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Is PTM against Oppression? A Thread
The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) has built quite a following since it first rose to prominence in 2018. Led by Manzoor Pashteen, the movement built its narrative around the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud in a fake encounter...
The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) has built quite a following since it first rose to prominence in 2018. Led by Manzoor Pashteen, the movement built its narrative around the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud in a fake encounter...
... and in the years since, people of all areas and ethnicities joined in support.
The movement and its leaders have always been blunt critics of the Pakistani state and especially the military.
The movement and its leaders have always been blunt critics of the Pakistani state and especially the military.
PTM leaders protested repeated misinformation campaigns about events in Pakistan in general and the tribal belt in particular. They have opposed and protested oppression, and they have taken names of oppressors in doing so. They have asked tough questions of the state.
Yet their support of an oppressive regime in Afghanistan reeks of hypocrisy. Take the example of the Kabul attack on Friday March 6 this year. ISIS militants attacked a ceremony in Kabul which commemorated the 1995 killing of Abdul Ali Mazari.
Abdul Ali Mazari was one of Afghanistan’s most renowned Hazara leaders. The attack killed 32 citizens (predominantly Hazaras) and left dozens wounded. And yet, the same evening, MNA Mohsin Dawar tweeted to condemn the attack “on Abdullah Abdullah.”
Much like the misinformation campaigns that the PTM protests, Dawar’s tweet was a complete misrepresentation of facts.
“We name names and are not shy to address powers that the rest of the society is too scared to identify,” Ali Wazir wrote in an article for The Diplomat.
“We name names and are not shy to address powers that the rest of the society is too scared to identify,” Ali Wazir wrote in an article for The Diplomat.
When I read the same article now in conjunction with Dawar’s tweet, I am forced to wonder why Ali Wazir’s colleague could not name names in the Kabul attack.
We cannot see Dawar’s tweet in isolation. It is part of a series of events that raise serious doubts about the PTM
We cannot see Dawar’s tweet in isolation. It is part of a series of events that raise serious doubts about the PTM
and its position on victimhood, accountability, oppression, (mis)representation, and rights.
Dawar and Ali Wazir’s participation in Ashraf Ghani’s oath-taking ceremony earlier this month is another example. This will be Ashraf Ghani’s second term as President of Afghanistan.
Dawar and Ali Wazir’s participation in Ashraf Ghani’s oath-taking ceremony earlier this month is another example. This will be Ashraf Ghani’s second term as President of Afghanistan.
His first term is full of controversies and allegations of ethnic discrimination and bias. In 2017 a memo leaked from Ghani’s office laid out a policy of ethnic favouritism in appointments to the Administrative Office of the President...
Pashtuns were to be prioritized over other groups like Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks. Similarly, in 2016, Ashraf Ghani’s government decided to reroute an electricity supply project (called TUTAP) to the disadvantage of Hazara areas along the project.
This decision on an ADB-funded project was protested by Hazara residents, who marched to Kabul.
In Kabul, their march was attacked and around 80 people were killed.
Ghani remains an ethnically divisive figure around the start of his second term.
In Kabul, their march was attacked and around 80 people were killed.
Ghani remains an ethnically divisive figure around the start of his second term.
He has signed a decree to release 1500 Taliban members, and another 3500 are on their way to freedom as well. What is Dawar’s position on this, and why stand with a President who is releasing prisoners of an oppressive, ethnic nationalist organization?
Mohsin Dawar, Ali Wazir, and Manzoor Pashteen have all denounced the Pakistani military’s support for the Taliban, who have killed in the past and continue to kill sectarian and ethnic minorities in Afghanistan.
By standing with Ghani, is the PTM confusing people with the same “good taliban, bad Taliban” rhetoric?
And yet, off went both Dawar and Wazir to stand with Ghani: a President whose deputy Amrullah Saleh made fun of Hazaras and used derogatory language for them...
And yet, off went both Dawar and Wazir to stand with Ghani: a President whose deputy Amrullah Saleh made fun of Hazaras and used derogatory language for them...
...during the recently concluded election campaign. They also met Ismail Youn, another fascist who has explicitly called for Pashtun majoritarian rule in Afghanistan and calls all other ethnic groups “immigrants”.
Where does this leave PTM’s moral standing to protest oppression, discrimination, and bias, when their own leadership has shown unconditional support to a regime that actively discriminates and oppresses minority ethnic groups?
Here, on this side of the border, many Punjabis, Balochs, Sindhis & Hazaras have supported PTM in addition to Pashtuns. This support is only because of their stance against state oppression and negligence of basic rights, which are concerns of not only Pashtuns bt others as well.
On the other side of the border, the same PTM is supporting a government which is neglecting the basic rights of other ethnic groups and actively discriminating against them.
It doesn’t take state oppression,sedition cases,or allegations of foreign interference to identify a hypocritical understanding of oppression. As things stand, PTM is opposed 2 ethnic discrimination in Pak, but supporting a prejudiced, ethnic nationalist government in Afghanistan
They have chosen to maintain silence on the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners. While standing against an oppressor on this side of the border, leaders of the PTM are standing with the oppressor on the other side of the border.
It seems as if they are not against oppression but only against oppressors which are not of their choice.
Note: I wrote this for a news outlet in March after the oath-taking ceremony of Afghan President(s) but it was not published so I shared it here.
#PTM #Pashtuns #Hazaras
Note: I wrote this for a news outlet in March after the oath-taking ceremony of Afghan President(s) but it was not published so I shared it here.
#PTM #Pashtuns #Hazaras
