Begum Naseem Wali returns to politics

Leader aims at uniting Pakhtuns, reviving Bacha Khan’s movement.

CHARSADDA: Begum Naseem Wali Khan, former provincial president of Awami National Party, announced her political comeback “to secure the political movement initiated by the late Bacha Khan and Wali Khan”.

The decision was taken during a meeting in Wali Bagh, Charsadda, on Sunday, where she convened the former disgruntled party leadership and the Khudai Khidmatgar (the Pakhtun non-violent movement against the colonial British government) in order to chalk out a strategy to unite the Pakhtuns and revive the movement.



Begum Naseem said that she did not contact the party leadership for six long years. “During ANP’s five-year government, the party leadership violated the ANP doctrine.”

She would call a loya jirga of the nationalist forces from across the K-P and other parts of the country to nominate an honest leadership, she said.

She will not include the names of ANP leaders Asfandyar Khan, Azam Khan and Amir Haider Khan Hoti in her politics as they did not serve the people during their provincial government but chose to accumulate wealth instead, she said.

After the party’s shocking defeat in the general elections in May this year, she asked the party leadership to remove the old faces and encourage sincere politicians to come to the fore but no one paid heed to her suggestion, she complained.

Begum Naseem Wali explained that the worsening situation of the party compelled her to rejoin politics. “I may be old but my political spirit is young.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2013.