(که سپوره وي که پوره وي نو په شریکه به وي (باچاخان)

ANP's Victory - Analysis and Expectations

The Awami National Party (ANP) has secured a reasonable majority in the Feb 18 2008 elections due to its views regarding the restoration of peace in Pukhtunland and a possible invisible deal with Pakistani establishment. The victory might seem as a sigh of relief for the Pakhtun nationalists and hopefully for the Pakhtun nation but it also has critical political implications for the decision makers in ANP. It is an established fact that giving an opportunity to Pakhtuns and other oppressed nations in Pakistan would be the last option for Pakistani establishment therefore it is important to know the reasons for the victory of ANP in NWFP. The possible reasons as to why ANP has been given the opportunity to rule in NWFP other than ANP's genuine political struggle for the last 60 years could be: 1) To use ANP for curbing down the possible future freedom struggle due to the genocide of Pakhtuns in the military operations being carried in the Pakhtun land. 2) To fail ANP govt like that of MMA and hence prove the inability of the Pakhtun nationalists like that of religeous forces to address the issues confronting Pakhtun nation. 3) To use ANP for exploiting the sentiments of Pakhtun nationalism against the possible intervention of US forces in the tribal regions to target ISI-backed taliban and other religious extremists so that Pakistan may continue its policy of strategic depth against Afghanistan. It is imperative, therefore , that ANP should be cautious in fighting the war for the rights ,national interests and welfare of Pakhtuns and should be aware of the traps by the invisible hands working in Islamabad. The following gloomy side of the picture should also be kept in mind while unconsciosly playing the role of scapegoat for defending the rotten Pakistani system. The results of the Feb 2008 elections seem to be a concocted effort by the Musharraf led establishment to give rise to a hung parliament with intrinsic contradictions of power-interests between the stake holders and hence increased dependability on pro-Musharraf parties like PML(Q),MQM and MMA to keep the business going under the autocratic presidential power to dissolve the parliament at his sweet discretion. It is, therefore, suggested that: 1) ANP should strive to strengthen the govt in the center so that there is no excuse for the brutal and autocratic powers of the president to get executed. 2) The choice of coalition partner is critical for smooth and sustainable government so ANP should form coalition with PPP so that the chemistry has strong bonds of political affinity for long term working relationship. 3) Keeping in view the bitter experience of its alliance with PML-N in the past , ANP should make sure this time to offer conditional support to the ruling coalition partner in the center in order to get its support for addressing the issues facing Pakhtuns both in the center as well as in the province. 4) ANP should not rule out the worst case scenario that the central govt may not survive while devising plans and strategies. The following is a to-do list of Four P’s for ANP to give good governance and come up to the expectations of Pakhtuns. 1) Peace : In order to ensure peace in the region,the war on terror should be fought using political and reformative approaches instead of military tactics projecting the real causes of terrorism to the international media. ANP should highlight that: 1) The roots of terrorism in Pakhtun land are in the policy of strategic depth by Pakistani establishment which has been forming, supporting, training, facilitating and empowering the religious extremists,fanatics groups and sectarian factions in Afghanistan to fight against the ISAF forces using the loyalties of religious demagogues of politico-religeous parties in Pakistan. 2) Islamabad is continuously playing a double game with the west by exagerating the threat of talibanisation – a phenomenon which is the brainchild of ISI itself as most of the Taliban leaders are on the payroll of Pakistani secret agencies. 3) Pakistani establishment is not using the western aid for improving the socio-economic conditions of FATA or other troubled areas of Pakhtun land. It is ,therefore,the change in Islamabad’s policy of strategic depth against the democratically elected govt in Afghanistan and Islamabad's negative propaganda against the security and peace keeping ISAF forces to project them as invadors instead of the Islamabad's policy of ethnic cleansing of innocent Pashtuns which will ensure the eradication of terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 2) Provincial Autonomy: The demand for provincial autonomy should be the second priority to ensure among other rights: the demand of united Pakhtun province called Pukhtunkhwa comprising of current NWFP,Attock,Mianwali and the pashtun belt of Balochistan,change in the contents of concurrent list, Pashto as an official language in the province and semi-autonomous status for FATA possibly under UN administration. ANP should also raise its voice against the misappropriation of funds and aids provided by US for FATA beacause if Islamabad is pocketing all the aid and funds it has no right to ask the provincial govt to take care of FATA. 3) Prosperity: Visible economic prosperity is a basic litmus test for the good governance of any government. It is a must for ANP govt to translate the outcome of all the provincial resources and income to the welfare and well being of the inhabitants of NWFP to bridge the gap in their standard of lives due to their sixty years old economic deprivation. 4) Pakhtunwali : ANP should use the electronic and print media to revive the centuries old socio-ethical code of the Pakhtun society and culture called Pakhtunwali and translate it giving due respect to the zet-geist of the contemporary age. A failure to revive Pakhtunwali will result in detaching Pakhtuns and other nations living in Pakhtunkhwa from their cultural and and historic roots. It is due to the virtues of Pakhtunwali and its effects in social-politico-economic life of Pakhtuns that Afghan/Pakhtun nation has been surviving for centuries. It is a challenge and in the best interest of the Pakhtun nation to revive their national code of ethics as it is constantly being threatened by the values of indianisation.
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