When the Ottoman Empire suffered losses in World War I and Istanbul came under the occupation of the Allies, Peshawari became part of the Turkish War of Independence led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who, as head of the Turkish National Movement, established a provisional government in Ankara aiming for the restoration of Turkish sovereignty. These events accompanied the gradual dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Peshawari was one of many Pashtun and British Indian Muslims who served in the Turkish Army during that war. Eventually, he witnessed the establishment of an independent Turkish Republic.