A lifetime of opposition

With the death of veteran Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Wali Khan on January 26, Pakistan lost one of its most active and controversial politicians. Wali has not only tirelessly opposed all successive Pakistani regimes since 1947 but was also of the opinion that the creation of Pakistan was "an unnatural practice" that divided the sub-continent's Muslims.

This was also the view of his father Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan, a political and spiritual leader known for his Gandhian non-violent opposition to British rule during the final years of the Empire in the sub-continent.

Ghafar Khan, better known as Badshah Khan or Pashtun Gandhi, strongly advocated a united, independent, secular India, and to achieve this end, he founded the Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God) movement.

Born in 1911 in the town of Utmanzai in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and educated at Azad Islamia School, Irish government's Deradun Public School and Cambridge, Wali started his political career in 1942 by joining his father's movement. Prior to the partition in 1947, he was a member of the All India Congress Committee and provincial joint secretary of the party.

With Pakistan becoming a reality and his uncle Khan Abul Jabbar advocating reconciliation with its political establishment, he tried to take a more pragmatic approach to Pakistan politics. His uncle's assassination in front of his eyes in 1958, however, made young Wali change his mind.

During his 48-year-long political career, Wali served several stints in prison. He was arrested by the British in 1943 for his role in the Khudai Khidmatgar. Between 1948 and 1954, he was jailed by the Pakistani authorities for anti-government activities.

After General Ayoub Khan's military government came to power in 1958, he was not only arrested and imprisoned, along with other civil politicians, but was also striped of all political rights. This was followed by another short arrest during General Yahya Khan's brutal regime in the late 1960s.

Mistrust

Wali's relationship with nearly all figures of Pakistani civilian and military establishments has been characterised by mistrust. The most bitter, however, was his relationship with Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, whom he repeatedly criticised for his "fascist tendencies" and called "Adolf Bhutto".

In retaliation, Bhutto accused him of treason, put him on a trial, banned his party and ordered a brutal crackdown on his family and colleagues.

Shedding light on this fifth and most bitter stint in prison, which lasted from 1973 to 1977, he wrote, in his book Facts Are Sacred, that he "was mostly in solitary confinement" and could not devote himself to writing or reading because "under Bhutto, even pen and paper were often not available, let alone books".

This explains why he showed very little sympathy for the plight of Bhutto who was deposed in 1977 and subsequently executed.

Wali was widely criticised by the state-run media and Pakistan's ruling establishment for his daring views over several sensitive issues, particularly Indo-Pakistani relations. He was accused of supporting anti-Pakistan forces, attempting to alienate Pashtuns from the rest of the country and being a communist.

In fact, he was more of a secular, progressive Pashtun nationalist with a liberal economic view.

As far as the accusation of cooperating with anti- Pakistan forces was concerned, he was tagged with this mainly because he and his family maintained contacts and good relations with leading figures in India's Congress party.

Another reason was his opposition to Pakistan's demand for third-party mediation on the Kashmir issue and his assertion that Islamabad was bound under the 1972 Shimla agreement to settle disputes with India bilaterally.

According to him, "Kashmir was lost long ago due to Pakistan's own repeated mistakes" including its founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah's insistence that "the rulers of princely states and not their people should decide the affiliation of a state with India or Pakistan".

After his defeat in the 1990 elections, Wali chose to retire, ending his political life, in which he had served as president of the National Awami Party, National Democratic Party and Awami National Party and occupied a seat in both National and Provincial Assemblies for many years.

In a press conference before his protracted illness, Wali proved once again his preference for secular politics over religion-based populism by ignoring popular Pashtun sympathy for the Taliban and saying "had the Americans not attacked Afghanistan, the country would have turned into an Arab colony led by [Osama] Bin Laden".

Dr Abdullah Al Madani is an academic researcher and lecturer on Asian affairs.