Veteran nationalist Ajmal Khattak dies

Family sources said he breathed his last late Sunday evening after protracted illness. He had been bedridden for sometime due to a host of diseases but was mentally alert. A sobbing Aimal Khattak, one of the three sons of Ajmal Khattak and also a writer and human rights activist, said his “Baba” had died when reached on phone.

Ajmal Khattak’s Namaz-e-Janaza would be held todayafter Zuhr prayers at Akora Khattak. He leaves behind a widow, three sons, two daughters and a large number of well-wishers to mourn his death.

The Awami National Party (ANP) President, Asfandyar Wali Khan, while eulogising his services announced three-day mourning for the deceased party leader.The party’s information secretary, Senator Zahid Khan, remarked that the ANP had lost its senior-most leader after the death of Khan Abdul Wali Khan some years ago. “Ajmal Khattak’s death is a great loss for our party. The loss is incalculable,” he said of the leader who was born on September 15, 1925.

Ajmal Khattak was a committed political worker who suffered imprisonment and self-exile for years due to his strong convictions. But he was also a literary man, having published a number of books of prose and poetry, mostly in Pashto and some in Urdu.

The late Khattak started his career as a schoolteacher in a government school but left the job to become a journalist. He worked at dailies Anjam and Shahbaz and did well in both Urdu and Pashto journalism. He later began writing columns on political and social issues.

Ajmal Khattak lost the election for the National Assembly in 1970 from Nowshera to Maulana Abdul Haq of JUI. He finally won the assembly seat in the 1990 elections to become an MNA on the ANP ticket. He also remained a senator.

Ajmal Khattak’s simplicity and honesty endeared him to the people, particularly to his party workers and fellow poets. Despite remaining a member of parliament and holding top offices in the party, he didn’t make any money from his political career. Till his death, he lived with his expanding family in his three-room house in Akora Khattak.

At the age of 13, the young Ajmal Khattak recited his first poem in a Mushaira and received applause. He was very young when he joined the freedom struggle. His early political career began during the Quit India movement after he came under the influence of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. He was forced to leave the school due to his involvement in that movement.

He was the stage secretary at the United Democratic Front rally held at Liaqat Bagh, Rawalpindi, on March 23, 1973, when shots were fired at the UDF leaders, including Khan Abdul Wali Khan. After that incident, he fled to Afghanistan and lived in self-exile till 1990. He championed the cause of Pakhtunistan while living in Afghanistan as a state guest.

Ajmal Khattak had served the ANP as central president for two terms when Wali Khan stepped down from the post. In the 1993 general elections, Ajmal Khattak lost his re-election bid in Nowshera to the PPP candidate Major Gen. (Retd) Naseerullah Babar. However, he was elected to the Senate in March 1994.

He was ousted as the ANP’s president in 2000, after a protracted power struggle with some members of Wali Khan’s family. Deciding to leave the party, he briefly led a splinter group called National Awami Party Pakistan. The party couldn’t make its mark. It was reported at the time that General Pervez Musharraf had encouraged him to form his own party during a meeting in Nowshera. Incidentally, Ajmal Khattak was the first politician with whom General Musharraf met after his military coup against the democratic government of Nawaz Sharif.

After realising his political mistake, Ajmal Khattak visited Wali Bagh, Charsadda, and rejoined the Awami National Party in the presence of Khan Abdul Wali Khan. Like Wali Khan, he also retired from active politics and was attending only literary gatherings.

He wrote 13 books in Pashto and Urdu, including a history of Pashto literature, Pakistan Main Qaumi Jamhoori Tehrikin, Da Ghairat Chagha, Batoor, Gul auo Perhar, Guloona auo Takaloona, Jalawatan ki Shairee, Pukhtana Shora and Da Wakht Chagha. His first poem was published in 1944 in a magazine named Pakhtun (founded by Bacha Khan) while his first poetry collection, Da Ghairat Chagha, came out in 1958. The collection was banned in Pakistan for a long time. Condolence messages were sent by a large number of ANP leaders and also from other parties and literary organisations.

APP adds: Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani have expressed their profound grief over the sad demise of former chief of Awami National Party (ANP) Ajmal Khattak.

In their separate condolence messages, they prayed to Allah Almighty to rest the departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear the irreparable loss with fortitude.

The president eulogized the services of Ajmal Khattak for promotion of democracy and said his death had deprived the country of an upright and courageous politician. The prime minister praised Ajmal Khattak for his services in the fields of politics and literature and declared his demise as an irreparable loss for the country. NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti also condoled the sad demise of veteran politician and termed his death a great loss for the country.

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