Afrasiab Khattak

Afrasiab Khattak
افراسياب خٹک
Pakistan Senator of the Kohat Division of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province for the Pakistan Senate
Assumed office
15 April 2009
President of the Avami National Party-General Secretariat of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province
Assumed office
9 March 2011
President Asfandyiar Wali
Personal details
Born Kohat, North-West Frontier Province, West-Pakistan
Political party Awami National Party
Other political
affiliations		 Communist Party of Pakistan
Alma mater Peshawar University
Occupation Public servant

Afrasiab Khattak (Pashto: افراسیاب خټک‎, Urdu: افراسياب خٹک‎) is a left-wing politician from the State of Pakistan. He is currently representing the Kohat Division of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province in the Pakistan Senate.

Inspired by the Russian communist party, Khattak joined the pro-Soviet Communist Party. He later joined the socialist party named Awami National Party in 1980. He is the President of the Avami National Party's central secretariat based in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and as well as Chairman of the special standing committee senate. Khattak started his political activism in the 1970s, but escaped to Soviet Union to divert the effects of the Great Purge authorised by far-right wing regime of General Zia-ul-Haq. In the 1980s, he took asylum in Afghanistan Soviet Republic, serving as the top adviser to the Soviet government in matters involving Afghanistan. After the Fall of Kabul, Khattak settled back to Pakistan and founded the Afghanistan Pakistan People's Friendship Association in 2001. In 2002, Khattak was appointed as the president of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).[1] In 2006, Khattak joined the Awami National Party.

Biography

Afrasiab Khattak was born in a small village known as Mandoori Khaderkhal. After receiving early education from Kohat, Khattak was admitted to the Peshawar University. There, Khattak obtained a bachelor's degree in Russian history and a BSc in Political Science. During this time, Khattak was also the student leader at the local university union and took active participation during his college times.

During this time, Khattak became an active member of Communist Party of Pakistan. 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's military rule.[2]

After his return from Afghanistan, Khattak contested the general elections from Karak in 1990 but lost to Aslam Khattak.

Communism

Afrasiab Khattak joined the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) during the 1960s and by some accounts became its Secretary General. However, Khattak later allied himself with left-wing Awami National Party and campaigned during the 1977 parliamentary elections. However, after General Zia-ul-Haq authorised the purge to curbed down the communist-socialist mass, Khattak took refuge in Soviet Union and later returned to Afghanistan as top Russian adviser to Afghan government.

Afrasiab Khattak lived in self-exile in Kabul from August 1980 to January 1989. He never had any formal responsibility in Afghanistan and lived there along with other Pakistani opposition politicians like Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's sons, Ajmal Khattak, Khair Bakhsh Marri, and thousands of Baloch dissidents. Afrasiab had a very close personal relationship with Dr. Najibullah dating back to the early 1980s. When Dr. Najeeb was brutally murdered by hidden hands in his connivance in September 1996, Afrasaib along with other progressive and nationalist politicians organised protest demonstrations in Peshawar for three days.

In 1990, Khattak formed the Quami Inquilabi Party (National Revolutionary Party), a Marxist party, after parting ways with the ANP of Abdul Wali Khan in 1989, he subsequently merged his group to form the Pakhtunkhwa Qaumi Party along with Abdul Latif Afridi and Afzal Khan Lala.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Afrasiab Khattak joined the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in 1989, and served as the Vice-Chairman of HRCP in North-West Frontier Province, for three years – he is also one of the founders of the Afghanistan Pakistan People's Friendship Association.[3] In April 1999, he was threatened by extremist factions for demonstrating against "honour" killing in Peshawar.

On 2 May 1999, he was unanimously elected Chairperson of HRCP for a three-year-term. Re-elected in 2002, he resigned from the post after he rejoined the Awami National Party. He is also a known constitutional expert and a practising lawyer of Supreme Court and High court.

Rejoining the ANP

He was elected in 2006 as the provincial president of the Awami National Party, leading the party to provincial victory in Pakistan's elections of 2008.[4] Afrasiab khattak has been elected as Senator from the Pukhtoonkhwa Assembly in March 2009.[5] He has also been elected as Chairman of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights.

See also

References

  1. ↑ HRCP elections 1 April 2002 . DAWN group
  2. ↑ Afrasiab Khattak: An Unlikely Crusader Archived 26 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine. by S.A Hussain 30 June 2000. Pakistanlink.com. Retrieved 10 May 2007
  3. ↑ Challenges for Pakistani Democracy: Resisting Religious Extremism Archived 9 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Afrasiab ANP’s new provincial president 4-13-07. DAWN group
  5. ↑ From idealism to pragmatism By Ismail Khan 6 July 2003 DAWN group. Retrieved 6 June 2006
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