PESHAWAR: Widow of Khan Abdul Wali Khan and veteran politician Begum Nasim Wali Khan has announced formation of Bacha Khan Awami Party to provide a platform to all those wishing to strive for the rights of Pakhtuns.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, she appealed to people to join her new party and the struggle for progress of Pakhtuns in accordance with the wishes of Bacha Khan and his son Khan Abdul Wali Khan. She asked those who had left the Awami National Party because of their differences with party leadership to join her party.

Begum Nasim said that she waited for seven long years hoping that the ANP leadership would resolve people’s problems and deliver, but the situation continued to deteriorate due to which she came forward to make a new party to advance Bacha Khan’s philosophy.

Begum Nasim said she would organise the party in which Asfandyar Wali Khan and Azam Khan Hoti would have no role, but those wanting to follow Bacha Khan’s philosophy would be welcomed. The ANP had become too weak to survive and was like a house of cards and needed a slight push to get it down.

The ANP’s defeat in general elections had brought the party to notoriety, she said, adding that she was determined to organise the party on modern lines. She conceded that she had grown very old, but was still in high spirits. She said she had a passion to serve the people and solve their problems.

Begum Nasim asked the youth to help her in the fulfillment of her mission of striving for the rights of Pakhtuns. She criticised the ANP leadership, especially Azam Hoti, Ameer Haider Hoti and Asfandyar Wali, and said that they had disappointed the party activists and Pakhtuns. Begum Nasim hoped that the ANP workers would support her and announced that there would be no place for corrupt leaders in the new party. She said that soon a jirga would be convened wherein names of the party leaders would be announced.

Begum Nasim joined politics when her husband Wali Khan was sent to jail in mid 70s by then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and led then National Awami Party.