambassador to Afghanistan, who was kidnapped and later recovered from Waziristan, was still in the use of a militant commander in Miramshah with diplomatic number plate.

“Where are the kidnapped Afghan ambassador and the Iranian diplomat? They are with these terrorists. What sort of state is this where we cannot protect foreign diplomats?” Khattak questioned.

The Taliban and Salarzais

The Taliban and Salarzais Sunday, September 27, 2009
Farhat Taj

I was in Pakistan in August and had the opportunity to meet the leaders of the anti-Taliban lashkar (volunteer army) of Bajaur’s Salarzai tribe. I am honoured that upon my request they travelled from Bajaur to meet me in Nowshehra and shared with me information about their anti-Taliban struggle. I am not mentioning their names for reasons of their security.

The area of the Salarzai tribe is on the border with Afghanistan. The tribe have collectively decided that there won’t be any Taliban on their soil. The Taliban have been driven out of the Salarzai area. The Salarzai lashkar, mostly made up of labourers and peasants, has successfully kept the Salazai area free of the Taliban.

Tens of Salarzail lashkar leaders have been target-killed. The Salarzai leaders informed me they hold the ISI responsible for the targeted killings. “The Taliban are just a façade. The real force is the ISI punishing us for our anti-Taliban struggle,” said one of the leaders.

The leaders said that Mamond Taliban headquarters used to be in Damadola, which is a few kilometres from the FC fort in Bajaur. The Mamond Taliban used to bomb Salarzai villages. The Salarzai tribal elders requested the Political Agent, the authorities of the FC and the Pakistani army to stop the Mamond Taliban. None of these offered any help. Finally the Salarzai lashkar took positions on the mountains and for two hours heavily bombarded the surrounding villages of the Mamond Taliban. At that point the political agent and a colonel of the army asked the Salarzai lashkar to stop the bombing. They gave the same old logic: who will fight the NATO forces from across the Afghan border if you eliminate the Taliban?

Following such encounters with the state authorities, the Salarzais decided to fire at any forces entering their area: be it the Taliban, Al Qaida, the army or the US or NATO. The Salarzais have taken up positions all over the area and are always on guard. The tribesmen take turns to defend those positions. Unlike the bombed out schools in the Taliban-controlled areas, all schools in the Salarzai region are functioning. The tribesmen are performing security duties in both girls’ and boys’ schools in the area.

The leaders informed me that there is a set pattern of target-killing of anti-Taliban Salarzai leader. Before each targeted killing all telephone links with the far-flung Salarzai area are cut off. The targeted killing takes place in 24 to 48 hours later. The telephone links are restored a couple of days after the assassinated leader has been buried. A day or so later a news item of a few lines appears in the newspapers about the killing. “No one in Pakistan seems to be bothered about the state-sponsored targeted killing of anti-Taliban Salarzai leaders. Our area is too far from the rest of Pakistan and our agony means nothing to fellow-Pakistanis. The Pakistani media never ever tries to probe into the targeted killings,” said one of the Salarzai leaders.

All telephone lines to the Salarzia area were dead the day I was meeting with the leaders. They said they were deeply worried whose turn it might be to be targeted for killing. Two days later the telephone links were restored. The same day they informed me on telephone that Malik Munasib Khan, the spokesman of the Salarzai lashkar, had been killed. They held the ISI responsible for his killing.

The Salarzai leaders also informed me that last year the army deliberately fired at those villages in Bajaur that were known to be staunchly anti-Taliban. They said one of their colleagues called Maj Gen Alam Khattak to ask him to stop the bombing of his village. “Major General Sahib! I will start a vendetta with you if you did not halt the bombing of my village immediately. I will make sure to kill you and your family at the first available opportunity,” they quoted one of their colleagues as saying. The major general asked him to meet Col Sajjad who was bombing the anti-Taliban villages from his base in Timergara. That colleague saw a big Bajaur map affixed on the wall in the office of Col Sajjad. The map had several encircled villages. Col Sajjad informed him that the map had been handed over to him by his commanders with the order to bomb all the encircled villages. “Our colleague’s blood boiled with anger: none of the villages had Taliban in them,” said the Salarzai leaders. The villages included Butmali, Danqul, Attkay, Matasha, Baro, Raghjan and Nazkai.

On the other hand, those Salarzai villages that had Taliban were not marked on the map or bombed by the army. Such villages are Pashat, Banda, Malasyed, Darra and Gundai. Now the Salarzai lashkar has cleared these villages from Taliban control, without any state support.

The leaders also made the accusation that the Salarzais are discriminated against by the state in allocation of developmental funds due to their hostility to the Taliban. The FATA Rural Development Project (FRDP) is working in Bajaur Agency but entire Salarzai area of the agency has been deliberately excluded by from the project. “A wilful under-development has been imposed on us as punishment for our anti-Taliban stance. The Salazai area would be included in FRDP if we allowed the Taliban to take control of our area. Without this, we Salarzais can beg as much as we can for development, but the state will never budge,” said the Salarzai tribal leaders.

