Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) is a
Pashtoon democratic political party in Pakistan. The Moto of PMAP is to unite
Pashtoons of Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal
Areas.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai is the current party chairman. Abdul Rahim
Mondokhail Advocate is the senior deputy chairman of the Party.
Sher Ali Bacha was the first Secretary General
of Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party. In 2013 elections PMAP won 14
Provincial Assembly seats including 3 reserved seats for women, which were
allocated to the sisters of those Martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the
rights and good future of Pashtoons.
Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party demands equal rights and identity for Pashtoons, our theme is to divert children from extremism to Education
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami
Party stands for and believes that each Nationality in Pakistan should have
equal social, political and economical rights. PMAP believes that all the
nations living in Pakistan should have equal rights and that each nation should
have exclusive control over their own resources. PMAP demands and believes that
Pashtoons from Chitral to Bolan should have one united province and
have control over its own affairs.
With the growing high cost of petroleum products, gas, groceries and utility bills,
the family income of a middle class family cannot keep pace and more people are
living below the poverty line. Middle class families are under stress just
trying to make their ends meet. PMAP believes that when individuals and
families are given the opportunity to succeed, the economy grows and the
country will become stronger. That is why equality of opportunity is a
fundamental principle of PMAP. People are out of work and have tightened their
belts. PMAP strongly believes in growing our economy, creating jobs across the
Pashtoon land, so no Pashtoon has to leave his home and his loved ones in search
of a better future far from home or even abroad.
To stay competitive on a global scale and for a better future, our economy
depends on highly educated and skilled individuals in various trades and
industries. Pashoonkhwa Milli Awami Party believes firmly that all Pashtuns
deserve affordable access to education. PMAP also believes that Pashtoons should
be able to get education in their own language.
When a loved one of a person gets sick, you want to be sure that you can count
on the health care system. PMAP believes strongly that Every
individual on the time of need must seek an efficient, accountable,
affordable, scientific, culturally acceptable and sustainable Primary
Health Care through its Public Health System
PMAP stand for open, fair, and strong democratic representation. PMAP believes
that Parliament should belong to the people instead of the Prime Minister and/or
President. Also, PMAP strongly believes that the Army and Intelligence Agencies
should stay away from politics. PMAP stands for democracy and the supremacy of
parliament.
PMAP supports the present government of Afghanistan and its efforts in
rebuilding Afghanistan. PMAP strongly believes that Afghanistan is a sovereign
state and therefore should have control of her internal and external affairs
free from outside interference. As a result, it can have peace, commerce and
friendship with other nations of the world. PMAP strongly condemns the
interference of Pakistani Agencies in the affairs of Afghanistan or any other
neighbouring country for that matter.
Party Chairman
Mahmood Khan Achakzai
known as Mashar (born in1948 - ) is a Pashtoon/Afghan Nationalist political
leader rooted in the heartland Gulistan Janobi Pashtunkhwa Pakistan. Mahmood
Khan Achakzai is the Chairman of Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party. He is the son
of Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai historically known as Khan Shaheed.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai who is an Engineer by profession stepped in the politics
after his father Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai was martyred. He openly opposed all
the dictatorial regimes of Zia ul Haq and Parvaiz Musharaf. During Zia regime
he led a protest procession of Movement for the restoration of Democracy on 7th
October 1983 in the city of Quetta. The Army fired at the peaceful procession six pukhtoonkhwa
NAP worker were martyred and shoot orders were issued against Mahmood
Khan Achakzai. Mahmood Khan Achakzai went
underground for 5 years and returned after the restoration of Democracy
in
1988. A staunch nationalist and democrat, Mahmood Achakzai is widely
respected
by democratic circles for his principled stance with regard to human
rights,
women rights, minority rights and the rule of law. He has been elected
member
of National Assembly (MNA) several times from his home constituency of
Qilla
Abdullah and also from Quetta, Balochistan. In elections of 2013 Mahmood
Khan
Achakzai was elected from two National Assembly seats Pashtunkhwa Milli
Awami party has won majority of provincial seats from the Pashtoon belt
in Balochistan
Province. His famous saying is “We do not make enemies or friends on the
basis
of color, creed, race, religion, language or belief. We respect every human
being on the earth".
The Political Thought of Mahmood Khan Achakzai
Mahmood
Khan Achakzai is a rare and unique politician in AFPAK Politics. His
political struggle is the continuity of his father - Abdul Samad Khan
Achakzai’s resistance against the British and later their heirs in
Pakistan. His father was martyred while fighting for the political
rights of Pashtuns both on political and academic fronts. Abdus Samad
Khan Achakzai left a rich political legacy for Mahmud Khan and all the
wisdom which he had learnt from the life and work of his father
compelled him to form a political platform for uniting Pashtuns and
urging them to raise a collective voice for their rights. Following are
the salient features of Mahmood Khan’s political philosophy: 1- Pashtun Historic land
Mahmood Khan maintains that the land between Oxus and Indus is the
historical land of Pashtuns which was divided during successive attacks
on Afghan territory and therefore currently is under the control of
other nations. Pashtuns have been losing their land to other nations due
to lack of political consciousness, unity and national stance on
collective issues collective and if they still don’t realize this fact
they are destined to suffer more in political terms. Mahmood Khan
maintains that Pashtuns were divided only in the weak political sense by
the British after drawing the imaginary Durand line but that division
could not damage the Pashtun nation as their geographic position is like
an integral whole. Hence FATA had independent status and it should be
given the same independent status such that it should have its own
legislature, executive and judiciary run by the local Tribal Pashtuns.
