About
Khan Abdul Wali Khan
Khan Abdul Wali Khan (b. January 11, 1917, d. January 26, 2006) was a former freedom fighter against the British Raj and a senior politician in Pakistan. Khan Abdul Wali Khan was the politically most active son of Bach Khan. Wali Khan was the most senior politician in Pakistan today. He has been president of ANP (Awami National Party) for many years and now acts as the ideological mentor of the party. Wali Khan is known for his extraordinary ability to predict the political future of the country. His assessment of Afghan-Soviet war aftermath is very good example of that.
Political career in brief
- Joined the Khudai Khidmatgar in 1937
- 1940's joined the All India Congress party
- 1956 joined the National Awami Party (NAP)
- 1967 elected President of his own faction of the NAP
- 1970 elections Elected from to both National Assembly and Provincial assembly from Charsadda. Party became the third largest party in the Assembly.
- 1972 Elected Leader of opposition in the National Assembly.
- 1988 elections, Khan Abdul Wali Khan elected Member of National assembly from NA-5 after defeating Nisar Muhammad Khan but lost provincial seat to Peoples party candidate.
- 1990 general elections Khan Abdul Wali Khan defeated by Maulana Hassan Jan of JUI (F). Opts to retire from politics.
- Served as the ideological mentor (rehbar) of his party Awami National Party (ANP) from 1991 till his death.
Early life
Born on 11 January 1917 in Utmanzai town of Charsadda district in the North-West Frontier Province, he received his early education from Azad Islamia High School which formed part of a chain of schools his father Bacha Khan prominent Pashtun Nationalist, confidante of Gandhi and freedom fighter commonly known as Bacha Khan, had launched to spread education among the Pakhtuns. Khan later shifted to Irish government's Deradun Public School and completed his Senior Cambridge in 1933. Despite the pacifist influences as a young freedom fighter he seemed exasperated with the Pacificsm advocated by his father and Gandhi. He was to later explain his exasperation to Muklaika Bannerjee, "The young Wali had challenged the Mahatma’s philosophy of non-violence by pointing to a chicken in the yard. “If the cook comes to slaughter this chicken’s baby,” he said to Gandhi, “is non-violence on the part of the chicken likely to save the younger life?” The story ended with a twinkle in his eye when he remembered Gandhiji’s reply, “Wali, you seem to have done more research on violence than I have on non-violence.”
Early politics
In 1942, Wali Khan formally stepped into the field of politics and commenced his political career from the platform of the Khudai Khidmatgar. He was arrested and charged under the Frontier Crimes Regulations in 1943 at the hands of the British authorities the first of his many incarcerations. Prior to the creation of Pakistan, in 1947, Wali Khan remained member of the All India Congress Committee and was provincial joint secretary of the party.
Freed in 1953 he initiated negotiations with the central government to allay apprehensions among the rulers about the Khudai Khidmatgar. He held talks with the then NWFP Chief Minister Sardar Abdul Rashid and Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra. In the end he held a series of meetings with the then Governor General Ghulam Mohammed. He successfully managed to secure release of hundreds of political prisoners belonging to the Khudai Khidmatgar movement.
His early politics after Pakistan's creation were said to be influenced by two events; one his elder brother Ghani Khan's decision to withdraw from politics, the second his uncle Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan (known as Dr Khan Sahib). Dr Khan Sahib preferred a more pragmatic approach to Pakistani politics and advocated a political reconciliation with Pakistan's establishment.
His Uncles assassination in front of a young Wali Khan in 1958 influenced him profoundly. After the first Military regime of Ayub Khan came to power in 1958, Wali Khan along with many other politicians at the time were imprisoned and disqualified from contesting elections or participating in politics.