The reason I write this piece is not to defame the institution of the Pakistani army, which I hold in high esteem. I just wish to request the President of Pakistan, the Chief of Army Staff and the DG of the ISI to pay attention to the complaints of the Salarzais and resolve their problems to the satisfaction of the tribe. The Salarzai leaders categorically told me they are loyal Pakistanis, but they are not ready to let the peace of their area be destroyed for the power games of the intelligence agencies. All they want from the state is peaceful and development.

I would request fellow-Pakistanis all over the country to support the Salarzais. I wonder why the civil society of Pakistan is so silent over the heroic anti-Taliban struggle of the Salarzais. Salarzais are the natural allies of all those who are against the Taliban and civil society should forcefully support them. I would request the Pakistani media to keep a close watch on the Salarzai area to discourage targeted killings there.

The Taliban are anti-civilisation. The Salarzais are the embodiment of civilisation because they are so oppose to the Taliban. I would request all civilised people in the world to morally support the Salarzais in the name of human civilisation.

The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy.

Email: bergen34@yahoo.com
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=200309
__________________

Rahman Baba - Dasé makh de manawwarr (English subtitles)

A very touching Arifana Kalaam by Rahman Baba, the fatherly poet of Pashtuns. Sung beautifully by the legendary Afghan singer, Ahmed Zahir. Translation, idea, illustrations' arrangement, and, edi...
A very touching Arifana Kalaam by Rahman Baba, the fatherly poet of Pashtuns. Sung beautifully by the legendary Afghan singer, Ahmed Zahir.

Translation, idea, illustrations' arrangement, and, edit by ata khan.

The Afghanistan Impasse

Volume 56, Number 15 · October 8, 2009
The Afghanistan Impasse
By Ahmed Rashid
To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan
by Nicholas Schmidle
Henry Holt, 254 pp., $25.00

Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda
by Gretchen Peters
Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, 300 pp., $25.95



http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23113

Sohail Qalandar @ Daily Express

Sahar of September is online now.

Published monthly in PDF. Visit us at
http://www.airra.org/analysis/SaharSeptemberfinaldoc.pdf
and
http://khyberwatch.com/Sahar for downloading or viewing.

Renaming NWFP Dawn Editorial
Wednesday, 09 Sep, 2009
By digging in his heels on Pakhtunkhwa, however, Mr Sharif is unnecessarily reinforcing old perceptions and needlessly alienating a province. —AP/File Photo Provinces
NWFP wants 80pc resources for provinces REIGNITING what lately had appeared to be a settled issue, Nawaz Sharif has demanded that a referendum be held in the NWFP on the renaming of the province. Mr Sharif’s demand flies in the face of an overwhelming majority in the NWFP Assembly, which has passed a resolution endorsing the name Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, while a constitutional amendment has yet to be passed, the nomenclature has already been amended at the centre informally with everyone from the president to the prime minister to federal ministers referring to the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa.

Overlooking the near unanimity, Mr Sharif has instead apparently opted to focus on shoring up support for his own party in the Hazara region, a traditional PML-N stronghold that is Hindko-speaking. But even on that count, the PML-N leader may be misguided. The 1998 census shows that Mansehra is evenly divided between Pushto- and Hindko-speakers, while in other districts such as Haripur and Abbottabad a significant Pushto-speaking population too now resides. Moreover, there is the fact that in the NWFP generally Pushto is the mother tongue of three-fourths of the population.

Why then should the people of the NWFP continue to live under a colonial-era name? Names matter to identity, something we have seen very recently with Gilgit-Baltistan, an appellation that has been hailed by the people of the erstwhile Northern Areas. Looking at the other federating units – Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh – there is also the question of why the NWFP alone should have a name with no regional identity.

The problem, then, isn’t about a referendum – Pakhtunkhwa is supported by the majority and the people’s elected representatives – but why Mr Sharif would want to impede the process of changing the name of the NWFP at all. Since his return to the country, Mr Sharif and his party have done a fair bit to challenge the perception that the PML-N is a one-province party, most noticeably by reaching out to Balochistan and sounding a conciliatory note to the smaller provinces during the ongoing NFC discussions. By digging in his heels on Pakhtunkhwa, however, Mr Sharif is unnecessarily reinforcing old perceptions and needlessly alienating a province.

Renaming NWFP Dawn Editorial
Wednesday, 09 Sep, 2009
By digging in his heels on Pakhtunkhwa, however, Mr Sharif is unnecessarily reinforcing old perceptions and needlessly alienating a province. —AP/File Photo Provinces
NWFP wants 80pc resources for provinces REIGNITING what lately had appeared to be a settled issue, Nawaz Sharif has demanded that a referendum be held in the NWFP on the renaming of the province. Mr Sharif’s demand flies in the face of an overwhelming majority in the NWFP Assembly, which has passed a resolution endorsing the name Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, while a constitutional amendment has yet to be passed, the nomenclature has already been amended at the centre informally with everyone from the president to the prime minister to federal ministers referring to the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa.

