Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. PHOTO: FILE
This year, unlike before, two separate events will be held in memory of Awami National Party leaders, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Khan Abdul Wali Khan – one in Charsadda today and the other in Peshawar a day later.
As party members gather at Wali Bagh, Charsadda, Wali Khan’s widow and her supporters will meet at Nishtar Hall, Peshawar tomorrow. Recent events have shown Begum Nasim to be at odds with the party leadership and attempting to launch her grandson, Lawangeen Khan, into the political arena.
Khan Abdul Wali Khan’s widow and stepmother of ANP’s Asfandyar Wali Khan, Nasim, made the announcement of splitting from the party to form her own earlier this year. At several occasions, she has made it a point to mention that this new venture would have no room for her stepson or his son, Aimal Wali Khan. She has even excluded her brother, Azam Hoti, and his son and former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister Haider Hoti from the party.
As of yet, no prominent members of the ANP have joined Nasim. Many members of the party’s student wing, however, can be seen supporting her. This includes the president of the Pukhtun Students Federation, Bashir Sherpao, and former ANP MPA Abdur Rehman Khan.
Asfandyar’s camp stands strong with former and present MPAs and heavyweights like the Bilour and Arbab families of Peshawar, Afzal Khan’s family in Swat and Haider Hoti, despite his father’s dramatic falling-out with ANP.
Not a new spectacle
This is not the first time the ANP leaders have been at odds with each other. One of the earliest clashes was between the party’s founder, Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Bacha Khan, and his elder brother Dr Khan Sahib. The brothers were at war when the latter became the chief minister of West Pakistan in 1956 and Bacha Khan was still actively fighting against Ayub Khan’s One Unit Policy.
Similarly, Wali Khan’s brother and renowned poet Ghani Khan was sidelined from the party when he set up the Pukhtun Zalmai. This rift remained a source of contention between the two brothers till their dying day.
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According to former ANP provincial minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, this is a family dispute. He said when the ANP was in power, Nasim and Azam Hoti remained silent, but started criticising as soon as the government dissolved. He added Azam Hoti had extended full support for Asfandyar as the party president after the recent elections, before jumping ship. Mian Iftikhar maintains that Asfandyar enjoys the full support of Pukhtuns and will remain a leader like his father and grandfather before him.
One of Begum Nasim’s supporters, Syed Zakir Shah, believes that these developments are solely a reaction to Asfandyar’s policies. Zakir was a member of the ANP until he was refused a ticket in the 2008 elections. He admitted that political heavyweights may not be present in Nasim’s party yet, but the party would show its strength on January 27.
Shah claimed that certain ANP leaders from Swat to DI Khan were also in close contact with Nasim. He added former disgruntled leaders who had left ANP in the past were planning on joining ranks with Begum Nasim.
ANP Senator Afrasiab Khattak said the party was united under Asfandyar Wali Khan. He shrugged off claims that a large number of people from the party had left to join Nasim.
“Begum Nasim was opposing the membership drive for the party; which is a constitutional requirement,” he pointed out. “There is no Loya Jirga in our party, the process of membership and elections has been ongoing from Bacha Khan’s era.”
An expert on regional politics and former professor of history at Quaid-i-Azam University, Dr Waqar Ali Shah, told The Express Tribune that for him there was no comparison between Asfandyar and Nasim.
“Asfandyar enjoys popular support within the party; whereas Nasim’s story is an account of the past,” says Dr Shah. “Nasim was known as the ‘iron lady’ of ANP, and there have been many rifts in the party that she has been involved in.” He added that on the other hand, many give Asfandyar credit for the renaming of the province, smooth passage of the 18th Amendment, and a clear stand against the rising tide of militancy in the region.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2014.
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