Afzal Bangash
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Mohammad Afzal Khan Bangash (; 16 April 1924 – 28 October 1986) was a Pakistani
Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
politician and activist. He was a member of the
Communist Party of Pakistan The Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP; Urdu: ) is a communist party in Pakistan founded in 1948 by Sajjad Zaheer. History The Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) was founded in Calcutta, India, soon after the establishment of Pakistan on 6 March ...
(CPP) until 1957 and then served as an office-bearer in the
National Awami Party The National Awami Party (NAP) was the major left-wing political party in East and West Pakistan. It was founded in 1957 in Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), by Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Yar Mohammad Khan, through th ...
(NAP), and later, along with his colleague
Sher Ali Bacha Sher Ali Bacha (), commonly known as Bachajee (), was a Pakistani communist politician, Pashto language poet and human rights activist. He was one of the founding members of the Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP) and the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party ( ...
, as the co-founder and president of the
Mazdoor Kisan Party The Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP; ; ; lit. " Workers and Farmers Party") is a communist party in Pakistan. It was founded on 1 May 1968 by Afzal Bangash and Sher Ali Bacha. Other prominent leaders included Ishaq Muhammad and Imtiaz Alam. In the 19 ...
(MKP).


Early life and career

Mohammad Afzal Khan Bangash was born on 16 April 1924, in
Kohat Kohat (; ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century. With a population o ...
, British India. His father was Mohammad Akbar Khan
Bangash The Bangash, Bungish, Bangaš or Bangakh () are a tribe of Pashtuns, inhabiting their traditional homeland, the Bangash district which stretches from Kohat to Tall in Hangu and Spīn Ghar, Kurram in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. They also live ...
, an advocate. Afzal Bangash became one of the leading lawyers of NWFP and during Ayub Khan's rule, he was offered the judgeship of the
West Pakistan West Pakistan was the western province of Pakistan between One Unit, 1955 and Legal Framework Order, 1970, 1970, covering the territory of present-day Pakistan. Its land borders were with Afghanistan, India and Iran, with a maritime border wit ...
high court. He declined the offer, choosing instead to concentrate on pleading cases of peasants who were being evicted by Ayub's land reforms.


Political life

Bangash joined the
Communist Party of Pakistan The Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP; Urdu: ) is a communist party in Pakistan founded in 1948 by Sajjad Zaheer. History The Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) was founded in Calcutta, India, soon after the establishment of Pakistan on 6 March ...
(CPP) soon after its formation in 1948 and became a member of its NWFP committee. In 1957 he was elected as the first General Secretary of the
National Awami Party The National Awami Party (NAP) was the major left-wing political party in East and West Pakistan. It was founded in 1957 in Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), by Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Yar Mohammad Khan, through th ...
(NAP). He was responsible for organizing the peasant committee in NWFP. In the 1965 Pakistani presidential election, Bangash served as Fatima Jinnah's provincial chief campaign manager in her campaign against
Ayub Khan Mohammad Ayub Khan (14 May 1907 – 19 April 1974) was a Pakistani military dictator who served as the second president of Pakistan from 1958 until his resignation on 1969. He was the first native commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army, se ...
. In the 1967 NAP split, Afzal Bangash and
Sher Ali Bacha Sher Ali Bacha (), commonly known as Bachajee (), was a Pakistani communist politician, Pashto language poet and human rights activist. He was one of the founding members of the Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP) and the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party ( ...
, who were active in peasant committees, decided to follow the
Khan Abdul Wali Khan Khan Abdul Wali Khan (; ; 11 January 1917 – 26 January 2006) was a Pashtuns, Pashtun Pakistani democratic socialist politician who served as president of Awami National Party. Son of the prominent Pashtun nationalist leader Abdul Ghaffar Kha ...
faction. However, the NAP leadership soon decided to bar Bangash and Bacha from simultaneously working in peasant committees while being members of the NAP. As a result, they decided to leave the NAP and found the
Mazdoor Kisan Party The Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP; ; ; lit. " Workers and Farmers Party") is a communist party in Pakistan. It was founded on 1 May 1968 by Afzal Bangash and Sher Ali Bacha. Other prominent leaders included Ishaq Muhammad and Imtiaz Alam. In the 19 ...
(MKP) on 1 May 1968. The MKP was to become the largest and most militant party with a Marxist orientation in the history of Pakistan. Although Bangash was recognized as principal leader of the MKP, he did not hold any official position until July 1979 when he was elected its president at the party's second congress. As a trade union organiser, Bangash was founder-president of the Sarhad Trade Union Federation. He also edited the weekly MKP magazine ''Sanober''. The present leader of the Mazdoor Kissan Party, Afzal Shah Khamosh, mentions in his book that Afzal Bangash split the Mazdoor Kissan Party; therefore, the peasantry started fighting with themselves rather than with feudal lords. What was the possible motive of Bangash that was not explicitly given?


