Daily Times

The ANP has sealed its fate. By effectively expelling senior leaders Bushra Gohar and Afrasiab Khattak over ambiguous charges of anti-party activities it has surrendered its progressive credentials.

So, what is to be made of all this?

In the run-up to the general elections, the ANP leadership began cautioning members against cosying up to the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). At the time, this made little sense given that the latter is a peaceful social justice movement committed to demanding fundamental Pashtun rights in accordance with the Constitution. Thus for the ANP the question of solidarity for a common goal ought to have taken precedence over party politics. No matter that the military establishment was keen to cast the PTM as being an anti-state outfit funded by Pakistan’s enemies.

Yet Bushar Gohar, in an interview with Mashaal Radio following the pair’s official expulsion from the party, has talked of how the ANP had succumbed to external pressure. Thereby suggesting that extraneous forces are once more at play. If true, this is an extremely worrying development. Not least because it underscores the extent to which the breathing space here in democratic Pakistan is shrinking. After all, the fourth estate over the summer came under routine fire for giving any kind of coverage to the PTM. This led to extensive censorship from above and within. And now the message seemingly being sent is that political parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa must follow certain scripts.

Just as the citizenry suffers in the long-term any time the media is muzzled so, too, does it bear the equally damaging fallout when political parties face the same restrictions. And while certain sections of the fourth estate are doing their best to soldier on — we cannot do it alone. Meaning we desperately need support from those committed to progressive politics.

Be that as it may, we here at Daily Times believe that Afrasiab Khattak puts it best when he says: “Political workers can be unfairly expelled from political parties but they cannot be expelled from politics.”  *

Published in Daily Times, November 13^th 2018.