He is the grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, better known as Bacha Khan; Abdul Ghaffar was the founder of the non-violent Pashtun political movement, Khudai Khidmatgar ("Servants of God") in undivided India and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.
Pacha Khan Zadran, regional militia leader who rose against the Taliban in 2001, was considered a "renegade" in 2003, and was elected to the Wolesi Jirga in 2004
Born into a political family, Abdul Ali Khan was the youngest son of Bacha Khan, he remained apolitical his whole life and completed his Bachelors degree from Peshawar University, before travelling to England to complete his postgraduate studies from the University of Oxford.
He become Governor upon the request of then Governor General Khwaja Nazimuddin; taking charge to make sure the Objective Resolution be implemented successfully in the province and to settle the Pashtunistan revolts instigated by Bacha Khan and his Khudai Khidmathgar movement.
The prime minister paid a tribute to the Pashtun community for its "role in the country's liberation struggle" and also to Pashtun nationalist leaders such as Bacha Khan.
However, this almost one-party system, showing the strong commitment of Yousafzai Pakhtuns to Bacha Khan and his mission, has also had some negative effects, like the lack of electoral accountability of ANP candidates.
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The Fazlehaq College Mardan was brought into existence by the Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then North-West Frontier Province) General (r) Fazle Haq and the educationist Abdul Ali Khan (son of the politician Bacha Khan) and brother of the pukhthoon poet, thinker and philosopher Abdul Ghani Khan in the 1980s.