Muhammad Afzal Khan Lala’s Quest and Struggle for Pashtuns’ Nationalism and Unity: An Appraisal

Abstract

The history of Pashtuns shows that these people lacked effective leadership to lead them in stormy days. In spite of it, they found some prominent personalities in the past, who struggled their best to bring unity among them and to divert their struggle towards achieving their common goal of national unity. The soil of Swat is also gifted with some distinguished personalities, who hold national fame, for rendering valuable services in different fields of life and earned refute in history. Muhammad Afzal Kha, alias Khan Lala, was among such persons who was born in Drushkhela Swat in 1926 to Habib Khan, alias Darmai Khan, who was a prominent Khan in Swat State. Afzal Khan was a well-known personality of Upper Swat who worked for the unity among the Pashtuns and his six books are to signify his struggle for that purpose. He was concerned about the disunity among them. He urged them to resolve their issues through Jirga. For this purpose, he used to arrange Jirga and convened seminars of the Pashtun leaders for discussing their issues. Afzal Khan Lala was a staunch supporter of Pashtuns’ national unity. The current study aims at highlighting his struggle for bringing together the Pashtuns and to remove hindrances in its way.

Keywords: Muhammad Afzal Khan Lala, Jirga, Nationalism, Pashtuns, Swat, Awami National Party, Qaumi Inqilabi Party, Pakhtunkhwa Qaumi Party.