Ali Wazir is free but his struggle continues

After 26 months of incarceration, Ali Wazir, leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, was finally released after getting bail. Wazir has been charged in a number of cases since December 2020 where he made a speech criticizing the Pakistani Army and establishment

February 17, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch
Ali Wazir PTM Pakistan
Ali Wazir (center). (Photo: Kamran Razi/via Twitter)

Earlier this week in Pakistan, hundreds of supporters of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) greeted Ali Wazir, Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from South Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with garlands and embraces on his release from Karachi Central Jail after 26 months of incarceration on charges of sedition.

“The remnants of General Gracey surrendered in just 26 months. We were mentally prepared to fight (against state terrorism) for 26 years,” Wazir later tweeted. Gracey was the former commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army.

Wazir has been a trenchant critic of the Pakistani establishment and its treatment of the Pashtun community. He is one of the leaders of the mass movement which for years has been demanding justice and accountability for the economic devastation brought into the lives of Pashtun families, thousands of whom have been internally displaced by the state’s military actions. The PTM has also been in the forefront of demanding justice for those who have been disappeared and have been caught in the conflict between the army and fundamentalist groups.

For his life’s work, Ali Wazir has faced both legal persecution and attacks by militant groups. He was arrested in December 2020 after delivering a speech and faced a number of charges, including sedition, His lawyer said that each time Wazir got bail in a case, another case would be filed. Over the years, he also faced numerous assassination attempts, including two attacks while he was hospitalized in 2022. Several family members and comrades of Ali Wazir have also been targeted. In 2007, seven of his family members, including his father and brother, were assassinated. His cousin Arif Wazir, who died after being shot by unidentified gunmen on May 2, 2020, was the 18th member of the family to be killed.

Reacting to the release of the PTM leader, Mohsin Dawar, who heads the National Democratic Movement, said “justice cannot be denied forever.” In a tweet, Dawar added that the authorities made many attempts to break the spirit of Ali Wazir by keeping him in jail, but he prevailed.

In an editorial, Dawn reported on February 16 that Ali Wazir was a “man who had voiced opinions that had enraged the state, and he had to be taught a lesson.”

“The malice that underpinned his continued incarceration was glaringly apparent. Applications for bail were repeatedly turned down, and although he was acquitted of the original charge last November, three other similar cases filed against him in Karachi and one in KP’s Miram Shah kept the legislator deprived of his liberty,” the editorial said.