Asfandyar Wali Khan

Asfandyar Wali Khan (اسفندیار ولي خان; ; born 19 February 1949) is a Pakistani politician from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, currently serving as the president of the Awami National Party (ANP). He is the son of Abdul Wali Khan, the party's founding president.

Wali Khan is the current president of the Awami National Party. He has served as Member of Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, and a senator in the Senate of Pakistan. He is credited with achieving provincial autonomy in Pakistan and renaming the North-West Frontier Province to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with the support of coalition partner PPP during the 18th Amendment in 2010.

Family background


Asfandyar Wali Khan was born in Charsadda, a small village near Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He is the eldest son of Abdul Wali Khan and his first wife, Taj Bibi. His father married Taj Bibi's death in February 1949 Nasim Wali Khan in 1954. Sangeen Wali Khan, is the eldest son of this marriage and was Asfandyar's half-brother.

He is the grandson of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, better known as Bacha Khan, wo founded the non-violent political movement Khudai Khidmatgar ("Servants of the God") in the NWFP during British colonial rule in India and a companion of Mahatma Gandhi. Wali Khan's granduncle, Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, served as the Indian National Congress's Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province, during the final days of the British Raj and early days of independent Pakistan.

Education
Asfandyar Wali Khan received his early education at Aitchison College in Lahore, completed high school at Islamia Collegiate School, and earned his Bachelor's degree from Islamia College, University of Peshawar, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Political career
Asfandyar Wali Khan began his political activism as a student, joining the opposition against Ayub Khan. In 1975, he was imprisoned and tortured by the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto due to his father's opposition to Bhutto. He endured severe mistreatment, including having his nails and hair forcibly removed, and was kept in a C-class jail. Convicted as part of the Hyderabad tribunal, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. After his release in 1978, Asfandyar stayed away from electoral politics until 1990.

Asfandyar Wali Khan led the Pakhtun Student Federation before being elected to the Provincial Assembly in the 1990 election. In the 1993 election, he was elected to Pakistan's National Assembly, a seat he retained in the 1997 election. During this period, he served as the Parliamentary Leader of the ANP and chaired the Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination.

In 1999, Asfandyar Wali Khan was elected president of the ANP for the first time. Although he was defeated in the 2002 election due to a tactical alliance formed by "anti-ANP groups", mirroring his father's defeat in 1990, he resigned as party president only to be re-elected unopposed in the subsequent party election. In 2003, he was elected to the Senate for a six-year term. He was re-elected to the National Assembly in the February 2008 parliamentary elections, leading his party to power both provincially and nationally — the former for the first time since 1947 and the latter since 1997.

In September 2008, he was elected as chairman of the standing committee on foreign affairs.

In 2008 it was reported by Dawn that he made a secret visit to the United States in which he made high level contacts with the U.S Central Command.

Assassination attempt
On 3 October 2008, Wali Khan survived an assassination attempt by a suicide bomber while greeting guests during Eid ul-Fitr. Despite the attack, he remained steadfast and continued to challenge the terrorists. Contrary to opposition claims that he fled to London, Asfandyar stayed in Charsadda and led his party in the fight against terrorism.