In the memory of: PkMAP founding leader remembered

People from all walks of life commemorated his 48th anniversary

PESHAWAR: The 48th death anniversary of Pukhtun nationalist leader and the founder of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai Shaheed was commemorated at Faqir of Ipi Ground, University of Peshawar on Wednesday. People of all ages, especially the youth, attended the gathering.

Achakzai, a veteran Pukhtun nationalist from Balochistan, participated in mainstream politics of the country after Partition; struggling for democracy and strongly opposing dictatorship, a struggle for which he made many sacrifices. It was on the night of December 1, 1973, the Pukhtun leader was killed in Quetta in a bomb blast. A case was registered in Quetta city police station; however, there have been no leads as to who perpetrated the attack.

“In the pre-independence era, Achakzai worked hard for the rights of Pukhtuns in Balochistan. He did what Bacha Khan did for the Pukhtuns of the northwest; and just like Bacha Khan, he ended up spending a lot of his time in British jails for his political advocacy,” said Darvesh Gharani, a PkMAP activist, while addressing the gathering. It was not only in the British-era that he was incarcerated, but also under the Pakistan government.

“Khan Shaheed was the first political prisoner of General Ayub Khan’s regime,” said Nazif Khan, one of the senior leaders of PkMAP. “Despite spending 10 years in jail for his advocacy, he kept raising his voice for the rule of democracy in the country.”

The son of a chief

Achakzai was born in the late 1890s. His father, Khan Nur Muhammad Khan, was a landlord and chief of the Achakzai tribe. Achakzai was educated in a maktab in
his village.

He was not only a political leader but also a linguist and a Pashto writer. He had launched a journal Istiqlal, which had a political agenda but also worked on promoting the Pashto language. He once wrote, “I wait at your doorstep, for God’s sake pour the sublime Pashto language as alms in my outstretched bowl.”

According to Nazif, Achakzai’s forefather Barkhurdar Khan Achakzai was a top general in Ahmad Shah Abdali’s forces that conquered Panipat.

Political footprint

Achakzai started the first organised political party of Balochistan, called Anjuman-e-Watan, in 1938. Before Partition, Anjuman-e-Watan was considered to have an affiliation with Indian National Congress and he was popularly known as the “Baloch Gandhi”.

He later on transformed Anjuman-e-Watan into a political organisation called Ror Pashtun or the Pukhtun Brotherhood to work for their rights which merged into National Awami Party (NAP) in 1957, making him a founding member along with Bacha Khan. However, he developed differences with NAP and launched the National Awami Party Pakhtunkhwa in 1973

Achakzai later allied with other parties, including Mazdoor Kisan Party under the leadership of Sher Ali Bacha, and made Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd,  2015.