The British reached the river Abaseen(Indus), the natural and historic frontier between Afghanistan & India, in the 19th century and invaded Afghanistan resulting in three Anglo-Afghan wars in 1838, 1878 & 1919. Although the Afghans managed to prevent Afghanistan from being completely colonised like other countries in the region, the British annexed a vast swathe of Afghan territory. The British administered these vast Afghan lands from Chitral in the north to Sibbi in the south(A small part of these lands had been lost to the Sikhs before the arrival of the British). The Afghans of these lands, Pashtunkhwa, kept resisting against the British occupation and 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 struggle and considers itself the continuation of that struggle.

Khan Shaheed, at the age of 31, formed the first political party in his region, then known as British Balochistan. He named his party Anjuman-e-Watan. Anjuman-e-Watan was an anti-colonial party which struggled against the British and for the political rights of the people of British Balochistan. Before the formation of this party, Khan Shaheed had already formed relations with other freedom fighters including Baacha Khan, the baloch leaders and indian political parties like Indian national Congress and Muslim League. Anjuman-e Watan took active part in the non-cooperation movement and the Quit india movement against the British. Between 1929 and 1947, Khan Shaheed & his political friends had to got to jail many times. Consequently, he had to spend more than 10 years in jail under the British.

Things did not get better for the Pashtuns after the formation of the new state of Pakistan. Khan Shaheed was put under house arrest immediately after partition and then jailed from 1948 to 1954. After his release, he formed the "Wror Pashtun" party which demanded democracy in the country, an autonomous Pashtun province comprising the whole Pashtun territory in pakistan, Official recognition for Pashto language & a non-aligned foreign policy among other issues. However, the rulers of Pakistan responded by implementing the One-Unit scheme, abolishing the existing provinces to eradicate the national identitites of the historic nations constituting West Pakistan and to impose the tyranny of Punjab by converting the majority of the Bengalis into parity. Khan Shaheed was again imprisoned.

To struggle against the One-Unit scheme, seven political parties from Pashtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan & Bengal merged to form National Awami Party. Wror Pashtun was also merged into NAP. NAP's manifesto included democracy, social justice, abolishing the One-Unit, forming provinces on national & linguistic basis, provincial autonomy and official recognition of national languages & cultures and a non-aligned foreign policy. NAP very soon gained mass support and were expected to do very well in the upcoming elections. However, the military imposed martial law in 1958 and banned all political activity in the country. A military court sentenced Khan Shaheed to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment. He remained the only political prisoner to spend the whole Ayub Martial law in prison. He was finally released in 1968.

As a result of a decade long struggle, the political forces in the country finally succeeded in abolishing the one unit but the dream of a united Pashtunkhwa province could not be realized. National Awami Party's manifesto's main point was abolishing the One-Unit and forming provinces based on linguistic basis. However, the leadrship of NAP did not insist on a united Pashtun province and agreed to the southern Pashtunkhwa region being made a part of the balochistan province. Khan Shaheed, realizing that his goal of a united pashtun province could not be achieved under the NAP leadership, decided to part ways with NAP and formed NAP-Pashtunkhwa on August 26, 1970. Khan Shaheed was elected to the Balochistan assembly in 1970. On December 2, 1973, he was martyred when hand grenades were thrown into his house in Quetta.

The military imposed the martial law again in 1977. NAP-Pashtunkhwa, under its young leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai, from the day one stood against the military dictatorship and for restoration of democracy. Our party was instrumental in gathering all the democratic political parties of the country in karachi to lay the foundations of the Movement for the restoration of democracy (MRD). The MRD started its struggle against the military dictatorship and as one its first activities, our party took out a peaceful protest from the Kandahari Mosque in Quetta on October 7, 1983. The Military administration opened fire on the peaceful protestors. Four party workers were martyred and dozens injured in addition to hundreds of arrests. The party's chairman, Mahmood Khan Achakzai was named in the FIRs for the death of his own workers by this draconian regime. From early 80's to the end of the decade, the party formed an alliance with Pashtunkhwa Mazdoor Kissan party which resulted in the formation of Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami party in 1989 with Mahmood Khan Achakzai elected as its first chairman.

From its formation in 1989 until now, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party has been at the forefront of all the movements, alliances and struggles launched to consolidate democracy, provincial autonomy and to oppose martial laws & military's role in politics. Whether it was the alliance for the restoration of democracy (ARD), Pakistan oppressed nations movement (PONM), Charter of democracy (COD), All Parties Democratic movement (APDM), Pashtunkhwa national democratic alliance (PNDA) or Pakistan democratic movement (PDM), PMAP has been at the forefront of the efforts to establish and then make these alliances work.PMAP was the only political party which unconditionally opposed the martial law imposed by the military in October 1999. During all this struggle, PMAP has given sacrifices in the form of martyrdom of its workers and leaders in 1983, 1991 & 2003 as well as countless cases of arrests, tortures and violations of human rights of our workers and leaders.

Alongwith the democratic struggle for our principles, PMAP has been wholeheartedly taking part in the electoral politics of the country.From 1990 to 2018, PMAP has managed to send our members to the National assembly, Senate and the provincial assembly of Balochistan province. Our members of parliament have performed a stellar role in the parliament during every legislation and have been the guardians of the rights of Pashtuns in the parliament. Our Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai has been elected to the national assembly three times and is considered one of the strongest democratic voices inside and outside the parliament. Our Senior deputy chairman, Abdul Rahim Mandokhail was instrumental in the passage of the 18th amendment as part of the committee which drafted the historical amendment. Electorally, PMAP achieved its best results in the 2013 elections when it was successful in sending four members to the national assembly and won 10 out of the 22 provincial assembly seats for the Pashtun districts of Balochistan.

Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party held its historical seventh national congress at Quetta, Southern Pashtunkhwa on 19, 20 and 21st December 2022. More than 10,000 delegates from all over Pashtunkhwa watan and the whole country attended this historic national congress and new national and provincial organisations were elected to herald the party into the future. Mahmood Khan Achakzai was re-elected the chairman of the party.