Afrasiab Khattak ( ps, افراسیاب خټک; ) is a
Pashtun nationalist politician and political analyst who is a senior leader of the
National Democratic Movement (NDM).
He has formerly served as the chairperson of the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan ( ur, ) (HRCP) is an independent, democratic non-profit organisation. Founded in 1987, it is one of the oldest human rights organisations in the country.
HRCP is committed to monitoring, protecting a ...
(HRCP), a member of the
Senate of Pakistan
Senate of Pakistan or Aiwān-e-Bālā Pākistān ( ur, , , literally "Pakistan upper house"), is the upper house, upper legislative chamber of the bicameral legislature of Pakistan, and together with the National Assembly (Pakistan), National As ...
(2009–2014), and the provincial president of the
Awami National Party (ANP). He is an activist in the
Pashtun Tahafuz Movement
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM; ps, پښتون ژغورنې غورځنګ ''Paṣtūn Zhghōrənē Ghōrźang''; ur, , lit=Pashtun Protection Movement) is a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochista ...
(PTM).
Khattak started his political activism in the 1970s but went to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
to avoid the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
authorised by the regime of
General Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
. Inspired by the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Khattak joined the pro-Soviet
Communist Party of Pakistan
The Communist Party of Pakistan ( abbr. CPP; ur, کمیونسٹ پارٹی آف پاکستان) is a communist party in Pakistan.
History Founding
The CPP was founded in Calcutta, India, soon after the establishment of Pakistan on 6 March 1948 ...
. He later joined the socialist
National Awami Party
The National Awami Party (NAP), translated from Urdu to English as National People's Party, was the major left-wing political party in East and West Pakistan. It was founded in 1957 in Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), by A ...
in 1980 and later went into
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
in
Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, serving as the top adviser to the
Soviet government
The Government of the Soviet Union ( rus, Прави́тельство СССР, p=prɐˈvʲitʲɪlʲstvə ɛs ɛs ɛs ˈɛr, r=Pravítelstvo SSSR, lang=no), formally the All-Union Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly ab ...
in matters involving Afghanistan. After the
Fall of Kabul, Khattak returned to Pakistan and founded the Afghanistan Pakistan People's Friendship Association in 2001. In 2006, Khattak joined the Awami National Party, becoming the President of ANP's central secretariat based in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...
and as well as chairman of the special standing committee senate.
Biography
Khattak became an active member of
Communist Party of Pakistan
The Communist Party of Pakistan ( abbr. CPP; ur, کمیونسٹ پارٹی آف پاکستان) is a communist party in Pakistan.
History Founding
The CPP was founded in Calcutta, India, soon after the establishment of Pakistan on 6 March 1948 ...
. He was an active leftist politician during the 1970s and 1980s. Khattak spent many years in self-exile in Afghanistan during the 1980s due to his strong opposition to
General Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
's military rule.
Khattak joined the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan ( ur, ) (HRCP) is an independent, democratic non-profit organisation. Founded in 1987, it is one of the oldest human rights organisations in the country.
HRCP is committed to monitoring, protecting a ...
(HRCP) in 1989, and served as the vice-chairman of HRCP in
North-West Frontier Province
The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followi ...
, for three years – he is also one of the founders of the Afghanistan Pakistan People's Friendship Association.
After rejoining the
Awami National Party, he was elected in 2006 as the ANP's provincial president, leading the party to provincial victory in Pakistan's elections of 2008. Khattak was elected as senator of the
Pukhtoonkhwa Assembly in March 2009.
From idealism to pragmatism By Ismail Khan
6 July 2003 DAWN group. Retrieved 6 June 2006
His membership was suspended from ANP on 12 November 2018 by the party's General Secretary, Mian Iftikhar Hussain
Mian Iftikhar Hussain ( ps, میا افتخار حسېن; ur, میاں افتخار حسین) is a Pashtun nationalist politician who is a senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP).
He has served as the spokesperson of the Pakistan Demo ...
, on the directives of the party's president, Asfandyar Wali Khan
Asfandyar Wali Khan (Urdu and Pashto: اسفندیار ولی خان) (born 19 February 1949) is a Pakistani Pashtun politician who is the president of the Awami National Party (ANP). His father, Abdul Wali Khan, was the party's first presiden ...
.
See also
* Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan ( ur, ) (HRCP) is an independent, democratic non-profit organisation. Founded in 1987, it is one of the oldest human rights organisations in the country.
HRCP is committed to monitoring, protecting a ...
* Khan Abdul Wali Khan
Khan Abdul Wali Khan ( ps, خان عبدالولي خان; 11 January 1917 – 26 January 2006) was a Pakistani secular democratic socialist and Pashtun leader, and served as president of Awami National Party. Son of the prominent Pashtun nat ...
* Awami National Party
References
External links
Out of Communist Afghanistan
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Awami National Party politicians
Pakistani communists
Pakistani democracy activists
Pakistani expatriates in Afghanistan
Pakistani human rights activists
Pakistani lawyers
Pashtun people
People from Kohat District
University of Peshawar alumni
National Democratic Movement (Pakistan) politicians
{{Pakistan-politician-stub