Overlooking the near unanimity, Mr Sharif has instead apparently opted to focus on shoring up support for his own party in the Hazara region, a traditional PML-N stronghold that is Hindko-speaking. But even on that count, the PML-N leader may be misguided. The 1998 census shows that Mansehra is evenly divided between Pushto- and Hindko-speakers, while in other districts such as Haripur and Abbottabad a significant Pushto-speaking population too now resides. Moreover, there is the fact that in the NWFP generally Pushto is the mother tongue of three-fourths of the population.

Why then should the people of the NWFP continue to live under a colonial-era name? Names matter to identity, something we have seen very recently with Gilgit-Baltistan, an appellation that has been hailed by the people of the erstwhile Northern Areas. Looking at the other federating units – Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh – there is also the question of why the NWFP alone should have a name with no regional identity.

The problem, then, isn’t about a referendum – Pakhtunkhwa is supported by the majority and the people’s elected representatives – but why Mr Sharif would want to impede the process of changing the name of the NWFP at all. Since his return to the country, Mr Sharif and his party have done a fair bit to challenge the perception that the PML-N is a one-province party, most noticeably by reaching out to Balochistan and sounding a conciliatory note to the smaller provinces during the ongoing NFC discussions. By digging in his heels on Pakhtunkhwa, however, Mr Sharif is unnecessarily reinforcing old perceptions and needlessly alienating a province.

Mian Nawaz Rhetoric: Politics or Personal Vendetta.

If there has to be referendum; then it should not be on the name this time; but we have to choose to be or not to be a part of Pakistan. It is not 47 nor PML(N) is an imperial power. Let us sort out once for all. We have opted to be in Pakistan with our identity but if there are “forces” who are forcing us to call our mother by the name selected by them; then we have the right to decide our future ourselves. We accept it.

By Dr. Khurshed Alam
Let me clarify my position before commenting on Mr. Nawaz that I am not supporting the conduct of the present government lead by Asif Zardari. The way they are carrying on forward the democratization of the institutions may take them decades if at all they decide to do it. It is all almost one and a half year gone; by now they should have done a lot; if they wanted to do!! At the same time I do realise that whether it is external or internal pacts or dictation but it is always a part of our history of 62 years. If it was the decision of Nawaz Sharif to replace Musharaf by an Engineer General; he had to take him all the way long to Washington to get his approval in person.

