Khan Abdul Wali Khan

Who was Khan Abdul Wali Khan?

Khan Abdul Wali Khan was a British Indian and later Pakistani secular democratic socialist and Pashtun leader, and served as president of National Awami Party. Son of the prominent Pashtun nationalist leader Bacha Khan, Wali Khan was an activist and a writer against the British Raj like his father.

His early years were marked by his involvement in his father's non-violent resistance movement, the "red shirts" against the British Raj. He narrowly escaped an assassination in his early years and was later sent to school at Dehra Dun. In his late teens, he became active in the Indian National Congress. After the formation of Pakistan in 1947, Wali Khan became a controversial figure in Pakistani politics during his political career because of his association to the Congress which opposed the creation of Pakistan.

A respected politician in his later years, he contributed to Pakistan's third constitution, led protests for the restoration of democracy in the 1960s and 1980s. In the 1970s, he also served as the parliamentary leader of opposition in Pakistan's first directly elected parliament.