Seventh death anniversary of Azam Khan Hoti today

MARDAN: The seventh death anniversary of Pakhtun nationalist leader Mohammad Azam Khan Hoti will be marked today.

Senior Pakhtun nationalist who served as a federal minister and senator, passed away on the 15th of April 2015 after a protracted illness at the age of 69.

Azam Hoti was born on April 27, 1946 in a respectable and known political family of Mardan.

His father Amir Muhammad Khan was also a member of the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement

founded by freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (lovingly called Bacha Khan by his supporters ) and

had spent several years behind bars due to his political activities.

Azam Hoti received his early education in Risalpur and later studied at the Aitchison College Lahore.

He graduated from the Government Degree College Nowshera. After his graduation, Azam Hoti joined the Pakistan Army and was commissioned in 1967. He became a captain in the

Armored Corps of the Pakistan Army.

Azam Hoti also took part in the 1971 Indo-Pak war. However, he later resigned from the army and joined

politics. In 1972, he joined the National Awami Party (NAP).

When the NAP was banned during the then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto tensure, he joined the National Democratic Party and later the Awami National Party (ANP).

He subsequently went into exile and spent several years in Afghanistan.

Azam Hoti was a member of the ANP’s central and provincial executive committees and also led the Nangialai Pakhtun, the ANP’s youth wing, for years. However, in 2005 he quit this office.

He was twice elected as an MNA from Mardan in 1990 and 1997 on the ANP ticket from different constituencies.

Azam Hoti served as the federal minister for communications during the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz governments

in 1991 and 1997.

In March 1994, he was elected as a member of the Senate of Pakistan.

He remained a member of various standing committees of the Senate.

Azam Khan had close family ties with Bacha Khan.

His sister Begum Naseem Wali was married to the late Abdul Wali Khan. ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan is his nephew.

It may be recalled that serious differences cropped up between Azam Hoti and Asfandyar Wali when the ANP suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2013 general elections.

In a series of statements, he had demanded Asfandyar Wali should quit the party as he held him responsible for ANP’s defeat at the polls.

However, he was expelled from the ANP for levelling allegations against the party leadership.

The tussle also strained his relations with his son, Ameer Haider Hoti, former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He had to leave his home and hometown Mardan and lived at his Shami Road residence in Peshawar.

The local elders and ANP leaders in Mardan made efforts for reconciliation between the father and son.

The efforts bore fruit and the two finally reconciled.

Azam Hoti went to his palatial residence in Mardan after reconciliation but came back to Peshawar due to his illness.

In 2012, he went to London for treatment and was later treated in Peshawar and Islamabad.

He also faced problems due to corruption charges dating back to his days as a federal minister and was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau.

Azam Hoti was popular with ANP workers from Mardan, Swabi, Buner and Swat.