Daily Times

Mohammad Afzal Khan of Swat, known reverently by the honourific Khan Lala, passed away this past weekend. Pashtuns and Afghans living on both sides of the Durand Line and the diaspora, mourn the demise of the octogenarian nationalist icon who spent a lifetime pleading and leading for Pashtun national unification (qaumi wahdat). To many Pakistanis he was known for his resolutely valiant stand against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) butchers in his native Swat in 2008 and 2009. Despite losing several family members and personal associates in jihadists’ attacks and himself receiving bullet injuries, Khan Lala dug in and put up a heroic resistance against the TTP when others, including the state and its organs, were capitulating. Ever kind to me, Khan Lala spoke to me in 2009 from his then besieged compound in his native Upper Durushkhela village: “How can I leave my family spread over five villages and my people all over Swat?” Khan Lala castigated his own Awami National Party (ANP) for signing an agreement with the Taliban, which he accurately predicted would embolden the jihadists to encroach upon other regions. He only came out of Swat after the deal with the TTP backfired and a military operation was launched, something he had consistently called for.

Afzal Khan Lala’s disagreement with his own party in 2008-2009 was not an aberration. Throughout his long political career he never shied away from speaking his mind and standing firm for what he truly believed in. Afzal Khan Lala was one of the top few landowners (Khans) of the Swat valley. He completed his studies in history, political science and law from Peshawar and Lahore, and briefly taught as well. He joined the leftist National Awami Party (NAP) in 1969 and became its provincial president for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then NWFP) in 1970. He was elected to the provincial assembly from Swat in the 1970 elections and become the provincial minister for information and agriculture in the coalition government of the NAP and Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam (JUI). The late Prime Minister (PM), Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, later banned the NAP in one of the worst political victimisations in Pakistan’s history. Khan Lala, along with the top Pashtun and Baloch leaderships, was imprisoned in what became known as the Hyderabad Conspiracy Case. Khan Lala had been charged with leading a “militant separatist” group called the Pashtun Zalmay (the Pashtun youth). In an absolute travesty of justice, NAP was outlawed through a Supreme Court (SC) decision in October 1975. On November 5, 1975, the National Democratic Party (NDP) was launched by Sardar Sherbaz Mazari along with the leaders of NAP who were still free. After the politically motivated Hyderabad tribunal was disbanded, Afzal Khan Lala became the provincial president of the NDP.

The ANP was formed in 1986 through a merger of four leftist and/or nationalist parties including the NDP and Afzal Khan Lala was elected its second provincial president in 1987. Afzal Khan Lala was a very close associate of Khan Abdul Wali Khan, who had led the NAP, NDP and ANP but vehemently opposed the ANP cutting a deal with Mian Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML) in 1989. Khan Lala parted ways with Wali Khan’s ANP and formed what was called the ANP Haqiqi (real), which morphed into the Pashtunkhwa Qaumi Party (PQP) by merging with the Qaumi Inquilabi Party of Lateef Afridi and Afrasiab Khattak, who had also quit the ANP due to the same concerns. Khan Lala won a National Assembly seat from Swat in alliance with the late Benazir Bhutto’s PPP. The alliance then fielded him as a candidate for the PM slot in a lopsided contest against Mian Nawaz Sharif. He remained the deputy opposition leader in the 1990 National Assembly and became the first lawmaker to use the word Pakhtunkhwa in the house, much to the chagrin of the then speaker, Gauhar Ayub Khan.

In 1993, Afzal Khan Lala won his seat again and became the federal minister for tribal affairs in Benazir Bhutto’s cabinet. Khan Lala promptly demanded adult franchise for FATA and a right to appeal the draconian FCR in the regular courts. PM Bhutto took the flack from the establishment for Khan Lala’s proclamation and, according to his own account, asked him to modify his position. Khan Lala told the late and much lamented Benazir Bhutto: “Madam PM, I cannot change my stance. You may have to change my ministry.” Tribal affairs were swiftly removed from Khan Lala’s charge and he was given the Kashmir portfolio instead! Khan Lala continued with parliamentary politics for a bit but his heart was set on reunification of the Pashtuns across various geographical divisions. Unlike the Marxist irredentism of the late Ajmal Khattak and Nawab Khair Bux Marri, who saw national and class struggles intertwined with each, Afzal Khan Lala’s approach was indigenous and was anchored in the Pashtun tradition of the jirga to raise awareness and for collective decision making. Just like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan went door to door with his message, his disciple Khan Lala also reached out to the mighty and humble alike to join the reunification effort. He arranged a series of jirgas inviting Pashtuns from both sides of the Durand Line, the last one being in 2012. He rejoined the ANP in 2006 but was never given his rightful station. The ANP overlooked Afzal Khan Lala in the senate elections, even after his monumental stance against the TTP, when it had the potential to send the grand old man to the upper house.

Afzal Khan Lala was the last leader who attempted to reorient Pashtun nationalism with its pan-Afghan roots. He wrote that to the east of the “Durand Line many Pashtun leaders struggled long and hard to win freedom from the British. However, in my opinion, the fundamental drawback was that (these) Pashtuns did not demand freedom from the British on the basis of the national unity of Pashtuns and for the reestablishment of Ahmad Shah (Abdali) Baba’s Afghanistan. All those great leaders tied the freedom of Pashtuns with the freedom of India. The face of the Pashtuns was thus diverted from the ‘north’ (Kabul) to the ‘south’ (Delhi). The split (Durand Line) that the British had caused in one body thus widened more.” Khan Lala wrote that the Durand Line was an “illegal, immoral and unconstitutional” demarcation but proposed for the involved parties to solve the issue through peaceful and democratic means. Just like he never imposed his devout religious views on anyone, he never forced his political vision on partisans, fellow travellers or opponents. He wanted the Pashtuns and Afghans to self-determinate their politico-national destiny. Afzal Khan Lala’s hospitality, self-reliance, dignity, towering personal integrity and determination under fire, along with his unwavering commitment to the Pashtun qaumi wahdat made him the paragon of Pashtun nationalism that he was adored as. He lived by his favourite lines from Amir Hamza Shinwari:

“So che ra ghund pa yaw markaz ye na krram

Harey tapay ta da jargo sara zam”

(Unless I unify Pashtuns around one centre

With jirgas to their each abode I shall go).

Rest in peace dear Khan Lala; you were a league apart.

The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com and he tweets @mazdaki