Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) is a democratic political party that advocates for the rights of Pashtuns and Pashtunkhwa in Pakistan. We are part of the historic Pashtun national movement and consider ourselves the continuation of the politics of Khan Shaheed Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, one of the great leaders of the anti-colonial liberation movement against the British imperialism in Pashtunkhwa and the Indian sub-continent.
Pashtuns-Afghans live in their ancestral homeland between the Oxus and Abaseen (Indus) rivers and have a great tradition of defending it from all the invaders and occupiers over the centuries. The Pashtun homeland was invaded by the British Empire during the age of colonialism and imperialism. From the very beginning, the Pashtun nation presented the greatest obstacle to the British colonialism in this region. As soon as the British reached the Indus River, which represented the eastern frontier of Afghanistan, a series of rebellions and resistance struggles began among the Pashtun nation. The British invasion of the Pashtun-Afghan homeland resulted in three Anglo-Afghan wars in 1838, 1878 and 1919. Although the Afghans defended their homeland in these wars and prevented Afghanistan from being colonised completely by the British, the colonisers succeeded in annexing a vast chunk of Afghan land from Chitral in the north to Sibbi in the south as a result of the coercive Durand & Gandamak "agreements".
The Afghans of these lands, Pashtunkhwa, kept resisting against the partition of their historical homeland and the British occupation. This anti-colonial freedom struggle took different armed & non-violent forms in the late 19th and first half of 20th century. One strand of this freedom struggle was the political struggle of Khan Shaheed Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai in Southern Pashtunkhwa. Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party takes inspiration from all these anti-colonial freedom fighters but especially from Khan Shaheed and his peaceful political struggle and considers itself the continuation of that struggle.In the southern part of Pashtunkhwa, the Pashtun national liberation movement was led by Khan Shaheed Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai. Beginning in the late 1920s, Khan Shaheed became increasingly involved in the anti- British national liberation struggle. He established his political organization as Anjuman-e- Watan, a party dedicated to opposing colonial rule and advocating for the political rights of the people in British Baluchistan. Prior to forming this party, Khan Shaheed had already forged relations with various freedom fighters, including Baacha Khan, Baloch leaders , and the Indian National Congress. Anjuman-e-Watan actively participated in the non-cooperation movement and the Quit India movement, both aimed at resisting British control. From 1929 to 1947, Khan Shaheed and his political comrades faced repeated imprisonments, collectively spending more than a decade incarcerated by the British authorities.
The end of British occupation and the partition of British India did not lead to the emancipation and liberation of Pashtuns. Instead, it opened a new chapter of the struggle. Instead of democracy and federalism, the new rulers of Pakistan opted for dictatorship and oppression of nations. Naturally, Khan Shaheed and the Pashtun national movement decided to resist the anti-people and anti-nations policies of the new government. In 1954, Khan Shaheed formed the ‘Wror Pashtun’ (Pashtun Brotherhood) political party to advocate and struggle for progressive democracy, constitutional government and true federalism. Wror Pashtun became an integral part of the National Awami Party (NAP), which united all the oppressed classes and nations of the country in one struggle. The most prominent political issue of the time were the constitution of the country and the hated One United scheme that abolished the national provinces and imposed draconian, direct rule from the center. During this time and after the imposition of the first martial law in 1958, Khan Shaheed spent a total of almost 20 years in various prisons in Pakistan.
After the abolition of the One-unit , Khan Shaheed formed a new political party called Pashtunkhwa National Awami Party for the unification of all the Pashtun regions of Pakistan into a single autonomous province and decided to participate in the democratic struggle for Pashtun rights. Unfortunately, he was martyred at his home in Quetta on December 2, 1973. Pashtunkhwa National Awami Party would go on to become the current Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party that is the vanguard party for the struggle of the rights of Pashtuns and Pashtunkhwa.
To check out a brief historical timeline of Pashtunkhwa milli awami party, visit our PMAP History page.
To know more about the life of Khan Shaheed Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, visit our Khan Shaheed's Life & times page.
Listed below are the major issues that PMAP cares about and continues to struggle for.