‘Pashtuns fighting for rights, not breaking Pak’

people. It is us, the people, who have invested our time and money into organising protests and social media mobilisation. Whoever was good with technology among us, built a mobile app, others acted as campaigners to collect donations etc. We have not hired any company to bring money or to manage our organisation. It is just us, driven and young educated Pashtun youth, who are informed about their rights.”

PTM emerged from a 10day sit-in protest in Islamabad in February this year. The protest galvanised the grievances of Pakistan’s estimated 40 million Pashtuns. Manzeer Pahsteen, called upon Pashtuns across the world to raise their demands.

Mohammad Zubair, an assistant professor of Law who is now pursuing his Ph.D in USA, a member of PTM and Pashteen’s mentor, said, “There are several reasons why PTM has managed to gain so much traction. First of all, the two key political parties of Pashtuns, the Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakhtunkhawa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), have failed to raise the issues of the people before Pakistan’s central government. It is their failure that led to the formation of PTM.” PTM members said that though the senior leadership of ANP and PMAP does not support PTM, their second and third tier of leadership openly attends PTM protests. Before the Islamabad rally last week, a protest was organised in Peshawar which is considered to be the stronghold of ANP. While ANP leader Asfiandiyar had announced that none of his party workers will attend the Peshawar protest , sources claim that the ANP cadres had attended the PTM protest in large numbers.

This leads to larger speculation on the future of PTM emerging as a political party. Observers explain that it will be difficult for the ANP and PMAP to continue to maintain a pro- establishment stance when the workers of their own party are supporting PTM’s demands. Thus, if the two existing Pashtun political outfits do not address local sentiments and start to reflect the resentment of the common people against the government in Islamabad, they might be pushed into political oblivion. To stay relevant, ANP and PMAP will have to start standing up against the alleged violations by the Pakistan army.

The protests organised across the world by PTM have found supporters among Pakistan’s public and politicians of other parties.