ISLAMABAD: Former senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan has resigned from Jamaat-e-Islami, the religio-political party he served for decades, to build an independent platform focused on human rights, democratic governance and constitutionalism. According to his own account carried by The News, he submitted the resignation on 19 September 2025 while aboard the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla.
The decision marked a significant turn in a political career that began in student politics in the 1990s. It would prove to be the step that led to the founding of the Pakistan Rights Movement (PRM), the party Khan launched in Islamabad on 10 January 2026.
His stated reasons
Khan framed the resignation as a matter of freedom to act rather than a quarrel. "I want to openly advocate for human rights, democracy, free media, Dr Aafia Siddiqui, Palestine, and the constitutional rights of federating units," he said, in remarks reported by The News.
He also described the break as a need for room to work, not a rupture with the party itself. "Organisations have their own boundaries, and sometimes one needs freedom to work independently," he said, according to the same report. Speaking of the personal cost, he added: "The night I resigned, I cried the same way I did when my mother passed away."
His departure was reported across Pakistani outlets, including The News and Pakistan Observer.
A long association
Khan, born on 3 March 1974 in Sheikh Jana in Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, rose through Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, becoming its central president in 2002, before a long career in Jamaat-e-Islami. He served as a senator for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 12 March 2018 to 12 March 2024 and as the party's provincial president in the province from October 2021 until April 2022.
In the months before the resignation, he had become one of the most visible faces of pro-Palestine activism in Pakistan, helping lead the sit-ins at D-Chowk in Islamabad in May 2024.
The flotilla and the aftermath
The timing tied the resignation directly to his Gaza activism. Khan joined the Global Sumud Flotilla, a convoy of civilian boats carrying aid toward Gaza, in September 2025. Israeli forces detained him on 2 October 2025 about 70 nautical miles off the Gaza coast, and he was released on 7 October 2025. Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, confirmed the release that day, saying Khan was "now safely with Pakistan Embassy in Amman."
What it led to
The independent platform Khan described took formal shape three months later. On 10 January 2026 he inaugurated the Pakistan Rights Movement in Islamabad. As reported by Dunya News, Khan said the party would adhere to the 1973 Constitution. The party, headquartered in Islamabad, adopted the slogan "Rights, Resistance, Reforms" and a platform centred on constitutional rights, civilian supremacy and peaceful, principled reform.
The causes Khan named on leaving Jamaat-e-Islami, among them human rights, democracy, a free press, the repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, Palestine and the constitutional rights of the federating units, now sit at the heart of PRM's agenda.