I still stick to my words that all our politicians are children of historical blunders. With few exceptions; most of them are either off shoots of Muslim League or Military dictatorship. Since the inception of the country, Muslim league did not allow the institutions to establish as the most of immigrated leaders had no constituencies. It was but natural that the vacuum created was to be filled, the influential persons or families were ready to hijack the state authority. On the other hand Indian Leadership established the institutions. When the system is properly put on the track the personalities or influential families loose their relevance or the relevance become of less significance. Sine the process of politics was never allowed so the children of historical blunders were provided a ready made ground. The civil and military bureaucracy used them, the way they wanted on the chess board. Most of the time the military played the game themselves but on occasions they asked the civilians to play on their behalf. But to call them civilian government will be too much, as their mentors hands were quite palpable if not visible.
Our intellectuals, analysts and journalists also unintentionally starting the terminologies like triangle of power or civilian governments. The power has always been in one place that was GHQ. The system of ruling the country has never been federal and democratic whether it was a khaki or Jinnah cap.
If we take PPP; though it was an offshoot of convention Muslim league established by the first military dictator and then the party was run on the cult of Late Mr.Bhutto. They had nothing of their own to offer. But with passage of time when Late Benazir became a mature politician and created a place for herself nationally and internationally and earned international credibility; she was removed from the scene, proving Mr. Aftab Sherpao right once in his life that Punjab and its army cannot tolerate a visionary politician hailing from smaller provinces; in an interview with the “Scream” in London.
Pakistan has been depoliticised by successive rulers so much, that even the great analysts and senior political figures started calling Mr. Bhutto the first elected Prime Minister. It is an open distortion of history and morally not acceptable to deprive some one of her/his historical status or position. It was no one else but Shaheed Benazir who was the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan and Mian Nawaz was the first CM of the Punjab to refuse to provide her the official protocol to the first elected Prime Minister.
Since the introduction of The Mians family in politics by Gen; Zia; another phenomenon of personal vendetta has been introduced in the so called political scenario of Pakistan. Apart from his mentor; he owes his political survival to his brother and the Late senior Mian Sahib. Late Mian sahib was not only a good advisor but defacto P.M. and President. Internal sources have revealed that if he(Nawaz) would have listen to his father, younger brother and Late Wali khan ,he would have not seen the days of his exile in royal palace of Saudi Arabia. It looks a bit odd for Nawaz sahib to blame Zardari not to keep his promises. He himself did not abide by the pact which was signed with Musharaf and prior to that, in spite of having two third majority in the house, he always relied on double game and tricks. By no mean I intend to defend the criminality of Musharaf but the way P.M. dismissed him was exactly like Zia did to Late Junejo. Mian sahib didn’t even try to promulgate 73 constitution. Another double game he played was the famous appointment of president Tharar. He kept mum about naming N.W.F.P. till he got the votes for his presidential candidate; once he achieved his aim he refused to abide by the unanimous resolution of the same house which voted for his nominated president. In other words when the elected members voted for his president was acceptable but were de franchised them to name their own mother land. I wonder how morally , Mian Sb; justified himself to insult the idea of federation and quantum of provincial autonomy. When he was on receiving end this time, he gave a call of civil disobedience.
May I request Mian sahib that in case of his refusal he will pave the way to force us to demand the change the name of Pakistan. In that case he it will Pkistan. Will they have the strength character to stand by it.
In all civilized countries with deep rooted democratic set up, there is a ban on P.M and presidents, to stand more than three or two times as in Britain and U.S.A. respectively. Wherever this system does not exist; the dynasty factor has taken the roots like Syria and Egypt. Then there should be referendum on that issue too.
How on earth this champion of democracy want to impose the charter of democracy on the whole nation when it was a pact between two parties. If he thinks that PPP has broken their promise then what is the guarantee that PML(N) will not break . By demanding referendum on naming of our province; how can we trust a person that he will be fair in future while his track record is abysmally bad.
It is on record that only two politicians have asked from clemency from a military dictators, Late Qayum khan PML(Q) and Mian Sahib PML(N) were both leaguers. His demand for referendum on naming our province is naked and immoral interference in the concept of federal democracy and provincial autonomy. He has proved our doubts beyond any shadow of doubt that his jaundiced vision of chauvinism is still in his black waste coat. If there has to be referendum; then it should not be on the name this time; but we have to choose to be or not to be a part of Pakistan. It is not 47 nor PML(N) is an imperial power. Let us sort out once for all. We have opted to be in Pakistan with our identity but if there are “forces” who are forcing us to call our mother by the name selected by them; then we have the right to decide our future ourselves. We accept it.
In our political circles it is discussed every now and then, that the boycott of the referendum of 1947 was a mistake ;in fact we have accepted by default the future of our land to be decided by others. We Pukhtoons assure Mr. Nawaz Sharif we will not budge this time. At the same the government must hold referendum first on the eligibility of PML(N) to take part in the politics for raising the slogan of disobedience. When it comes to them they don’t hesitate to put the country integrity. They believe in a Pakistan where they have unchallengeable power. It was not a small thing to be ignored. Otherwise we will be justified to say that the citizen of Punjab are treated differently than other provinces.
It shocks me when I listen to the statements of PML(N); to add the reinstatement of the judges of the higher courts in to their political kitty. It is an insult to the movement of black coat. To join the procession of a marriage cannot make you the bridegroom. If PML had the street power why it was not used when Musharaf stopped him on the air port. It strengthens the analysis of certain analysts that the respected Mian sahib is the representative of the Punjabi Ashrafia. He has no moral authority to claim to be the only spokesman of the Punjab. The street of the Punjab are still in the hands of PPP. Another anomaly of our politics is to tell lies so frequently that the poor masses starts believing that it is nothing but truth. To call PML(N) as a federal party is an absurd notion. It is representative of the Ashrafia “only” of the Punjab provinces.
May I point out their other double standard even it comes to morality. Mr. Nawaz consider the horse trading a sin but this sin looses its meaning if a horse from another camp is joining him.
There must be a set standard of some sort; to be a leader. He has yet to come out with clean sheet to satisfy Altaf Hussain claim. I am not a political opportunist to wash the face of Altaf ;but I believe that any innocent citizen; if victimized by a political mafia or government machinery it must be investigated. Where human blood drop is shed that should be the centre of the world. Our friends in MQM should also forsake the victimization of other racial groups in Karachi. Their hands are stained with the blood of innocent labourers Pukhtoons who built Karachi for them. And were there before Urdu speaker arrived on the scene but it just does not justify my political philosophy, given by Bacha khan or to justify the inhuman atrocity on my enemy. Or to follow the policy; that the enemy of my enemy is my friend; which is the basis of Pakistan’s politics.
The ball is in the court of the Punjab masses as we do not consider him as the sole spokesman of Punjab. Mr. Altaf has consented to send the neck size of his own and his party workers and has requested Mr. Nawaz sb. To do the same. Our neck size is already with them when Pakistan came in to being. Let there be a complete probe of all events starting from Musharaf retrospectively to the creation of Pakistan without giving a benefit of doubt to any one . unless the dirt of the past is cleaned; the dream of a clean future is insanity.

