At 87, Col (R) Ali Gohar begins a new political journey

PESHAWAR: Colonel (R) Ali Gohar Khan is 87 years old but he is still active in politics and last week made his latest political move by joining the Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao.
“I told Aftab Sherpao that I was joining his party because he spoke about the rights of the Pakhtuns. I have been a nationalist all my life and it was natural for me to join the PPP-S after quitting the Awami National Party,” he recalled.
Col Ali Gohar conceded that he had become inactive in the ANP several years ago. “We had our differences. How could I remain in a party whose leadership has negated everything for which its founders stood? All around us there is corruption and unprincipled politics,” he argued.
Back in 1977, Col Ali Gohar was elected member of the National Assembly from his native Swabi. The general election was later aborted due to the countrywide agitation by opposition parties against Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP government for rigging the polls.
The retired colonel belongs to a family of soldiers. His two brothers Sher Khan, who could have become the Pakistan Army chief before Ayub Khan if he had not died in an air crash, and Bahadur Sher were generals and a third one Shahnawaz was a colonel.
As a politician, Col Ali Gohar has been in and out of nationalist politics. In the past, he had been working in Swabi to end blood-feuds, reconcile feuding families and promote the traditional game of archery known as Makha or Mukha.
His daughter, Bushra Gohar, is presently an MNA aligned with the ANP. His decision to join the PPP-S would obviously displease members of his immediate family, though it is a known fact that Col Ali Gohar has been estranged from his only son and daughters for a while now.
Apart from his daughter, his other close female relatives are also in politics. His niece Mairaj Humayun is also in the PPP-S, is running a non-governmental organization and was briefly a provincial minister in the caretaker government. His granddaughter Sitara Ayaz Khan is presently an ANP lawmaker and provincial minister.
It was at a public meeting at the government school in his village, Jhanda, in Swabi recently that Col Ali Gohar announced his decision in Aftab Sherpao’s presence to join the PPP-S. Holding the meeting at the government school, which Mairaj Humayun had managed to build as a caretaker minister, too generated controversy, as the local ANP leaders didn’t want it to be the venue for a political rally of a rival party. But Col Ali Gohar was adamant to hold the meeting there due to security reasons. He had his way and this is how the elderly man switched parties and began a new political journey with the PPP-S.