DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Feb 1: ANP provincial president Begum Nasim Wali has said that religious leaders are responsible for the destruction in Afghanistan and the division of Pakistani nation on sectarian grounds.

Talking to this correspondent here the other day, Begum Nasim said that on the one hand the nation was made hostage by sectarian elements and on the other the religious parties and groups spread hatred in such a way that even mosques, Imambargahs and other places of worship were not spared and hundreds of innocent worshippers were killed there.

These factions exported their influence across the border in the name of Jihad, ignoring the fundamental Islamic rule that the authority of declaring Jihad was vested in the head of state, she said, adding that in Pakistan every Mulla had taken it as his right to exploit the masses in the name of Jihad.

She asked whether a single person from Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s family or Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s family had joined “Jihad” in Afghanistan. “No, not at all. Not a single member of their families went across the Durand Line and fired a single shot,” the ANP leader remarked.

But these and other religious leaders sent thousands of innocent people to wage ‘Jihad’ in Afghanistan for vested interests and ruined their families.

Ten thousand people taken by Sufi Muhammad to the war front in Afghanistan are still missing.

Begum Nasim said that the present government had done a commendable job by taking bold decision and acting against these “religious mercenaries.”

She dispelled the impression that the ANP was playing the politics of Gen Musharraf as a B team of the government. The ANP would always back what was good for the nation. She lauded the decision of Gen Musharraf to join the international coalition against terrorism and termed it a bold step.

She appreciated the recently-announced electoral reforms but expressed reservation on the condition of graduation for parliamentarians.

She claimed that according to the recent statistical data, less than one per cent of the total population in Pakistan is graduate and the majority of them belongs to the major cities. How this percentage could represent the masses in the parliament, she asked and went on to urge the government to review this requirement.

Begum Nasim Wali Khan said that her party never worked for an independent state within the state but wanted an identity for Pakhtoons of this province. She said if Punjab could be of Punjabis, Sindh could be of Sindhis and Balochistan could be of Balochs on linguistic grounds, why Pakhtoonistan or Pakhtoonkhwa was resisted. She said her party had been fighting for the rights of her province and would never compromise on that score.

“We wanted our royalty on power generation, minerals and other natural resources that belong to the NWFP,” she said, adding that it was already decided in the 1973 Constitution that the NWFP and Balochistan would get their due share from Tarbela Power Generation and Sui Gas but this decision had not been implemented in its real spirit.

She said: “Punjab was usurping our rights and we have the right to raise voice against this injustice.”