Travel abroad

On 16 October 1979,
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 192417 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer and statesman who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until Death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also se ...
declared martial law and intensified political repression. A number of serious charges were drawn up with which to frame Bangash in military courts, however they remained internal and were never made public. Afzal Bangash had numerous health problems, including chronic bronchitis, asthma, kidney failure, stroke, near blindness, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. These health issues prompted him to travel abroad to the United Kingdom in 1979, to receive treatment. While staying in the UK he decided against returning to Pakistan for the time being, due to the situation in Pakistan. Instead, he remained active abroad in mobilizing opposition to the military rule of Zia-ul-Haq. During these years he also traveled extensively throughout western Europe, and made trips to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the United States, Cuba, India and Mongolia. He also traveled to Afghanistan. After the
Saur Revolution The Saur Revolution (; ), also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup, was a violent coup d'état and uprising staged on 27–28 April 1978 (, ) by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which overthrew President of Afghan ...
in 1978,
Hafizullah Amin Hafizullah Amin (Dari/; 1 August 192927 December 1979) was an Afghan communist head of state, who served in that position for a little over three months, from September 1979 until his assassination. He organized the Saur Revolution of 1978 and ...
had come to power and during Bangash's visit to Afghanistan they spoke together. Amin wanted Bangash to turn the MKP into a Pakistani party allied with his
Khalq Khalq (Dari/, ) was a faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Its historical ''de facto'' leaders were Nur Muhammad Taraki (1967–1979), Hafizullah Amin (1979) It was also the name of the leftist newspaper produced by ...
faction thereby extending the revolution into Pakistan. However, Bangash refused this and instead admonished Amin advising him to take local culture and norms into consideration. In 1981 the MKP helped found the
Movement for the Restoration of Democracy The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD; ) was a political alliance in Pakistan founded in 1981 by the political parties opposing the military government of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the sixth president of Pakistan. Headed by Benazir Bhut ...
(MRD), and Bangash worked with
Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...
during that era. On 31 March 1985, in London and together with
Ataullah Mengal Ataullah Mengal (; 24 March 1929 – 2 September 2021) was a Pakistani politician and feudal figure. He was the head of the Mengal tribe until he nominated one of his grandsons, Sardar Asad Ullah Mengal, as his tribal successor. He was also the ...
,
Mumtaz Bhutto Mumtaz Ali Khan Bhutto (, ) (28 November 1933 – 18 July 2021), was a Pakistani politician who served as 8th Governor of Sindh and later the 13th Chief Minister of Sindh. He was also the first cousin of late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was the Pr ...
and others, he formed the
Sindhi–Baloch–Pashtun Front The Sindhi–Baloch–Pashtun Front (SBPF) was formed in London on 31 March 1985 by Afzal Bangash, Ataullah Mengal, Mumtaz Bhutto and others to counter what they perceived as a Punjabi establishment's hegemony of Pakistan Pakistan, ...
(SBPF) demanding a confederal structure for Pakistan to guarantee the rights of smaller nationalities and counter what they perceived as a Punjabi establishment's hegemony of Pakistan.