London E9 6ES
khurshidalam5@hotmail.com

Khatak asks Nawaz to hold refrendum on "Punjab"

Khatak asks Nawaz to hold refrendum on "Punjab"
Thursday, 10 September 2009
KW News

Peshawar: Provincial Chief of the Awami National Party Senator Afrasiab Khatak has rejected the proposal of holding referendum on the renaming of NWFP as Pukhtoonkhwa, and vowed that the province would be renamed as popular demand of the people.

Addressing a press conference here at Peshawar Press Club, provincial President of ANP Afrasiab Khattak expressed surprise over the demand of Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief Mian Nawaz Sharif, asking him to first hold referendum on renaming of Punjab as the name Punjab was not acceptable to most of the people in the Seraiki belt.

He said that ANP had raised the issue of provincial autonomy, and rights of Pashtuns and renaming of the Frontier province as Pukhtoonkhwa to give identification to the people of the province at central level.

Senator Khatak said, it had been decided that renaming of the province along with other issues would be discussed only in constitutional committee, but the PML-N had launched a media blitz against the "Pakhtunkhwa", which was quite surprising. He said the constitutional committee was trying to evolve a consensus on renaming the province.

"The matter should be left to the constitutional committee of the Parliament," he said.

He said that the government had finalised the prolonged issue, but the PML-N was creating hurdles in it. Afrasiab Khattak further said the incumbent democratic government would never allow anyone to interfere with the provincial matters.

He said that that the people of the province wanted a separate identity as enjoyed by other provinces as the present name was given by the British Raj. He alleged that certain quarters were trying to create controversy over the name of Pukhtoonkhwa. The attitude of such elements was sheer injustice and anti-Pukhtun, he added.

The ANP leader said that both President Asif Ali Zardari and Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani were using the nomenclature of Pukhtoonkhwa for the province, which meant that the political leaderships agreed upon the renaming of the province.

Replying to a query, he suggested that they could think about the name of Afghania for the Frontier province, but unfortunately all such names, which demonstrated the identity of Pushtuns, were not acceptable to the PML-N. He said that a constitutional committee had been formed under the supervision of the Federal government in which Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel was representing the province. However, he said that the matters of this committee were completely confidential.

Showing flexibility over the renaming, however the ANP provincial chief said that instead of "Pakhtunkhwa", Afghania would be acceptable to the ANP as a new name for province if the constitutional committee of the Parliament agreed to it. He said the opponents of the "Pakhtunkhwa should take the issue seriously because it was a matter of the identity of a nation having a history spanned over thousands of years. He said the identity was of paramount importance for any nation.

"Nobody showed any apprehension over renaming the Nothern Areas as Gilgit Baltistan, then why on Pakhtunkhwa", he said adding they were not afraid of referendum on renaming the province but this demand was altogether unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, Provincial Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said there was no need to hold referendum for renaming the NWFP as Pakhtunkhawa as two speakers of provincial assemblies have announced their rulings in this regard.

Commenting on the statement of PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif urging referendum for renaming the province, he said the ANP would never accept referendum on the issue.

The provincial assembly had passed unanimous resolution twice on renaming the province. The PML-N did not oppose the unanimous resolution at that time, he recalled. Was there any referendum for renaming the Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh, he said, adding referendum should also be held for allowing third time premiership.

Castigating Nawaz, he said it is incomprehensible why Nawaz has changed his stance so rapidly. He urged both the PPP and the PML-N to include name changing in the constitutional package. He urged Nawaz not to confine himself in the Punjab.

“Help Pakhtuns to secure their rights. Nawaz should avoid creating uncalled for controversies. During his premiership, Nawaz had agreed to change the name of the NWFP into Pakhtunkhawa,” he said.

The ANP would continue calling the province as Pakhtunkhawa, he said, adding nobody should dare snatching the rights of Pakhtuns. “We should not waste our time in bickering on trivial issues. We should hold negotiations to take the country forward and strengthen democratic institutions,” he added.
http://khyberwatch.com/nandara/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=755&Itemid=1

Tribal Museum vs. Urban Slum Part-3 (Concluded)

Tribal Museum vs. Urban Slum Part-3

The Urban Slum:

People come and criticize the Tribal areas for the wrongs which the people of FATA have never committed. They would fill the pages of newspapers with solutions which the people of FATA have never heard of. They would boldly call it a “Tribal Museum” without caring for what abstract messages they have been conveying to the audience. What really is the point of calling FATA a “Tribal Museum”?

