Pakistan- Party System
SUBJECT: POLITICAL SCIENCE VI COURSE: BA LLB SEMESTER V (NON-CBCS) TEACHER: MS. DEEPIKA GAHATRAJ MODULE II, PAKISTAN PARTY SYSTEM (i). The Awami National Party (ANP) is a left-wing, secular, Pashtun nationalist party, drawing its strength mainly from the Pashtun-majority areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province. It is also active the urban areas of Sindh province and elsewhere. The party was officially formed in 1986 as a conglomeration of several left-leaning parties, but had existed in some form as far back as 1965, when Khan Abdul Wali Khan split from the existing National Awami Party. Khan was following in the political footsteps of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan, popular known as the “Frontier Gandhi”), one of the most prominent nonviolent pro- independence figures under the British Raj. Today, the party is led by Asfandyar Wali Khan, Abdul Wali Khan's son. At the national level, the ANP has traditionally stood with the PPP, the only other major secular party operating across the country. 2008 was no different, and the ANP was one of the PPP's most stalwart allies in the previous government, with its 13 seats in the National Assembly backing the coalition throughout its five-year term in office. In the 2013 polls, however, the ANP will have to contend with high anti-incumbent sentiment in its stronghold of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as a result of a lack of economic development and a deteriorating security situation. The ANP itself has borne the brunt of political violence in the province, with more than 750 ANP workers, activists and leaders killed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in the last several years, according to the party's information secretary, Zahid Khan.
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