ANP and PTM

Between the undue criticism on ANP and devout apologia for its actions the ground for valid criticism on its actions and analysis is lost. Discarding ANP and zeroing its past in contribution to Pashtun political struggle and consciousness is either partisanship or shortsightedness. There are many shortcomings and there are events in the past which if the party had taken other decisions on could have altered our course. But we have the advantage of a hindsight now and then a contested ground among many players was the background to the party decisions.

This is not a binary between ANP and PTM. There is a need for parliamentary/electoral politics and there always is space for agitation-al movements. Compromise, give and take, softening down are inherent components of parliamentary politics. Those saying that there is no need of parliamentary politics in the national struggle want to limit the national question to the margin of political debates. The political consciousness of Pashtuns of today is in large part thanks to the belief in parliamentary politics. PTM is a push in the right direction. PTM is filling up the space left by electoral politics and the very nature of a limited electoral arena.

There is no doubt that ANP is distancing itself from PTM but is that the same as going to confrontation? ANP as a modernist political organization has varying and often divergent currents in its ranks and leadership. While some in the top leadership are vocal in support for PTM, others are mocking it. While the leadership overall has distanced itself from PTM the workers of ANP form a charged part of PTM and its thinking. The reasons of ANP's standing can be understood (not justified though). Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is going to sustain PTM because it is relatively more developed in terms of human development indexes and is more part of the mainstream in relationship to other Pasthun administrative units (or parts where Pashtuns are in significant numbers). There is a narrative dominance of ANP on Pashtun political struggle there. The fear of ANP is well-founded that in case there is an electoral dimension to PTM it is going to hurt ANP. Also, in Khuber Pakhtunkhwa the narrative about Pashtun national struggle is only one of many other contesting narratives and now that narrative is a contested one in terms of electoral or agitational politics.

That being said, it doesn't need repetition that the fears of ANP are unfounded and false. PTM is not going to contest the electoral politics narrative of ANP and rather than deligitimizing ANP's politics, PTM is giving legitimacy to ANP's struggle by popularizing the national question and rocketing it to the mainland's consciousnesses. Rather than distancing itself from PTM, ANP will do well if it absorbs some of PTM's demands and translate them into parliamentary goals. The haunting fear of 2013 elections when ANP was target of the security state's terrorism is no reason to play it safe.

ANP and PTM don't form a binary. The popular, agitation-based and hold-no-bare movement always complement the measured and soft nature of parliamentary politics.