Have really those areas which border FATA like Peshawar, Charsadda, Kohat, Banu, Mardan or Dera Ismael Khan transformed in to modern urban centers? Have the settled areas have learned the very notions of urbanity? Have they got any social justice, the very pre-requisite for an urban society? Do the institutions in these areas are modern enough to present any successful model of social development? Do these areas have less numbers of bigots? Do they always settle their disputes in a court of justice and justice is never delayed? What level of poverty, humiliation, suppression, corruption and anarchy they are in? What distorted culture they profess and how cunning are they have ever been looked in to? Of what good the bulk of educational institutions are and what does a relatively better infrastructure contribute for the collective good of the people? Have they got ownership of their resources? Do they understand and practice their centuries old language of which they pretend to be proud of? Do any signs of a vibrant and tolerant Pashtun culture can be seen in these so-called settled areas? Can we fathom the abysmal depth of moral and cultural degradation in these settled areas where little girls are openly flogged before a crowd of savages and a big army, paramilitary forces and police cannot protect the places of worships from suicide bombers?

From a Pashtun’s perspective these so-called settled areas represent a bleak picture of civilization and cultural retrogression. The society is depoliticized at large and those on the helm of affairs are corrupt, conformists and cruel. People in these areas are living in a slum of a rotten and decaying Pashtun culture which is mostly acculturated with the concocted Pakistani-Arab identity and superficial Indian cum Western influences. The very purity, straightforwardness, wisdom and artistic taste of Pashtun is tainted with the dirt and filth of the state imposed bureaucratic and religious smudges. Does any constitutional reform would clean these Augean Stables? The answer is a big noooooooooo.

So why are we insisting upon FATA’s incorporation in to NWFP? Shouldn’t the “special status” of FATA be retained and reforms introduced in such a manner so that it will help the people of FATA to begin every institution from scratch?

Tribal Museum vs. Urban Slum Part-3 (Concluded)

Tribal Museum vs. Urban Slum Part-3

The Urban Slum:

People come and criticize the Tribal areas for the wrongs which the people of FATA have never committed. They would fill the pages of newspapers with solutions which the people of FATA have never heard of. They would boldly call it a “Tribal Museum” without caring for what abstract messages they have been conveying to the audience. What really is the point of calling FATA a “Tribal Museum”?

Have really those areas which border FATA like Peshawar, Charsadda, Kohat, Banu, Mardan or Dera Ismael Khan transformed in to modern urban centers? Have the settled areas have learned the very notions of urbanity? Have they got any social justice, the very pre-requisite for an urban society? Do the institutions in these areas are modern enough to present any successful model of social development? Do these areas have less numbers of bigots? Do they always settle their disputes in a court of justice and justice is never delayed? What level of poverty, humiliation, suppression, corruption and anarchy they are in? What distorted culture they profess and how cunning are they have ever been looked in to? Of what good the bulk of educational institutions are and what does a relatively better infrastructure contribute for the collective good of the people? Have they got ownership of their resources? Do they understand and practice their centuries old language of which they pretend to be proud of? Do any signs of a vibrant and tolerant Pashtun culture can be seen in these so-called settled areas? Can we fathom the abysmal depth of moral and cultural degradation in these settled areas where little girls are openly flogged before a crowd of savages and a big army, paramilitary forces and police cannot protect the places of worships from suicide bombers?

From a Pashtun’s perspective these so-called settled areas represent a bleak picture of civilization and cultural retrogression. The society is depoliticized at large and those on the helm of affairs are corrupt, conformists and cruel. People in these areas are living in a slum of a rotten and decaying Pashtun culture which is mostly acculturated with the concocted Pakistani-Arab identity and superficial Indian cum Western influences. The very purity, straightforwardness, wisdom and artistic taste of Pashtun is tainted with the dirt and filth of the state imposed bureaucratic and religious smudges. Does any constitutional reform would clean these Augean Stables? The answer is a big noooooooooo.

So why are we insisting upon FATA’s incorporation in to NWFP? Shouldn’t the “special status” of FATA be retained and reforms introduced in such a manner so that it will help the people of FATA to begin every institution from scratch?

Fill the political vacuum in FATA

Daily Times Editorial: Fill the political vacuum in FATA

The chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Benazir Bhutto, has filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court (SC), seeking enforcement of the Political Parties Act in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to allow normal party activity in the region. The Act, framed in 1962, has debarred political activity and thus ousted the area from the ambit of all election laws normally applicable in the country.

Despite the fact that political parties cannot function in FATA, the region has 12 seats in the National Assembly and eight in the Senate. No party is allowed to nominate its candidates or enter the region for electioneering. At the same time, no inquiry is made into the political functioning of the religious parties in FATA and, although the elections are on non-party basis there, the successful candidates are always clearly known to belong to the dominant religious party there.

Although it is not articulated, the policy of not extending the Political Parties Act to FATA, a very important unit of the federation of Pakistan, meant the area was “completely handed over to religious parties to operate from mosques and madrassas”. These parties carried out their election campaigns masqueraded as religious activities. The result is that, over time, the 20 candidates elected from FATA have stood aside from the policies normally recognised as valid in the rest of the country. They have also submitted to the whims of a single religious party, while no alternative party is present in the region to express dissent.

