Muhammed Afzal Khan Lala also known as Afzal Khan Lala (1926 – 1 November 2015) was a

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

nationalist, former Pakistani provincial and Federal minister from the

Swat valley Swat District (, ps, سوات ولسوالۍ, ) is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. With a population of 2,309,570 per the 2017 national census, Swat is the 15th-largest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pro ...

in the

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. Followin ...

. Hailing from the Yousafzai Tribe of Bara Durushkhela village of

Matta, Swat Matta ( ps, مټه) is a town in Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is located about from the central city of Mingora Mingora ( ps, مینګورہ, ur, ) is a city in the Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Lo ...

and a senior member of the

Awami National Party The Awami National Party (ANP; ur, , ps, اولسي ملي ګوند; lit. ''People's National Party'') is a Pashtun nationalist, secular and leftist political party in Pakistan. The party was founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986 and its curr ...

, he survived several assassination attempts allegedly by the supporters of

Maulana Fazlullah Fazal Hayat (1974 – 14 June 2018), more commonly known by his pseudonym Mullah Fazlullah (Pashto/ ur, ), was an Islamist militant who was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, and was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki ...

Lineage

khan lala linage is as below: Afzal khan s/o muhmmad habib khan(darmi khan) s/o hussain khan s/o arsala khan s/o muhmmad alam khan s/o zarif khan s/o hussain khan(budha khel) s/o muhammad khan(mama khel) s/o nusrat khan s/o muhmmad khan(muhammad khel) s/o sham khan (shamizai) s/o khwaja mohd khan (khwaja zai) s/o ako (akozai) s/o yousaf (yousafzai) s/o mand s/o sheekha s/o kand s/o kharshabun s/o sarban s/o qais(abdur rasheed) s/o aees.

Political career

Afzal Khan began his political career affiliated with National Awami Party (NAP) in opposing the rule of the

Wali of Swat A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the ...

. Formally joining the party in 1969 after Swat's merger into NWFP, he was elected member of provincial assembly in Pakistan's 1970, first ever national election. A close confidante of

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 people, Pashtun leader, and served as president of Awami National Party. Son of the promin ...

he was one of three

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 ...

provincial ministers appointed in the short-lived coalition government of Mufti Mehmud. In 1975, he was arrested by the government as part of general crackdown against the opposition and was charged as part of the

Hyderabad tribunal The Hyderabad tribunal (1975–1979), also known as Hyderabad conspiracy case, is the name of a former judicial tribunal used in Pakistan to prosecute opposition politicians of the National Awami Party on the charges of treason and acting against t ...

. Released in 1978, he was elected provincial president of the

, however in 1990 he along with senior party leaders formed a breakaway party called the Pakhtunkhwa Qaumi Party (PQP), in protest against the Awami National Party's decision to form an alliance with the conservative

Islami Jamhoori Ittehad The Islami Jamhoori Ittehad ( Islamic Democratic Alliance; acronym: IJI; ur, ) was a right-wing conservative alliance formed in September 1988 to oppose the democratic socialist Pakistan Peoples Party in elections that year. The alliance compri ...

. Allying his group to the

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...

, Afzal Khan was elected to the National Assembly in the 1993 elections. Serving as Federal Minister for the Northern areas and Kashmir from 1993 to 1996, he withdrew from electoral politics after 1997. He then allied himself with the

Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement The Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) was an alliance of several nationalist parties in Pakistan: Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, Awami Tehreek, Balochistan National Party (Mengal), Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Seraiki movement, Panjistani ...

(PONM), advocating full provincial autonomy for the various ethnicities of Pakistan. In 2005 he rejoined the Awami National Party.

Opposition to Taliban

One of the few opponents, not in exile or dead, of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

in the region, he has been guarded by relatives and members of the

. In a recent interview he said from his house in the Durushkhela area of

Swat In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

that he refuses to leave the area to Taliban: ''"I shall die but will not leave the ground to militants".''

Recognition by Pakistan government

As acknowledgement for his bravery in the face of terrorism, he was awarded by the President of Pakistan, the highest civilian award for bravery the Hilal-i-Shujaat in 2009.

Death

He died on 1 November 2015 in Swat after a protracted illness. Afghan President

Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban. Born in ...

, CEO

Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah ( Dari/ ps, عبدالله عبدالله, ; born as Abdullah on 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government w ...

, former President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

and other leaders expressed there condolence. Also are till today seminars keeping, for example by

Pashtoons Social Democratic Party The Pashtoons Social Democratic Party (abbr. PSDP; ps, د پښتنو ټولنیز ولسواکیز ګوند) is the unity and independence party of all Pashtuns, a social democratic political party in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The party was f ...

References