Afrasiab Khattak or Afrasayab Khattak (Urdu: افراسیاب خٹک ) is a politician from Kohat, Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He is currently a member of the Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Pakistan and the provincial president of the Awami National Party in North-West Frontier Province.^{[citation needed]}

Afrasiab Khattak is a former student leader, Pakistani politician, writer and prominent human rights activist. He has been the president of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Leftist Past 3 Human Rights Commission of Pakistan 4 Rejoining the ANP 5 References 6 See also 7 External links 8 References

[edit] Early life

Afrasiab Khattak is born in Mandoori khaderkhal. Afrasiab Khattak is from Kohat in southern North-West Frontier Province. He was an active leftist politician during the 1970s and 1980s. He spent many years in self-exile in Afghanistan in the 1980s, due to his strong opposition to General Zia-ul-Haq's military rule.^[2]

After his return from Afghanistan, Khattak contested the general elections from Karak in 1990 but lost to Aslam Khattak.

[edit] Leftist Past

Afrasiab Khattak remained associated with the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) and by some accounts became its Secretary General.

Afrasiab Khattak lived in self-exile in Kabul from August 1980 to January 1989. He never had any formal responsibility in Afghanistan and lived there along with other Pakistani opposition politicians like Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s sons, Ajmal Khattak, Khair Bakhsh Marri, and thousands of Baloch dissidents. Afrasiab had a very close personal relationship with Dr. Najibullah dating back to early 1980s. This relationship remained intact until the very end. Though now implicated in the murder of Dr Najibullah as on the assassination day he was there in Kabul and directly or indirectly participated in it, yet Afrasiab campaigned nationally and internationally for the release of Dr. Najibullah from his captivity in UN headquarters in Kabul. When Dr. Najeeb was brutally murdered by Taliban in September 1996, Afrasaib along with other progressive and nationalist politicians, organized protest demonstrations in Peshawar for three days.

In 1990 Khattak formed the Quami Inquilabi Party (National Revolutionary Party) , a Marxist party, after parting ways with the ANP of Abdul Wali Khan in 1989, he subsequently merged his group to form the Pakhtunkhwa Qaumi Party along with Abdul Latif Afridi and Afzal Khan Lala.

[edit] Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Afrasiab Khattak joined the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in 1989, and served as the Vice Chairman of HRCP in Frontier Province, for three years - he is also one of the founders of the Afghanistan Pakistan People's Friendship Association^[3]. In April 1999, he was threatened by extremist factions for demonstrating against “honour” killing in Peshawar^{[citation needed]}.

On May 2, 1999, he was unanimously elected Chairperson of HRCP for a three-year-term. Re-elected in 2002, he resigned from the post after he rejoined the Awami National Party. He is also a known constitutional expert and a practising lawyer of Supreme Court and High court.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Rejoining the ANP

He was elected in 2006 as the provincial president of the Awami National Party,^[4] leading the party to provincial victory in Pakistan's elections of 2008 and became the Peace Ambassador to Govt. of NWFP. He played a vital role in peace process between Taliban and Govt. of NWFP but all his efforts were sabotaged in typical Pakistani Politics. Nevertheless, the Govt of NWFP under Afrasiab’s leadership continued to work on the peace process with the Taliban of Swat, through the banned organization of TNSM and finally they agreed on a treaty about the implementation of NIFAZ E ADL in Malakand District and the Valley of Swat is once again moving towards the peace. Afrasiab khattak has been elected as Senator from the Pukhtoonkhwa Assembly in March, 2009. ^[5] He has been elected as Chairman of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
• Khan Abdul Wali Khan
• Awami National Party

[edit] External links

• Khan, Ismail(2004) "From idealism to pragmatism" DAWN. DAWN Group
• Pakistan Link

Google Books: Out of Afghanistan [1]

[edit] References

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