There was a time when our politicians in power used to exploit FATA seats as “buyable” supplementaries to their legislative contest inside parliament. The region was not yet Talibanised, meaning that there was no politics of intimidation called Islamic governance in FATA, and the successful candidates were mostly linked to drug smuggling, gun running and car-theft, and were not only cajoled into voting for the government but also into shelling out large sums of money to MNAs and senators putting a price tag on their votes. If that system was corrupt, the current system feeds into the system of parallel government in the country.

The Tribal Areas of Pakistan, known as “ilaqa-ghair”, cover an area of around 27,000 square miles, mostly along the border with Afghanistan, with a population of 3.1 million according to the population census of 1951. Since there is no way for the census officers of ever knowing how many people dwell in houses sealed to scrutiny by tribal laws, this figure remains a “guesstimate”. Today, the population of FATA might well be around 7 million. There is free movement in and out of the region and no one can be sure about the frequent “injections” of foreigners into the seven “agencies” that FATA comprises.

The non-extension of the Political Parties Act into FATA is but one factor in keeping the region as a “badland” of law and order, a kind of Bermuda Triangle of the writ of the state suited for the likes of Osama bin Laden armed with money and ideology to make his base there. There are draconian laws like the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) that raise the hackles of anyone minimally moved by a sense of human rights. FATA is also a black hole of government revenue. WAPDA has to write off its bills there and has been forced to supply free electricity to an area where it can’t send its meter-checking staff.

It is true that, in 1948, the tribal jirgas of the FATA region had reached an understanding with the founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, over the retention of their “special status”. But that did not mean that Pakistan was doomed forever to retain the region as a “tribal museum” where no law applied. In 1947, tribal warriors were used as “proxy” fighters in Held Kashmir, but that policy of the state, coming to full flower in the 1980s and 1990s, was allowed to run without much long-term analysis. Today, it is the potential undoing of the state itself as the “irredentism” of FATA spreads into the settled areas of the NWFP.

Among the federally administered areas, the Northern Areas have the benefit of the Political Parties Act. The advent of the “politics of the plains” has introduced a kind of pluralism there which still stands as an antidote to state-induced sectarian conflict. Even in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) the functioning of political parties with their different agendas under the Constitution has allowed — as in the case of the recent ANP-dominated Swat jirga — the prevention of the terrorists of Al Qaeda from taking over directly.

As the supreme court adjudicates the petition filed by the PPP, the above facts will make clear the predicament Pakistan faces in FATA today. Foreign powers are threatening to attack the area while Pakistan, under obligation to defend it, has hardly any locus standi there. The first step towards integration of this region into Pakistan must start with the extension of the Political Parties Act there at the appropriate time. *

Tribal Museum vs. Urban Slum

Tribal Museum vs. Urban Slum Part-1
Muhammad Arif

What the Daily Times editorial (1) termed as a “Tribal Museum” seems a very pathetic label when evaluated superficially and points towards an abyss of lawlessness, a “guesstimate”, a “badland”, an “ilaqa-ghair”, a land of “proxy” wars, “having a special status” and where only the draconian laws of FCR hold away. The editorial is cognizant very well of the “state-induced sectarian conflict” there and suggests remedies of introduction of Political Parties Act as an anti-dote to the so-called wave of “irredentism” in FATA. The following lines will dwell upon the quoted terminologies on the one hand and compare the “Tribal Museum” with the “Urban Slum” on the other hand.

A desirable Pashtun perspective of FATA is much debatable and it would conform with the editorial of Daily Times but it would also seek a dividing line which would also seek a solution to the problem of FATA in an indigenous way. While no sane Pashtun would support lawlessness, sectarianism, terrorism, and “ilaqa-ghair” the special status of FATA and the point of irredentism can be debated so that no confusion is left.

The very notion of irredentism embarks upon the perception that the Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists have almost virtually established the Islamic Emirate of Wazristan and they have been trying to extend their influence as far as Swat and other parts of Pukhtunkhwa and have the capacity to penetrate deep in to the mainland of Punjab and would have paralyzed the whole state machinery if the political government in Pakistan had not started the military operations in Swat and elsewhere. This mode of perceived irredentism is poles apart from the one which had been lingering in FATA in different shapes and which embodied itself in the Pashtunistan movement. While Pakistan silenced down the Pashtunistan movement with an iron fist and never allowed the Afghan government to take advantage of the tribal areas, the issue of terrorism using FATA to weaken the writ of the Pakistani state has never been addressed seriously and deals were made with the such actors who were not representative of the tribal Jirga and who had given sanctuaries to the foreign terrorists. Even Talibaniztion in the settled districts of Pukhtunkhwa was largely ignored and anti-terrorists local population was not backed by the government. Inside Paksistan the media and right-winged political forces and majority of the population were more concerned with the drone attacks violating the sovereignty of Pakistan than with those militants who had weakened the writ of the Pakistan state. It would be interesting to see when such offenders of the state like Muslim Khan or Sufi Muhammad will receive an open trial for high treason and sentenced or exiled like Baacha Khan, Samad Khan Achakzai and Wali Khan.

