Time to Reflect: Whither Pakhtun National Movement

Time to Reflect: Whither Pakhtun National Movement?

Prof. Ijaz Khan

Dept of International Relations

University of Peshawar

Awami National Party (ANP) has been electorally wiped out. Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) has shown good results in Pashtun Balochistan only. Qawmi Watan Party (QWP) claiming to be an alternative to ANP as a Pashtun representative, has more numbers to show but whether that is a better result and is that due to its Politics or the electoral strategy of its leader, Aftab Sherpao, needs to be understood.Though it has some good sincere nationalists in its fold, whether it qualifies to be a nationalist party is also a question. Broadly speaking, Pashtuns nationalists have lost elections in KP as well as FATA. Their better showing in Balochistan needs to be interpreted and studied carefully but has not been done here as this study focuses on Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa only. It is admitted that a comprehensive study of Pakhtun national movement must take into account all Pakhtuns.

Taliban and Pashtun Identity

Taliban and Pashtun identity
originally published in 'The Friday Times' in January 2012 is no more available in its archives, however, LUBP an online group had re published it and is there. you can read it there or here too

Nationalist movements promote and protect national language, culture and identity through political expression. They aim to control their affairs without outside interference. They are about managing their economic resources by themselves. They may want autonomy within a multinational state in order to structure it to protect their identity, or in certain cases for an independent state of their own.

Taliban meet none of these criteria in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and therefore cannot be considered a Pashtun nationalist movement. They take ideological and political inspiration from Arabs and other non-Pashtuns. They have consciously, as a matter of policy, targeted different cultural traits of Pashtuns, like tribal councils and folk music; they are not concerned about the language and promote mostly Arabic and/or interestingly, Urdu; Economic resources or their control is not their concern; neither is any political or administrative manifestation of Pashtun identity their goal.

For more click below

About FATA - My write up published by NBR, USA

Development Challenges in FATA
Prof. Ijaz Khan

This essay addresses the challenges facing development in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a special administrative region enjoying vast internal autonomy with minimal state oversight. Due to the area’s special constitutional status, isolation, and proximity to and shared ethnicity with Afghanistan, the FATA has become a safe haven for extremists and terrorists following the overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001. As a result, the region is now the focus of international concern and the center of the war on terrorism.

With U.S. support and prodding, the Pakistani government has initiated a comprehensive three-pronged political, military, and developmental strategy to break the FATA’s isolation and rid the area of militancy. Focusing on the developmental element of that strategy, this study finds that the government’s policies are not geared to achieve any of the fundamental changes required for meaningful development of the region. Furthermore, Pakistan’s ambivalent posture toward the war on terrorism has gradually undermined Islamabad’s ability even to pursue successful development projects.

This essay begins with a brief summary of the current political-administrative structure of the FATA. It then identifies Pakistan’s strategy for developing the FATA— noting earlier government attempts to develop the area, especially those made during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government (December 1971–April 1977). The next section discusses the FATA’s evolving socio-economic landscape and power structure and points to the futility of the Pakistani government’s reliance on outdated political-administrative structures in light of these changes. Focusing on the deleterious impact of militancy on development initiatives, the essay then examines the rise of militancy in the FATA. The essay concludes by discussing the Pakistani government’s current inability to bring effective change to the region.

For further reading go to http://nbr.org/publications/element.aspx?id=145#.UxMUQ_mSySo

Pashtuns in the Crossfire: Pashtun Politics in the Shadow of ‘War against Terrorism

published online as briefing paper No. 19 by Pakistan Security Research Unit, (PSRU) Bradford University now at Durham University, UK,  https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/psru/briefings/archive/Brief19finalised3.pdf 

Pakistan's Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Making

Pakistan's Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Making: A Study of Pakistan's Post 9/11 Afghan Policy

Author: Dr. Ijaz Khan, Professor, Dept. of International Relations, University of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Publisher: Nova Science Publishers New York.

https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=29337

Date: December 2007

Those wanting to understand Pakistan's role in 'War against Terrorism' must read this new book. It explains Pakistan's foriegn policy with the help of studying its Strategic Culture; the historical developmkent of its security perceptions and why it considers the policy it has been pursuing till at least 9/11, that is relying on religious extremists to achieve its foreign policy/secuiryt objectives. How much it has changed, and how much it has not. To really understand Pakistan's self view and the world view based on it, this book offers an alternative non centrist and mainly Pashtun perspective.