Mazdoor Kisan Party

Following the split of the National Awami Party (NAP) at the end of 1967, the leftist members of the NAP, many of whom were active in a Kissan (peasant) Committee, decided to follow the Khan Abdul Wali Khan faction of the NAP (after the split). Soon after however, the leadership of the Wali Khan faction, being landlords, decided not to allow members of the NAP to also be members of the Kissan Committee. The leftists, led by Afzal Bangash, then decided to leave the NAP and establish the MKP. On 1 May 1968, at a meeting in Peshawar, the Mazdoor Kissan Party was formed with Afzal Bangash as leader and Sher Ali Bacha as the General Secretary.

The MKP soon started to work together with several factions in Pakistan including the Major Ishaque Mohammad group in Punjab and leftist groups in East Pakistan. In 1970, the Ishaque group merged with the Mazdoor Kissan Party. The party's main focus was on the peasantry, inspired by the struggles of the Chinese, Vietnamese and African people. It achieved immediate success in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, where spontaneous struggles between peasants and landlords were already taking place due to Ayub Khan's land reforms and imposition of farm machinery. The MKP provided the organisation and leadership needed by the peasant rebellion and in turn the movement gained tremendous following in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movement was not only facing the private armies of the landlords but also attempts by the state to stop it by force. The fight continued through three governments: Yahya Khan's military regime, the NAP-Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam government and the provincial government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Soon even the landlords belonging to the different parties banded together in the Ittehad Party in order to crush the rebellion.

The provincial NAP-JUI stood firmly behind the landlords in the struggle and, failing to get the central government to establish a ban on the MKP, tried to smear the party by putting forward the notion that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had initiated the peasant movement. Still, the government of NAP-JUI fell and the MKP continued on, now having to deal with the PPP.

One of the greatest clashes between the peasantry and the state took place in July 1971 at Mandani. In a daylong pitched battle, an army of 1500 heavily armed policemen were routed with a casualty rate of about 20 peasants and party cadres on the MKP side. Another struggle took place at the end of the NAP-JUI government period. Around 8000 militia and Rangers were deployed in the Malakand Agency in order to stop the MKP. During this time the party's vice-president Maulvi Mohammad Sadiq was assassinated.

The MKP ignored parliamentary and bourgeois forms of democratic struggle and did not participate in the 1970 General Election in Pakistan. It condemned military action against Bengalis during the emergence of Bangladesh and, at the same time, struggled for the breaking up of One Unit in West Pakistan. The question of nationality in Pakistan was not addressed properly by the MKP, and it also failed to organise in Sindh and Baluchistan. Still, the MKP had strong support among the peasantry of the Peshawar and Mardan districts, the Malakand Agency and the former states of Swat and Dir. It also had built support for itself in parts of Hazara and Punjab.

The first national congress of the party was held in May 1973 at Shergarh in the Mardan District. Armed security guards were placed around the area, and a strike of bus owners was set off by opposing forces in order to prevent people from attending the national congress. This failed, though, as 5000 delegates, helped by disobeying drivers and the MKP militants, attended the congress. An energetic debate took place during which Major Ishaque Mohammad was elected as president of the party and Sher Ali Bacha as General Secretary.

As in 1970, the MKP again did not participate in the 1977 Pakistani general election, although, at that time, it had good prospects of making some progress in national politics of Pakistan. Instead it held the slogan of "Intikhab Naheen, Inqilab" (Revolution, not elections) and organised mass rallies following a relaxation of political restrictions. Around 50000 people participated in Peshawar and 30000 in Shergarh, demonstrating the grass-root support of the masses for the MKP.

The aftermath of the March 1977 elections was one of frustration for the cadres of the MKP. The government was accused by the right-wing Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) of rigging the elections, and the country was basically polarised between supporters and opponents of Bhutto. The MKP, as well as the rest of the left in Pakistan, was mostly powerless in this major crisis, crying out for civil liberties while at the same time labelling PNA as reactionary.

The MKP was further isolated when a number of leftist parties in Pakistan formed a coalition by the name of Awami Jamhuri Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) (People’s Democratic Alliance). The MKP, having increasing internal differences, did not join this alliance. The internal differences mainly revolved around the question of the peasant movement in NWFP. The three disagreeing factions in the MKP were personified by Sher Ali Bacha, Afzal Bangash, Imtiaz Alam and Major Ishaque Mohammad.

• Sher Ali Bacha argued that in many areas the tenants had become capitalists, as a result of MKP's success in NWFP, and had in turn developed an antagonistic contradiction with the rural labourers they hired. The party should therefore lead the labourers in their confrontation with the tenants. He called for a direct socialist revolution.
• Afzal Bangash also recognised that new contradictions had erupted, but did not see them as antagonistic. He furthermore criticised the rhetoric of immediate socialist revolution as both infantile and Trotskyite.
• In the Punjab section of the party Imtiaz Alam, along with some younger elements of the party, objected to Ishaque’s stance on the national question, and an alleged dogmatism of his. He also accused Bangash of dawdling on said questions, and also making an unprincipled alliance with Ishaque.

