Khan Lala: A Symbol Of Resistance
Mohammad Afzal Khan, popularly known as Khan Lala, was vindicated by the April 7 television speech of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. Khan Lala had time and again warned against any deal from the position of weakness with the terrorists and their mentor, Sufi Mohammad. But the provincial government led by his own party did not heed his advice and entered into a deal with extremism. And according to him he was not even consulted as one of the stalwarts of the ruling party, Awami National Party. He has been active in politics as a national leader for the last four decades and was twice elected member and minister of provincial and federal parliaments and cabinets. He rightly said that any bargain made should be on equal footing. The deal is usually made with a party when you are sure they would honour it. The Taliban had overrun the Swat valley, they had total control over the area, there was no writ whatsoever of the government. The removal of army from the scene as a result of the deal automatically meant surrendering a large swath of national territory and, for that matter, Swat and adjoining areas of the Malakand division to them. Secondly, Sufi Mohammad was a powerless and untrustworthy interlocutor representing only his extremist and grotesque brand of Islam. And there is not a single instance in military history of a victor surrendering his arms after vanquishing the enemy. As a consequence not only Swat, but the brave and defiant people of Buner, Dir and Shangla were came under the Taliban. Khan Lala is head of one of the famous families of Swat. His family, when he was just an infant, was once expelled from their native land by former Badshah of Swat Mian Gul Abdul Wadud, as he considered their influence in Swat a challenge to his despotic rule. But the son of Badshah, Wali of Swat Miagul Jehanzeb, after his ascendancy to power, started a reconciliation process and his family was allowed to return and reclaim their property and prestige. From his school and college days on, Khan Lala has been associated with the nationalist and progressive current of the time. Therefore, when Swat was merged in 1969, he joined secular and progressive National Awami Party led by Khan Abdul Wali Khan. In 1970 elections he was elected to the provincial assembly and became minister of information in the coalition government led by Maulana Mufti Mahmud. In 1973 when the PPP government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto unlawfully dismissed the NAP-JUI Balochistan coalition government of Attaullah Mengal and subsequently the coalition government of Mufti Mahmud in NWFP tendered resignations in protest, he resisted the illegal moves of the federal government and joined hands with Wali Khan and other progressives of Pakistan to organize peaceful resistance. We went to Afghanistan as a consequence and organized militant resistance from there, which culminated into thousands of Baloch refugees coming to Afghanistan fleeing from military operation. The National Awami Party was banned and the Hyderabad Tribunal was instituted against its leaders including Khan Lala. He was defiant to the last moment and did not bend an inch from his principled position. Afterwards, when erstwhile NAP leaders were released from prison and the party was divided into Baloch-led organizations and Wali Bagh-led National Democratic Party, he opposed the rightist policies of the newly-formed party which by then was being virtually led by Nasim Wali Khan. However, being a permanent eyesore in the eyes of the leadership, he still did not leave the party and continued his struggle as provincial head of the newly-reconstituted Awami National Party till General Zia died and elections were held. The elections brought the PPP into power and the ANP entered into a coalition with it in NWFP. But soon the leadership decided to side with the Muslim League government of Punjab under Nawaz Sharif. He parted ways with his party for entering into an unprincipled coalition with strange bedfellows and formed his own party with the name of ANP (Awami), which he subsequently transformed into Pakhtunkhwa Qaumi Inqilabi Party with other leftist elements disgruntled from the ANP´s turn to the right. In the meantime he was elected to the National Assembly from his own party and became federal minister in the second Benazir-led federal government. However, after a long and arduous struggle he was persuaded back into his own party, the ANP, by its new and young leadership of Asfandayar Wali Khan. Khan Lala, as a true Pakhtun, remained loyal to the party in spite of the fact that he was not consulted on many national issues. The rise of militancy in the country, and especially Swat, brought a new element into the national politics. Being a noteworthy leader in Swat, he was ambushed in 2007 by the Taliban and miraculously escaped unhurt, but his driver and body guard were killed and his nephew sustained multiple injuries. With his elimination, the terrorist wanted to clear the land of Swat valley from the leadership as they did with Waziristan, but their nefarious designs were thwarted by the grace of Allah and Khan Lala remained defiant and an obstacle in the way of extremists in the area. The insurgency in Swat was provoked by the elements within the ruling establishment, so much so that the then commissioner of Malakand was seen encouraging Maulana Fazlullah by attending his venomous lectures and saying prayers behind him on weekly basis. Swat was intentionally pushed to the brink where the life, honour and property of the ordinary peaceful citizens were subjected to the inhuman treatment. Beheadings, floggings, lootings, killings, dishonouring and enacting gory spectacles became the order of the day. Most of the prominent people, especially those who had some influence left Swat for the peaceful abodes of Peshawar, Islamabad, other cities of Pakistan, and, even abroad, but Khan Lala despite being number one on the hit list resisted and soldiered on. In the meanwhile his property, houses and markets were dynamited, his fruit orchards were destroyed and his two grandsons were killed, but he kept aloft the banner of resistance and despite calls from his well wishers, even federal authorities, refused to leave his people in the bloodbath alone. When the stories of his determination and courage circulated around the country and the world, the armed forces were forced to help him in his combat. The signing of so-called peace deals on the part of the ANP behind his back was painful matters to the octogenarian politician, but he still did not voice his opposition and remained loyal. His martyrdom was taken for granted and so his party considered shaheeds not worthy of consultation. How the ANP reached such ignominious deal and how it was targeted by the extremists is a mystery. The rumour is that its involvement with American power and money provoked the retaliation of Al Qaida and the Taliban and under intimidation it was forced to sign these deals on the Taliban´s terms. Whatever, the reason, the people of the country, especially the rank and file of the ANP, stand behind Khan Lala as they know that their party leadership has lost goodwill in the of face of widespread allegations of easy loads and easy boards. Khan Lala is under treatment at an Islamabad hospital. All our best wishes and prayers are with him as we need his indomitable sprit at this time of trials and tribulations! The writer lived in exile in Afghanistan with Ajmal Khattak for almost two decades and is a former lecturer and writer. Email: [email protected] - 
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