This makes Durand line an international issue between Pakistan and
Afghanistan and hence it should be treated like Kashmir issue. Due to
this complicated nature of Durand line issue, Mahmood Khan defines
Pakistan as the country of Pashtuns while Afghanistan as the motherland
of Pashtuns. As country is a variable entity while motherland is
permanent hence a person has natural inclination and love for motherland
despite a person’s citizenship which may belong to one country or
another. He therefore regards Afghanistan as the motherland and Pakistan
as the country of Pashtuns.
2- Democratic share in Power
Mahmood Khan demands a share in the governance and political power
for Pakhtuns in Pakistan as it is the second majority ethnic group. He
believes that humongous armies, economies, nuclear arsenals or
ammunitions cannot bind the people of a country together. The glue which
keeps the various federations, ethnic groups, provinces or states of a
country consists of two elements – a social contract between the units
constituting the country and secondly the element of democracy. He
draws the attentions of the world towards the former USSR and
Czechoslovakia and urges the learned and wise ones to extract wisdom
from these historic political events. Making it a premise for Pakistan,
which is also proud of its nuclear teeth and huge military capabilities
in the Muslim world, he advises the ruling junta of Pakistan to devolve
the powers in reality to the people of Pakistan in a democratic manner.
Being a staunch believer in both the form as well as essence of
democracy, his political party – Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party-
boycotted the 2008 elections in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan but
in 2013 election party contested elections and won 10 Provincial
Assembly and 3 national assembly seats.
3- Non Interference
Mahmood Khan believes in a foreign policy of “Do not interfere into
the affairs of others”. He is an advocate of non interference and non
intervention in the internal affairs of any neighbouring country. He
maintains that Pakistani military establishment has been responsible for
the destruction and devastation of Afghanistan even after the Cold war.
He has made it clear to the world times and again that the intelligence
agencies and other allied military institutions can sort out the AfPak
issue in months if not in days once they have the will to do so. He
urges the military establishment to act like the five senses in a human
body and just inform the state about any possible threats to the
solidarity or defense of the country instead of pursuing an aggressive
foreign policy of provocation and justifying the need for a humungous
budget for the security forces of the country. He maintains that
irrespective of the economic or political status of the nation state the
neighbouring or any other state should not interfere into the internal
affairs of that nation state and should respect her sovereignty and
freedom. He accuses Pakistan of meddling into the affairs of Afghanistan
since the US-Russia war in Afghanistan in 1978 and believes that
Pakistan took active role in the instability of Afghanistan since that
war due to which Afghanistan became a battlefield between various
Afghans factions all of which were fighting to take control of Kabul.
The same war also made Afghanistan Chess ground of international
players.
4- Self Control over Resources
Mahmood Khan demands for control of people over their natural
resources. He blames Punjab of having hegemony when it comes to the
distribution of resources. He has been raising his voice for the right
of Pashtuns to have control over their water, electricity, minerals and
other natural resources. His party has been actively involved in
parliamentary politics and has a marked presene in the South Pakhtunkhwa
[currently called Baluchistan] province of Pakistan while is undergoing
the phase of evolution in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and rest of Pakistan. The
party has been actively involved in raising a voice for the oppressed
ethnicities in general and for Pashtuns in particular. He is known to
have never compromised over the rights of Pashtuns with any institution
of Pakistan including the strongest military establishment which has
been ruling Pakistan defacto since the time Pakistan was founded in
1947.
5- Sectarian and Ethnic Tolerance
Mahmood Khan is of the opinion that sectarian tolerance has to be
practiced till the whole world embraces one philosophy of existence.
Humans have to show respect for the religions and codes of life of other
humans and society has to be based on the principle of peaceful co
existence. The main emphasis of his concept of peaceful co existence,
however, is the fact that he believes in the equality of all religions
in terms of respect. By equality in respect he means that irrespective
of which sect is the torch bearer of truth, every sect should give the
same status to that of others as it demands for its own. The same
principle is for ethnic tolerance. He demands respect for Pashto
language, culture, music, art, history, social institutions and other
ethnic norms vis-a-vis same demands by any other ethnic group or even
the state for their ethnic features and identity from national as well
as international community. Mahmood Khan believes that the concept of
self respect needs to be practiced at collective level too. While its
realisation at the individual level is also necessary and has been a
part and parcel of Pakhtun life style but that practice is not
sufficient in the contemporary age. The implications of this notion have
enormous socio-political and even economic implications. It
unconsciously inculcates the seeds of competition in the collective
psyche of a nation and brings it, consequently, at par with the
developed nations of the world.
6- New Social Contract
Mahmood Khan Achakzai and his party are known as a ray of hope for
the poor and oppressed people in the multi-tier corrupt societal
structure of Pakistan. The current societal nomenclature of Pakistan
consists of a colonial legacy layer, a sectarian layer and a security
state layer. The implications of these layers necessitate a dictatorial
form of governance while the Zeitgeist of the age is democracy. Hence
there is a constant state of conflict between the ruling junta and the
ruled class. The priorities of both are contradictory to each other. The
artificial amalgam has already shown its weakness in early 1970 during
the era of a military dictator which resulted in the creation of Bangla
Desh. Pakistan is now facing the implications of the second layer of its
chemistry and is facing the menace of terrorism in which every
individual as well as institution is under threat and hence afraid .
Practically Pakistan is becoming a living hell for her inhabitants.
In this abyss of darkness, Mahmood Khan has been pressing for a new
social contract for the people of Pakistan based on truth and
reconciliation in the true sense in which the chemistry of the state
should be revisited, the constitutions and its guiding principles should
be reviewed, the aspirations and rights of the people should be
ensured, anti-progress restrictions and constraints in the constitution
should be abolished and democratic process is given a chance to flourish
without deforming its form or distorting its essence.
