PUKHTOONS

Pakhtuns have resilient nature due to which they have passed the test of time and challenges of history and have survived as a nation. One of the reasons, why Pakhtuns have never been conquered in history is their resilient nature. These qualities of Pakhtuns have been inspiring them to fight for the right, resist foreign aggression and say no to dictation.

Pakhtuns have been role models against aggression and injustice for the nations of the world and history is a witness to this fact. The freedom struggle against the British rule in India, the defeat of the British in Afghanistan ,the defeat of Russian forces, the liberation of the current Azad Kashmir by Pakhtuns of Waziristan, the raising of voice against the massacre of Muslims in Indian Gujarat, refusal of Pakhtuns to say “Yes Sir” to the dictatorial regime of Musharaf ,raising voice against the massacre of innocent Pakhtuns by Pakistani agencies in Pakhtunkhwa and protest against the targeted killing of Pakhtuns by the terrorist network of MQM in Karachi are few examples from the recent past.

Despite of their glorious past, the Pakhtun nation between Oxus and Indus is at a critical juncture of its history.

Three decades of war has literally devastated the infrastructure in Afghanistan - the motherland of Pukhtoons. Pakistan is continuously trying to destabilize the elected government of Afghanistan using ISI – trained- Taliban within Afghanistan and aggravating the Pakhtuns living in Pakhtunkhwa against Afghan government by planting bombs in Pakhtunkhwa and putting the blame on Afghanistan. The religiously active and ISI-backed-Taliban in Afghanistan are fighting against the ISAF forces and trying to take over the reigns of power to implement their version of Islam which suits the vested interests of Pakistani establishment. On the contrary the common Pakhtuns in Afghanistan are suffering and are getting concerned about the future of Afghanistan due to the political turmoil and instability caused by the fight between the ISI-backed-Taliban and ISAF forces and also some internal ethnic differences between Pakhtun and non Pakhtun population.

Contrary to the fake and false statements of the so called officers of Pakistan Army, the agencies have been providing a safe haven to the terrorists of Al- Qaeeda in the cities of Punjab and Karachi while Mushharaf regime has been diverting the focus of the world community from sanctuaries of Al-Qaeeda terrorists in the cities of Punjab and Karachi and misleading the world community by pointing fingers to his political rivals - the Pakhtuns who have been refusing to accept his illegitimate regime. After the retrieval of top leaders of Al Qaeda in the past ,the world community including US should understand and get convinced that protecting Al-Qaeda in the cities of Punjab and Karachi is Pakistani strategy while Taliban despite of being involved in fight against ISAF in Afghanistan, is a multiethnic group having military experts from Pakistan Army and Intelligence agencies.

The politically active but practically passive divided Pakhtuns of Pakistan living in NWFP, FATA, Balochistan, Western Punjab (Attock and Mianwali) and Karachi are suffering economically as well as politically due to Pro-Punjab-Mahajir Civil and Military beoureocracy, biased institutions and a dictated constitution. The Pakhtuns of Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP, FATA and Pakhtun belt of Punjab and Balochistan) have been facing the indifferent and discriminatory policies of Pakistani establishment. They were used against their fellow Afghan brothers in the name of religion and were punished for not showing the unjustified loyalty to the dictatorial regimes that have been in power in Pakistan. All the revenue that has been earned from the water and mineral resources of Pashtoons have been going to the pockets of the Pakistani establishment for the last sixty years.

Despite of all these sacrifices of Pakhtuns at the altar of Pakistan, the extreme injustice is that Pakhtuns have been projected as fanatic and terrorists by the state-controlled media and are still intentionally kept backward and deprived of basic human rights. The Punjabi dominated establishment of Pakistan has left no stones unturned to keep Pakhtuns geo-politically divided, economically poor and deprived nation.

In the current geo-political scenario when the resources of Pakhtuns are being exploited by the Punjab dominated institutions in Pakistan, the only option Pakhtuns have for their existence and survival is political struggle to fight for their rights. The focus of the struggle for claiming the rights of Pakhtuns should be the following:

1) To reclaim and unite the Pakhtun majority areas of current “NWFP”, “FATA”, Pakhtun areas of Western Punjab like Attock & Mianwali and Pakhtun part of Balochistan (which constitutes more than 45 percent of Balochsitan) into a single united province which should be preferably called Pakhtunkhwa.

2) To claim complete provincial autonomy, royalty of all the natural resources including water along with its profit from WAPDA, natural gas and precious stone etc, limiting the federal responsibilities to few portfolios, effective devolution of powers from center to provinces and proportionate representation in all federal institutions.

3) To claim extra budget for education and development on priority and emergency basis for the deprived areas of Pakhtuns from federal government which has been enjoying all the aid, for the last three decades, that has been given by the world community for the development and rehabilitation of Pakhtuns but which has been used for killing Pakhtuns on both sides of the border.

The major problem of Pakhtuns is not the claim for name or identity of their province in a state which itself is suffering from identity crises due to having an alien language as its national language. The major issue of Pakhtuns is to put and end to the status quo on the historic injustice done to the Pukhton nation as a result of which their unity was torn apart and they were intentionally divided into different administrative units to prevent their united struggle for basic human rights including the right to govern their own land.

The history of nations is witness to the fact that blood is thicker than water. Though idealistic it might sound but it seems that the forces of history will compel Pakhtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan to get rid of the controversial border dividing the Pakhtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This would be a feasible solution for peace in south Asia because contrary to other nations of Pakistan, Pakhtuns are not Indians by origin and hence have no grudge, jealousy or rivalry either with the inhabitants of current India or those of current Pakistan.

The failure to have an Afghanistan without the current Pakhtuns of Pakistan would result in an unstable Afghanistan which would definitely affect Pakistan and South Asia because Pakhtuns can only die for Pakhtunwali or religion but never for a country whose army, establishment, terrorist groups and ethnic parties have been involved in killing their kins and are ever ready not to spare any other chance to repeat the same criminal role.