Begum Nasim Wali calls for across-the-board accountability

PESHAWAR: Putting her party’s weight behind the accountability drive of the provincial government, Awami National Party-Wali (ANP-W) head Begum Nasim Wali Khan Thursday asked the Ehtesab Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to recover the looted money from the corrupt elements irrespective of their political affiliation.
Talking to The News at her residence in Wali Bagh in the Charsadda district, the veteran politician said that like her late husband Khan Abdul Wali Khan, she was all-out in support of efforts to eliminate corrupt practices and misuse of power from the government departments and hold responsible those who are involved in corruption.
“Politicians and parliamentarians should be held accountable for any wrong-doing, particularly when they are holding public office,” she said. She added that the parliamentarians should be questioned for accumulating wealth and making assets beyond their means after each election.
She said the Ehtesab Commission and courts should take into account the assets being declared by the politicians before elections and then judge then judge the increase in their assets after remaining in power.
“I have been active in politics since 1975 and remained a member of parliament for several times,” she said. “I know how the public representatives use the public office for personal gains,” she added.
Offering herself for accountability, the octogenarian politician said that those who had not been involved in corrupt practices should voluntarily present themselves to the Ehtesab Commission.
Without naming anybody, Begum Nasim, who is known as Mor Bibi among her party workers, said the leaders of a particular party had earned a bad name for the party and its founders and they should clean themselves of the charges they had been facing for their alleged corruption while in power in the province in the recent past.