Fanoos Gujjar (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
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left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Pakistani politician from

Buner Buner District ( ps, بونیر ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Before becoming a district in 1991, it was a tehsil within Swat District. History The Buner Valley lies bet ...

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, ...

. He was the founding chairperson and president of

Awami Workers Party The Awami Workers Party ( ur, عوامی ورکرز پارٹی) is a left-wing socialist political party in Pakistan. The party seeks to unify the struggles of workers, peasants, students, women and ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan und ...

. He spent his life in grass root struggle for the rights of minorities, workers, peasants, women and students.

Early life and education

Fanoos Gujjar was born in 1958 in union council Chagharzai,

in the house of Haji Zafar Khan. He received his initial education in the district Buner and graduation from the Buner Government College and later in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

. In Peshawar, Gujjar contributed to the left-wing newspaper "Daily Shehbaz" and as editor of the newspaper "Jiddat" in Peshawar.

Politics

Ideology

Fanoos Gujjar was a socialist and he believed in progressive politics. He was grass root organizer of politics of resistance and even with small number of resources, he stayed committed to the left-wing politics.

Political beginning

Fanoos Gujjar started his political career in his student life in early 1970s by joining, a left-wing students’ body,

National Students Federation The National Students Federation Pakistan (NSF) is a left-wing students federation in Pakistan. In the late 1960s, NSF adopted the political line of Marxism–Leninism and Mao Tse-tung Thought Its predecessor, the DSF (Democratic Students Federa ...

. He also remained part of the

Democratic Students Federation Democratic Students Federation (DSF) is a left-wing student organization in Pakistan. It was first established on 13 January 1951 in Karachi by students of the Dow Medical College, led by Mohammad Sarwar and including MRA Hashmi, Asif Jaffery, Asi ...

and Pashtun Students Federation. In 1980s, Gujjar formed the "Gujjar Youth Forum" to help underrepresented Gujjar community. He also remained part of the peasant movement in Karachi and later joined communist party. During 1984-85, he worked with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (

Bacha Khan Abdul Ghaffār Khān (; 6 February 1890 – 20 January 1988), also known as Bacha Khan () or Badshah Khan (), and honourably addressed as Fakhr-e-Afghan (), was a Pakistani Pashtuns, Pashtun, List of Indian independence activists, independence ...

) and later with his son Wali Khan. He was arrested and faced imprisonments many times during dictatorship of Ziaul Haq. Under captivity, he was being tortured and one of his kidneys got severely affected, he was on dialysis for many years. He left the Awami National Party in 1988 . He was part of

Movement for the Restoration of Democracy The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) ( ur, اتحاد برائے بحالی جمہوریت), was a historically left-wing populism and massive socialist political alliance formed to oppose and end the military government of Presid ...

and the

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 ...

Pakistan Awami Party

Fanoos Gujjar started his new political journey across the country in 1990s and brought people from lower classes together to form “

Pakistan Awami Party Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

”.

Gujjar welfare society

He belonged to the

Gujjar Gurjar or Gujjar (also transliterated as ''Gujar, Gurjara and Gujjer'') is an ethnic nomadic, agricultural and pastoral community, spread mainly in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, divided internally into various clan groups. They were tradit ...

community. He raised the network of solidarity to fight against the injustice faced by his community specifically students and youth. Gujjar laid foundation of Gujjar welfare society in 2000 with the help of students from Gujjar community in universities of

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

to help and encourage students from this community.

Awami Workers Party

Fanoos Gujjar struggled to gather three left-wing progressive political parties (the Awami Party Pakistan, the Labour Party Pakistan and the Workers Party Pakistan) at one platform to form “

” in 2012 and elected as chairman of the party. He was elected as president of AWP in its second congress in 2016. Gujjar contested general elections 2018 from his native constituency, Buner, KP.

Pashtun Protection Movement

Despite facing discrimination in Pashtun society, Fanoos Gujjar raised his voice against the oppression Pashtuns faced and stood in solidarity with Pashtun Protection Movement.

Death

Fanoos Gujjar had been suffering from multiple diseases and left with just one kidney for the past decade. He died on December 1, 2018, due to cardiac arrest. His funeral held in his native village Riyal, Union Council Batala, district Buner which was attended by thousands of people from all fields of life. After Gujjar's death,

Yousuf Mustikhan Yousuf Mustikhan ( ur, یوسف مستی خان; 16 July 1948 – 29 September 2022) was a Pakistani politician who was the president of the Awami Workers Party. Early life and education Mustikhan was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on 16 July 1948 ...

was announced as president of