Veteran Pashtun nationalist leader and progressive writer and poet, well-known revolutionary Ajmal Khattak died in his hometown Akora Khattak at 85.

S. Mudassir Ali Shah (Pajhwok)
Renowned Pakhtun nationalist leader and distinguished poet Ajmal Khattak breathed his last after a protracted illness in an NWFP hospital, a Pakistani TV channel reported. He was 85.

A former NWFP minister, senator and Member of National Assembly (MNA), the veteran intellectual spent more than a decade and a half in self-imposed exile in Afghanistan.

A senior National Awami Party (NAP) figure, he was wanted by the Federal Security Force as part of a political witch-hunt launched by the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government. As a result, he stayed in Kabul for 16 years.

His son told Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone that funeral prayers for Khattak, who remained bed-ridden for more than a year, would be offered in his ancestral village of Akora Khattak in Nowshera district on Monday.

Aimal Khattak said his father, born in Akora Khattak on September 15, 1925, would be laid to rest after Zuhr prayers. During his 50-year political career, he saw his literary pursuits and education take painful turns.

Profoundly influenced by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s philosophy of non-violence, Khattak was an energetic member of the Quit India Movement in 1942. In an effort to play a more proactive role in the struggle against the British Raj, he left school.

But he resumed studies later on and did his MA in Persian from the Peshawar University. He also served as editor of different newspapers and periodicals, including Anjam, Shahbaz, Adal and Rahber.

A minister in the cabinet of NWFP Chief Minister Mufti Mehmood in 1972, he was the stage secretary at a United Democratic Front (UDF) rally held at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on March 23 1973.

During the rally, gunshots were fired at the UDF leaders, including Khan Abdul Wali Khan. In the ensuing scuffle, several UDF and NAP workers were killed by the security personnel.

Writer Muhammad Hasan Haqyar, meanwhile, described Khattak’s passing as a tragedy for Pakhtuns living on both sides of the Durand Line. He believed the vacuum created by Khattak’s death would long be felt, particularly in literary and political circles.

Da Ghairat Chagha (Cry of Courage), Da Zhwand Chagha (Cry of Life), Zhwand Aw Khwand (Life and Joy), Guloona Aw Takaloona (Flowers and Quests), Afghan Nang (Afghan Bravery), Kachkol (Begging Bowl), Gul Aw Parhar (Flower and Wound) and Sre Ghunche (Red Bouquets) are some of his famous books.

Haqyar rated Da Ghairat Chagha as an excellent poetic collection that jolted Pakhtuns out of their deep political slumber and galvanised them into waging a determined struggle for their rights.

During his self-exile in Kabul, Khattak enjoyed cordial relations with People’s Democratic Party leaders, including President Nur Muhammad Taraki, Babrak Karmal and Dr. Mohammad Najibullah.

It was in 1989, when the Awami National Party (ANP) entered an electoral alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, that Khattak’s exile came to an end.

A year later, he was elected as Member of National Assembly (MNA) from Nowshera. In 993, Khattak lost his re-election bid but was nominated as an ANP senator in March 1994. Following a prolonged power struggle with Begum Nasim Wali Khan, Khattak was removed as ANP president in 2000.

The two-day World Pashto Conference (Oct. 08-09, 2009) in Kabul concluded on Friday with a special focus on education for the Pashtun people in Afghanistan and Pakistan and appealed the militants active in both countries to stop torching schools and other educational institutions.

The conference was arranged by two cultural and literary groups working for the promotion of the Pashto language in Kabul; it was the first World Pashto Conference in Afghanistan and the eighth of overall World Pashto Conferences; all of the previous World Pashto Conferences were held in Pakistan. The first World Pashto Conference was held in Peshawar in 1988.

Delegations and representatives of Pashto literary organizations from India, Pakistan, European countries, Gulf countries, Canada and the United States participated in the Conference. Several government officials, governors, members of Parliament, and tribal elders were also present.

There were four workshops in the Conference to discuss the problems the Pashtuns and their language – Pashto – has been facing in the world today. They discussed the overall situation of the Pashtuns, the lack of educational institutions for Pashtun children, the faults in the jirga system, and the apathy the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan have towards the Pashto language.

There was a poetry reciting gathering on the first day and a music and dance session on the second day. Nearly all of the poems were about the current war-like situation in the tribal areas and Afghanistan and Pakistan. They said the war had destroyed not only their land and people, but also the history, culture, and the future.

At the concluding session, the participants unanimously passed a resolution which:

• appealed the anti-government elements on both sides of the border to stop torching schools;

• asked the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to support the Pashto language and work for its promotion;

• asked the relevant government institutions, literary and cultural organizations, and the civil society to cooperate with each other and find implementable mechanisms for the solutions of the problems the Pashtuns have been facing and for the promotion of the Pashto language; and

• asked the international community and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to provide more and modern educational opportunities to the Pashtuns for their progress and prosperity.

Interesting notes:

• The Chairman of the first World Pashto Conference – a well-known progressive Pashtun writer, Salim Raaz – was not invited to the Conference. He told a news conference in Peshawar that the Kabul Conference was not part of the World Pashto Conferences and he didn’t know who had arranged it.

• All of the participants from Pakistan said they felt at home in Afghanistan because the country was their mother land.

• A speaker from Pakistan continuously used the term ‘Occupied Afghanistan’ for the tribal areas and the settled Pashtun-dominated districts of Pakistan (reminding the people that these areas are a part of Afghanistan but occupied by Pakistan).

• Most of the speeches and the poems focused on the current situation in the tribal areas and the worst conditions the Pashtuns live in.

• A Working Committee established the World Pashto Network and there was a demand for a World Pashto Conference every year.

• Several of the participants complained about bad arrangements of the conference.