PESHAWAR, Sept 14: Awami National Party President Asfandyar Wali Khan has criticised President Gen Pervez Musharraf for his portrayal of Pakhtuns as fundamentalists and said that the Taliban are creation of the establishment.

Addressing a news conference at the Bacha Khan Markaz after the concluding session of the party’s central executive committee on Tuesday, he criticised Gen Musharraf for his remarks dubbing Pukhtuns as extremist Taliban.

“Certainly, Pakhtuns are religious minded, but they are not fundamentalists. In true sense we are democratic and a progressive nation,” Asfandyar remarked. He said that Gen Musharraf projected the entire Pakhtun nation as fundamentalists and sympathisers of Al Qaeda and Taliban in his speeches in Brussels.

The Pakhtuns had their own culture and way of life, but it did not mean that they were fundamentalist, he added. Unfortun-ately, he said, Gen Musharraf did not differentiate between mosque and hujra (guest house). He said that Taliban were not creation of the Pakhtun society.

About the North Waziristan Agency’s peace accord, he said that the government was creating confusion regarding the agreement by giving conflicting statements and by keeping the accord document secret.

He said that the government should make the agreement public and there should be an open debate on all aspects of the accord.

Commenting on Balochistan situation, Asfandyar said that the government was confused and issuing conflicting reports regarding the murder of veteran nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. He said that federal ministers and military officials were issuing vague statements about army action in Kohlu and it was trying to conceal the cause of the death of Nawab Bugti.

“Our party strongly condemned the murder of the elderly Baloch leader,” he said, adding that it was an inhuman and barbaric act not to hand over the body of Nawab Sahib to his heirs. He said the government had earlier claimed that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had signed an agreement with the late Nawab, but that agreement had not been made public.