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

. 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

's military rule. Khattak joined the

(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 ...

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

Biography

See also

References

External links