‘Peace in Pakistan linked to Afghanistan’s stability’

Karachi
Begum Nasim Wali, who has parted ways with the Awami National Party and is now heading her own faction, said on Friday that enduring peace in Pakistan was linked to stability in Afghanistan.
“NATO forces will only withdraw from Afghanistan when they feel that there is no threat to the country from its neighbouring states,” the former provincial president of the ANP and the late Khan Abdul Wali Khan’s wife said at a “Meet the Press’ programme at the Karachi Press Club.
Looking frail and in poor health, Begum Nasim, who is the daughter-in-law of the Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek leader Bacha Khan, said Afghanistan had been betrayed and everyone knew as to who had trained the terrorists operating there.
“Flowers don’t blossom from fireballs,” she said. “If somebody’s house is set on fire, they’re bound to respond.”
She hoped that army chief Gen Raheel Sharif would remain committed to the aim of facilitating the restoration of peace in Afghanistan.
She also praised the military for launching the operation Zarb-e-Azb in the tribal areas.
To a question, she said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government’s performance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had not impressed her so far.
Begum Nasim, who is popularly known as Mour Bibi, said she had jumped into the arena of politics to advance the philosophy of Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan) and Abdul Wali Khan.
She has been in the city for the four days to organise her newly formed party and will leave for her hometown on Saturday (today).
She said she had come to the city with a message of peace to all and in her previous visit too she had tried to preach that peace was essential for the survival of the mankind.
She described politics as a “callous game for power” wherein it was difficult for a sincere and honest person to work.
Begum Nasim, who has fought and won many battles for the ANP, said she had decided to restart her political activities by engaging with disgruntled party activists.
She was sidelined by the ANP leadership in 2005 after the removal of Farid Toofan, her biggest supporter in the party.
The veteran politician said she had spent a quiet life for six years and now had broken her silence with a dedication to raise her voice for the oppressed.
“We are the only party that never compromises in politics and has always foiled conspiracies against democracy.
She said unfortunately the land of the Pakhtuns had been turned into a battlefield, where the blood of innocent people was being shed for vested interests.
She said peace-loving Pakhtuns were biggest victims of violence and militancy.
On a question about Fata’s proposed merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, she said tribal areas were independent even before the Partition and without taking its representatives into confidence, nobody could comment on the matter.
“Whatever the people of Fata want is acceptable to us,” she added.
To a question as to whether or not Pakhtuns had subjugated the rights of Sindhis, she said Sindhis themselves had deprived their own people of their rights.
“Pakhtuns have come here to earn a living and it’s because of their hard work that Karachi functions.
“Give them [Pakhtuns] their rights and they won’t have to leave their hometowns to work in other cities,” she said.
“Pakhtuns have been deprived of their resources and being treated as second-grade citizens,” she lamented.