RASC News Agency: Mohammad Omar Dawoodzai, the former Afghanistan Minister of the Interior and key figure during the Karzai and Ghani administrations, stated that the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) is a justice-seeking movement, leading to the awakening of Pashtuns across the globe. In an interview, Dawoodzai emphasized that the movement is growing rapidly, and the Pakistani government lacks the capacity to contain it.
In his Saturday interview, Dawoodzai underlined that the PTM carries significant messages for Afghanistan. He pointed out that the movement’s symbol, the “Red Cap,” is not exclusively tied to Kandahar and the eastern regions of Afghanistan but also extends its relevance to Mazar-i-Sharif and northern Afghanistan. Dawoodzai further remarked that during PTM’s major gatherings, they replace Pakistan’s flag with Afghanistan’s tricolor flag, illustrating that the movement’s message resonates beyond Pakistan’s borders and is a call for unity across Afghanistan.
“This movement symbolizes the awakening of Pashtuns and “Pashtunwali” and will not be easily suppressed,” Dawoodzai asserted, likening the PTM to the Arab Spring. He warned the Pakistani military, drawing parallels to the fates of Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi, that failure to manage the movement correctly would exacerbate their problems. Moreover, Dawoodzai claimed that Pashtuns constitute the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, challenging census figures. He argued that Punjab is more of a geographical and historical entity, with its origins in India, suggesting that Pakistan falsely lists 60% of its population as Punjabi, while in reality, Pashtuns outnumber them.
However, it is worth noting that Dawoodzai also criticized the PTM, describing it as a nationalist movement that opposes fundamental human values. He warned that the movement seeks to replicate Afghanistan’s internal conflicts in Pakistan. Contrary to Dawoodzai’s claims, official statistics indicate that Pashtuns make up around 14% of Pakistan’s population.
