PESHAWAR: Aging but still healthy, Khudai Khidmatgar leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan ended his eight-year-long self-imposed exile today [Dec 24] and returned to Pakistan with an unconditional offer of full co-operation to President Bhutto for building his new Pakistan. Receiving a welcome unprecedented in the history of the Khyber Pass to any political leader, Ghaffar Khan utilised the occasion of the mammoth public meeting at Jinnah Park to launch an international peace movement against violence and announced to raise a peace corps from Pakistan, India, Iran and Afghanistan.

His one-hour speech, heard in pin-drop silence by a huge crowd that had waited for over six hours until after sunset, also dealt with charges against his person and party, character and performance of the Pakhtoons, the need for international peace.

About charges against him, he said the Khudai Khidmatgars were forced to join the Congress by the Muslim League… . That his designs were not anti-Pakistan could well be judged from his offer to mediate between East and West Pakistan… . He always wanted a strong and united Pakistan, but there were others who destroyed it.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2022