The “special status” of FATA was an unwritten understanding between some of the tribal elders and Muhammad Ali Jinah in which the later would ensure the freedom of the tribal areas which they had been enjoying during the colonial period while the former would have cordial relations with the establishment in Pakistan. The 1973 constitution has seven clauses (2) regarding FATA which recognizes the collective say of the tribal people through a Tribal Jirga and the president of Pakistan through the governor NWFP is responsible to honour the “understanding” reached between the tribal elders and Muhammad Ali Jinah. Any government is Pakistan has the responsibility to hnour this unwritten accord. Unfortunately Pakistan has used this area for proxy war inside Afghanistan and the people of these areas should demand from the international community why their land is used by the Pakistani governments and intelligence agencies to harbor international terrorists
(continued)


1. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...1-8-2007_pg3_1
2. http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/co...art12.ch3.html

Part - 2

TribalMuseum vs. Urban Slum Part-2

(You have thrown us to the wolves." Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan)

My aim is not to eulogize wars as Pashtuns have fought many and won many. According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India the Pashtun tribes pushed back fifty-four aggressive military expeditions of the British between 1849 and 1902 excluding the Anglo-Afghan Wars. I also don’t want to alert my readers with the mention of Faqir of Epi, Haji Saib Turanzai, Mullah Powindah, Syed Akbar Akhundzada, the Hadda Mullah and Mullah Mastun etc and in no way I support any Taliban leader whether he is Baitullah Mahsood or Commander Wali Khan. What I want is a slight reference to the point that the tribal people have been giving many sacrifices for their own freedom in particular and Pashtuns in general. The militant nature of the tribal people is also debatable but in my view a people with a rough terrain and scattered population are best suited for a military struggle than a political movement of the plain, agrarian or commercial areas. The people of FATA have been bearing the brunt of the draconian FCR just for a return of freedom whose meaning is so vague in their mind but whose strength they can feel when they are face to face with any aggression either external or internal as is the case of Talibanization theses days. Waziristan is an exception where hundreds of tribal elders were ruthlessly killed before the terrorist took control and even if we compare Wazristan with Swat, the tribes don’t feel that much fear which the people of Swat still feel even after the military declared the area as “clear”. The freedom and the special status of FATA is a plus point for them amid the clashes of global and regional imperialist advances and vis-à-vis Pakistan domestic and foreign policy lines which abhor pluralism and which is engaged in crushing a so-called insurgency in Baluchistan. Pashtuns, on the other hand are an easy prey as in every nook and corner of Pukhtoonkhwa there are multitudes of Radio Mullahs who are directly or indirectly the brain children of the historical right-winged security paradigm of the state of Pakistan. It took years by the Government of Pakistan to decide to go after the militants in Swat and the result are still unwelcome.

Like a true follower of the non-violent philosophy of Baacha Khan, I hate wars, aggression, terrorism and violence in any form. But sometimes I feel doubtful what good this ideology has done for us. Most probably we have accepted the word “non-violence” in its literal sense and forgot how resistance can be adopted against oppression while remaining non-violent. What horrors the people of Swat passed through is a case study. The people of Swat were the most non-violent liberal among Pashtuns but it is very unfortunate that they didn’t resist the medieval obscurantism and barbarism of Fazlullah. The plight of the people of Swat which they have been passing through is unprecedented in the recent few hundreds years of Pashtun history. Hundreds of them were butchered like wild animals, hundreds of them became the victims of suicide bombings and in the end they lost everything, their homes, family members and their very Pashtun honor. They were too much complacent that the state would respond for its “peaceful citizens” but it was too late when the “Green Chowk” tainted with the blood of innocent men and Mingora Bazar echoed with the pathetic cries of our chits who were widely beaten by the wolves of Swat and elsewhere.

I don’t think such incidents can happen in FATA despite of a more conservative society and despite the fact that the militant commanders like Mangal Bagh are in full command there. This anti-Pashtun phenomenon of Talibanization is alien to Pashtun culture and places where Pashtun’s traditions are less intact they are more vulnerable to bigotry and obscurantism and foreigners or outsiders can take hostage of the whole population without showing their presence or direct involvement. Before the Swat operation, our so-called modern and developed settled areas of Pashtunkhwa have virtually no writ of the provincial government and we have been at the verge of a civil war or militants’ take over.

Talibanization in FATA is an obvious case study and one can trace its root since the Afghan Jehad (Fasad) and Pakistan’s direct involvement in the area without the will of the people of FATA but Talibanizaiton in the settled areas of Pashtunkhwa points towards an urban slum—the cultural slum, the land of the cunning, the dirt and filth and excretion of thousands years rotten scene.
(Continued)