Qaumi Watan Party

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Qaumi Watan Party
قومي وطنپال ګوند
Leader Aftab Ahmad Sherpao
Founded October 17, 2012 (2012-10-17)
Split from Pakistan Peoples Party
Preceded by Pakistan Peoples Party–Sherpao
Headquarters Hayatabad, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Ideology Pashtun neo-nationalism
Social democracy
Islamic socialism
Religion Islam
Colors Red, black and white
            
Parliament
1 / 342
KPK Assembly
10 / 124
Party flag

Qaumi Watan Party (Pashto: قومي وطنپال ګوند‎; Urdu: قومی وطن پارٹی‎), abbreviated as QWP and formerly called Pakistan Peoples Party–Sherpao (PPP–S), is a political party in Pakistan, that split away from the Pakistan Peoples Party just before the 2002 general election.[1] PPP–S was named after its leader Aftab Ahmad Sherpao. Differences had cropped up between PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Senior Leader Aftab Ahmad Sherpao in 1999 and the latter was expelled from the PPP by the former, thus creating PPP–S.[2] In October 2012, it was renamed to Qaumi Watan Party when it changed its political agenda and declared itself as a Pashtun neo-nationalist party.

Name change

The name and manifesto of the party were formally changed on October 17, 2012. It was renamed from "Pakistan Peoples Party–Sherpao" to "Qaumi Watan Party". The tri-color flag was also changed by replacing the green color with white. Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said Qaumi Watan Party will work for rights of the Pashtuns of the entire region, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi, Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.[3][4]

Overview

At the legislative elections of 20 October 2002, Pakistan Peoples Party–Sherpao won 0.3% of the popular vote and 2 out of 272 elected members. In the 2008 general election, the party won only 1 seat in the National Assembly, in which the party leader Aftab Sherpao was successful. On the other hand, it won 6 provincial assembly seats, all in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

During the 2013 elections the party rebranded itself as the Qaumi Watan Party and Sherpao once again won the National seat, provincially the party secured 10 seats in total, of which 8 were directly elected. This made the Qaumi Watan Party the fourth largest party in KPK, and it joined a coalition government led by PTI.

Flag

The tricolor red-black-white flag of the party exactly resembles the flag of the Kingdom of Afghanistan during the regime of Emir Habibullah Kalakani (January 1929 – October 1929).[5] The same colors were also used by the Mongols when they occupied present-day Afghanistan in the 13th century.[6]

Corruption Charges

During Qaumi Watan Party's alliance with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, two of its ministers, were charged with corruption and expelled from the cabinet by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on the directives of PTI Chairman Imran Khan.[7] The names of the ministers who were expelled from their ministries were Bakht Baidar Khan who was minister of Labour & Manpower and Ibrar Hussain minister of Forests. After their expulsion Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan advised Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to expel Qaumi Watan Party from government alliance.[8][9] Meanwhile, Sikander Sherpao has resigned from Senior Minister (as part of power sharing deal in May 2013, PTI has Chief Minister while QWP & JI has Senior Minister seats each) of KPK and QWP has left the coalition government of KPK. In a news conference Mr Sherpao has committed to expose various illegal orders of Imran Khan to the media.[10]

Controversial Letter Scandal

After Qaumi Wattan Party parted ways from the KPK provincial government by Tehreek-e-Insaf of Imran Khan over corruption allegations, Sikandar Sherpao of QWP presented a letter to the media [11] which was received from PTI Chairman Imran Khan advising to appoint a person named Khushal Khan as CEO of KPOGCL.[12] PTI criticized QWP for such an act as the letter contained errors and the signature of Imran Khan was seem to be different from the original one. Dr. Shireen Mazari in a brief press release condemned this below the belt act by Sikandar Sherpao.[13]

References

  1. ↑ PARTY PROFILES: Pakistan Peoples Party The Herald
  2. ↑ PPP (S) polls Dawn Newspaper, July 30, 2002
  3. ↑ Bacha, Ali Hazrat (18 October 2012). "Renames party, changes flag: Sherpao emerges as Pakhtun nationalist". Dawn. Retrieved 18 October 2012. 
  4. ↑ Buneri, Nader (18 October 2012). "Sherpao renames PPP-S as Qaumi Watan Party". The Nation. Retrieved 18 October 2012. 
  5. ↑ Flags of Afghanistan
  6. ↑ Afghanistan January 1929 - October 1929
  7. ↑ QWP Ministers Sacked
  8. ↑ PTI parts ways with QWP
  9. ↑ Qaumi Wattan Party expelled from Coalition
  10. ↑
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ Fake Letter Drafted by Qaumi Watan Party
  13. ↑ PTI Press Release

External links

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