Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the Chairman of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and a member of the National Assembly, has been elected to compete in the presidential election against former President Asif Ali Zardari.
Achakzai won the NA-266 seat from Qilla Abdullah Chaman in the February 8, 2024 elections. Born on December 12, 1948, in Inayatullah Kariz, Gulistan district of Qilla Abdullah, Mahmood Khan Achakzai completed his primary education at the Government Primary School in Inayatullah Kariz, Gulistan. After finishing his matriculation from the Government High School in Inayatullah, he completed his intermediate studies at the Government Degree College (Science College) in Quetta. Then, he obtained a Bachelor of Engineering from the Mechanical Engineering College at the University of Peshawar.
Achakzai began his political career during his student days by joining the Pashtun Students’ Organization, which later became the Pakhtunkhwa Students’ Organization.
Following the assassination of the head of the Pashtunkhwa National Awami Party, Khan Shaheed Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, on December 2, 1973, Mahmood Khan Achakzai was elected as the party’s first leader and later became the Chairman of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party in 1989. He survived an attack while leading a procession in the Qandhari Bazaar during the MRD movement on October 7, 1983, under General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime.
Four of Achakzai’s companions, Kaka Mahmood, Ramzan, Dawood, and Uls Yaar, were martyred in this tragic incident, after which Mahmood Khan Achakzai remained in hiding for nearly six years. After re-emerging in 1989, Achakzai proposed the convening of a Loya Jirga and initiated the Gulistan war.
In 1974, Mahmood Khan Achakzai was first elected as a member of the Provincial Assembly from the constituencies of Qilla Abdullah, Chaman Gulistan, and Dobandi. He was re-elected from Qilla Abdullah Khan Pishin in 1990, and again, in 1993 and 2002, he won the National Assembly seat from Qilla Abdullah Pishin. Achakzai declined the offer to become the caretaker Prime Minister before the 2013 elections, after which he was elected as a member of the National Assembly and recently in the general elections from the constituency NA-266, Qilla Abdullah Chaman, and Quetta City.
Achakzai has always played a leading role in democratic political alliances and has never compromised on the supremacy of the constitution. He has been a part of the Democratic Movement, PONM, APDM, MRD movement, and recently, the PDM, always standing firm on his principled stance.
After Sardar Ataullah Mengal, he was elected president of the PONM alliance in 2006, which includes Saraiki, Sindhi, Baloch, and Pashtun nations. Mahmood Achakzai has served as the Vice President of PDM. His family includes his wife, three sons, Azal Khan, Asal Khan, and Atal Khan Achakzai, and two daughters.