Finally in 1978, the MKP formally split up into three factions: One led by Bangash, taking most of the NWFP organisation and the party in northern Punjab with him. A second led by Sher Ali Bacha and Imtiaz Alam, taking most of the cadres in Punjab and Karachi and a small number in NWFP (Sher Ali Bacha later separated himself from this faction, forming the Pukhtoonkhwa Mazdoor Kissan Party). And finally a third faction led by Major Ishaque, which was supported by a small number of the party’s old guard in Punjab and a small number of cadres from Karachi. Of these three factions, the one led by Afzal Bangash soon came to be recognised by the public as the MKP.

In 1995, Major Ishaque's MKP group merged with the Communist Party of Pakistan to create the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (CMKP), but in 2003, the CMKP split again and the MKP faction was reestablished.

After the split in 1978, Bangash was elected as leader of the MKP and he quickly moved to join AJIP. The coalition provided dialogue and accommodation between the various leftist groups although bitter disagreements were present. Eventually the MKP and the Pakistan Workers’ Party (PWP) led by Fatehyab Ali Khan, decided to merge and reduce their votes in the coalition from two to one. This unification was announced at the second congress of the party, the "unity congress".

The unity congress was held in July 1979 at Mandani in NWFP. In spite of martial law restrictions, almost 5000 delegates participated along with observers from a wide range of parties. It was a historical congress and a huge step for MKP. The merging of the MKP and PWP signified a unification of the party having the largest peasant base with the party having the largest trade union base, making the MKP a true workers’ and peasants’ party. Resolutions and the political program implemented at the congress showed the maturity and realism of the new party, and also illustrated the potential of forging left unity.

The unity congress also elected Afzal Bangash as president of the MKP, Fatehyab Ali Khan as Senior Vice-President and Shaukat Ali as Secretary-General. Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim, a veteran labour leader, was elected to the Central Working Committee of the party. Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party was formally adopted as the name of the party.

A message of solidarity was also sent by Benazir Bhutto. All in all, the congress was an indication of the end of the political isolation of the MKP and the entry into mainstream politics, while keeping its distinct character.

The MKP played a fundamental role in the popular struggle against the military regime of General Zia ul-Haq. In early 1981, it had a significant role in forming the united front called Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD). The PNA also attracted other leftist groups, and was merged with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Surkh Parcham Mahaz-Punjab Jamhoori Front (PJF) and Muttahida Mazdoor Mahaz in Punjab. Much of the character of the MKP was owed to the contributions of parties and organisations merging with it.

In 1985 martial law was lifted and MKP president Afzal Bangash returned to Pakistan in mid-1986. At this point although the MKP was officially one single party, internally it was divided in two factions:

• One MKP faction consisting of President Afzal Bangash and the original MKP members.
• A second MKP faction consisting of Senior Vice-President Fatehyab Ali Khan and his followers, all of whom used to be part of the PWP.

Soon after his return, Afzal Bangash decided to merge his MKP faction with Khan Abdul Wali Khan's National Democratic Party (NDP) thus creating the new Awami National Party (ANP). However, Fatehyab Ali Khan's faction did not follow the merger with the NDP, instead it continued on as MKP, now calling itself "Mazdoor Kissan Party Pakistan".

In October 1986, Bangash died. The death of Bangash signaled the decline of MKP as a significant political force in Pakistan, and the next few decades were to be tumultuous for the party.

The merger the NDP and MKP into ANP never had much support from members of the Afzal Bangash MKP faction, and so around 1988 they decided to split from ANP and once again reconstitute as MKP.

In 1989 Fatehyab Ali Khan was chosen to become president of all of MKP, both his own "Mazdoor Kissan Party Pakistan" faction and the late Afzal Bangash MKP faction.

In August 2002, MKP issued some statements to express its views on the then upcoming national elections under Pervez Musharraf regime. Dawn (newspaper) reported, "The newly elected president of the Mazdoor Kissan Party, Fatehyab Ali Khan, has said that his party will cooperate with the leftist and progressive parties in the forthcoming general elections."[1] Khan also pledged "that if voted to power, his party will provide free education up to matric for all and restore the 1973 Constitution in its original form." [1]

In 2004, the Afzal Bangash MKP faction decided to once again go its own way. It split with Fatehyab Ali Khan's MKP faction and instead chose Aslam Khan Gigyanay as the new party President. Gigyanay remained President until 2012, after which the party has been without a president.

In 2012, a documentary film was screened in Lahore highlighting the armed struggle of peasants and workers of this small area which was crushed in 1974 by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Government of National Awami Party.[4]

On 27 October 2013 tribute was paid to Afzal Bangash, Salar Mohammad Shah Ali and Inqilabi Gojar Khan at an event in Charsadda for their efforts to help the working class.[5] Some speakers at the event complained about the performance of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province following the party's coming to power after the 2013 Pakistani general election. One speaker said: "Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf came into power in the province through the slogan of 'change', but miserably failed to bring the promised change." [5]

• Democratic Organisations Series No. 4. Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan (Worker - Peasant) Party (MKP) June 1984.