PESHAWAR, Feb 20: Leader of Awami National Party, Asfandyar Wali Khan has extolled the Pukhtuns to follow the philosophy of Bacha Khan to attain their rights.

Speaking as a chief guest at a programme arranged by Malgari Doctoran to pay homage to late Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan, here on Thursday, Mr Khan said that Bacha Khan along with his sincere and honest companions went through hard times in pursuance of his struggle with regard to the attainments of the rights of the Pukhtun nation.

It was Bacha Khan who by the virtue of his unrelenting endeavours sent the message across that the colonial powers were exploiting this nation. Bacha Khan’s philosophy revolved around two issues, i.e., attainment of Pukhtun rights and their identity.

Mr Khan said though the Pakhtoons had got independence, but still they needed to achieve their rights. They had been failed to advocate his philosophy with the speed which had been set by Bacha Khan concerning the rights of Pukhtun nation. Still, he said the future seemed bright, provided the Pukhtuns followed the teachings of Bacha Khan in letter and spirit.

“The 85 years prolonged and fruitful struggle by Bacha Khan, which landed him in jails several times, should serve as candle in the dark for us. If we didn’t realize the sensitivity of the situation, the imperialist forces would capitalise on our weakness and we would get vanished,” said the former ANP chief.

He urged the doctors to serve humanity with utmost spirit and zeal and play their role to awaken the Pukhtuns from their deep slumber in order to pay the way for the attainment of the rights and resources of the Pukhtuns.

The responsibility rested with us to spread much-needed awareness among the Pukhtuns, so that the future generations could take pride in being Pukhtuns.

Regarding the ANP’s bad performance at the recent elections, he said it was part of the struggle and didn’t mean that the ANP had collapsed. We should proceed towards the destinations to achieve our ultimate goal of restoration of the past glory of Pukhtuns and for that we should struggle honestly and collectively, said Mr Khan.