Return to Pakistan

After the lifting of martial law and induction of a civilian government in 1985, political activity was revived in Pakistan and in mid-1986 Afzal Bangash returned to his home country. He resided at his house at Kohat Road in Peshawar and remained involved with merging leftist parties including supporting the fateful decision to merge the MKP with
Khan Abdul Wali Khan Khan Abdul Wali Khan (; ; 11 January 1917 – 26 January 2006) was a Pashtuns, Pashtun Pakistani democratic socialist politician who served as president of Awami National Party. Son of the prominent Pashtun nationalist leader Abdul Ghaffar Kha ...
's National Democratic Party (NDP) thus creating the new
Awami National Party The Awami National Party (ANP; , ; lit. ''People's National Party'') is a Pashtun nationalist, secular and leftist political party in Pakistan. The party was founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986 and its current president is Aimal Wali Khan, g ...
(ANP) and ending a nearly two decade-long dispute with Wali Khan. Other parties included in this merger were a faction of the PNP and Rasool Paleejo's Awami Tehrik. Wali Khan became the first president of the ANP while MKP's Sardar Shaukat Ali was elected as its General Secretary.


Death

Bangash died of kidney failure on 28 October 1986, in Peshawar, Pakistan. Nearly one hundred thousand people turned up at his funeral and several hundred thousand mourned in villages and towns both inside and outside NWFP. The present chief minister, governor as well as several provincial ministers and members of the assembly came to pay their respects. He was originally buried in his ancestral graveyard in Shadi Khel village, Kohat, but later on his remains were transferred to
Hashtnagar Hashtnagar (, more commonly known as اشنغر in Pashto) is one of the two constituent parts of the Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The name Hashtnagar is derived from the Sanskrit अष्टनगरम् ''Aṣṭanagaram'', "ei ...
. Recently, his remains have been transferred back to Shadi Khel in Kohat, in accordance with the burial wishes of Bangash.


Political views

Although Afzal Bangash had a good grasp of the fundamentals of revolutionary theory and Marxist method of analysis, he never pretended to be a theoretician. He detested the idea of revolutionary theory without practice, and laid great emphasis on revolutionary militant action. Apart from writing articles in Sanober, he also translated an Urdu book on historical materialism into Pashto. Bangash did not consider himself a Maoist, and was opposed to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam, in contrast to many of his colleagues who endorsed it. He did not believe in importing or exporting revolutions, but instead believed in indigenous struggle, with mass mobilization of oppressed people through an astute leadership. In an agrarian society the vanguard of such a struggle would be the peasantry.Dr Mohammad Taq
"Afzal Bangash: the Marxist maverick"
''
Daily Times ''Daily Times'' may refer to the following national newspapers: * ''Daily Times'' (Nigeria), newspaper published in Nigeria * ''Daily Times'' (Pakistan), newspaper published in Pakistan ''The Daily Times'' may refer to the following newspapers: * ...
'', 28 October 2010. Retrieved on 2016-09-20.


References


External links


Afzal Bangash: A Life Dedicated to Militant Struggle
Feroz Ahmed,
Economic and Political Weekly The ''Economic and Political Weekly'' (EPW) is a weekly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all social sciences, and is published by the Sameeksha Trust. In January 2018, academic Gopal Guru was named the new Editor of the journal. Guru will be ...
, Vol. 21, No. 51 (20 Dec. 1986), p. 2219
Afzal Bangash Speaks: Class Struggle, Not a Tribal War
Pakistan Forum, Vol. 2, No. 9/10 (Jun. – Jul. 1972), pp. 14–18. Published by:
Middle East Research and Information Project The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) is a non-profit independent research group established in 1971, that publishes critical, alternative reporting and analysis, focusing on state power, political economy and social hierarchie ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bangash, Afzal 1986 deaths Pakistani communists Pashtun politicians Pakistani democracy activists 1924 births Mazdoor Kisan Party politicians Pashtun activists