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Pakistan
Awami National Party
The Awami National Party (awami means "people's"), which
depends on Pakhtuns of the North-West Frontier Province and northern
Balochistan as its political base, won six seats in the National
Assembly in the 1990 elections. In the 1993 national elections,
the party won three seats in the National Assembly. The Awami
National Party was formed in 1986 by the merger of several left-leaning
parties including the Awami Tehrik and the National Democratic
Party. Khan Abdul Wali Khan was appointed its first president.
Wali Khan's political career had been built on the tradition of
intense Pakhtun nationalism inherited from his father, Khan Abdul
Ghaffar Khan. Both men were opposed to the creation of Pakistan,
and after partition they were imprisoned. In 1956 Wali Khan joined
the National Awami Party (NAP), led by a charismatic Bengali socialist,
Maulana Bhashani. In 1965 the NAP split into two factions, with
Wali Khan becoming president of the pro-Moscow faction. In 1972
the party was strong enough to form coalition provincial governments,
with its partner the Jamiat-ul- Ulama-i-Islam (JUI) in the North-West
Frontier Province and Balochistan. These governments were short
lived. Wali Khan was again jailed, and his party was barred from
politics when the Supreme Court upheld the finding of Bhutto that
the NAP was conspiring against the state of Pakistan. General
Zia subsequently withdrew the charges against the NAP. Wali Khan
was released, joined the National Democratic Party, and ultimately
formed the Awami National Party.
Data as of April 1994
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