Hazara no longer PML-N stronghold Party has only six MPAs from area

The News International Hazara no longer PML-N stronghold Party has only six MPAs from area

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 By Khalid Kheshgi

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claims that Hazara division is its stronghold in the NWFP but the party has only six MPAs from the area, four of them belonging to Abbottabad district alone. On the other hand, the ruling alliance in the Frontier has eight members in the NWFP Assembly from Hazara, four each affiliated to Awami National Party and Pakistan People’s Party. Comprising five districts, Hazara division has seven National Assembly and 20 provincial assembly seats. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl has three and the PML-Q has two MPAs from Hazara. The PML-N received a blow in the by-poll on NA-21 Mansehra when its candidate Tahir Ali was placed third in the by-election won by JUI-F. The seat had fallen vacant on the death of the PML-N MNA Faiz Mohammad Khan. Instead of awarding ticket to the close relatives of the late MNA, the Nawaz League fielded the brother of Captain (R) Safdar, son-in-law of Mian Nawaz Sharif in the by-polls. The PML-Q candidate Zar Gul Khan secured second position in this contest. In 2002 general elections, the Nawaz League had won only one provincial assembly seat from Hazara when its candidate emerged victorious in Abbottabad district. It did better in Lakki Marwat district in Bannu division by winning three provincial assembly seats. In the 2008 elections, the PML-N secured five provincial assembly seats, one from Haripur and four from Abbottabad while two independent MPAs — Munawar Khan from Lakki Marwat and Abdul Sattar Khan from Kohistan — joined the party after polls. In the 124-member NWFP Assembly, the Awami National Party is enjoying the support of 48 MPAs, followed by the Pakistan People’s Party with 30 lawmakers. The JUI-F has 15 MPAs while PML-N has nine lawmakers including two women on reserved seats. Qazi Mohammad Asad and late Akhtar Nawaz Khan and now his brother Gohar Nawaz Khan from Haripur and Maulvi Ubaidullah from Kohistan had joined the ANP after winning as independent candidates while Provincial Minister for Religious Affairs Namroz Khan was elected on the ANP ticket from Kala Dhaka, semi-tribal area of Mansehra in Hazara division. Provincial ministers Ahmad Hussain Shah and Mohammad Shuja Khan and MPA Mehmood Alam are affiliated to PPP while Habib-ur-Rehman Tanoli has served as provincial minister in the present NWFP cabinet on the PPP quota. The two factions of the Pakistan Muslim League in the Frontier Assembly have opposed the renaming of the province as Pakhtunkhwa while the JUI-F, PPP-S and the independents had backed a resolution on changing the nomenclature of the Frontier House to Pakhtunkhwa House in the provincial assembly. The PML-N leaders have been opposing the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa as it is worried about losing its vote-bank in Hazara division from where former NWFP chief ministers Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan and Pir Sabir Shah had been made members in the party’s special committee on the issue of renaming the province. Hazara division, comprising five districts — Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan — has a population of 4.5 million as per the 1998 census. Hindko is the main language in Haripur, Abbottabad and Manshera. Pashto is the major language in Battagram while Kohistani is the main language in Kohistan district followed by Gujri and Pashto. Pashto is also spoken in pockets of Mansehra and Haripur districts. Although Hindko is the main language in Hazara division, most of the people who speak Hindko are Afghans or Pakhtuns by ethnicity. Jadoon, Tareen, Mashwani, Swati, Tahirkheli, Dilazak, etc, are all Afghans by race but speak Hindko. Same is the case of Kakar, Durrani, Popalzai, Sadozai, Kakezai, Khogyani, Rohila, Ghaznavi, Akhunzadas, etc and several others who belong to Peshawar, Kohat and Nowshera who speak Hindko as their mother language but are Afghan or Pakhtun by race. The genealogy of Awans of NWFP who speak Hindko is traced to Qutub Shah, who was a prominent ruler of Herat province of Afghanistan.

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