Prelude to a new province?

The News International Prelude to a new province?

Tuesday, April 06, 2010 By Rahimullah Yusufzai

It is the fate of the people of our province to have long and hyphenated names. Upon its creation by the British rulers of India in 1901, it was named the North-West Frontier Province having 25 characters, or 26, if one were to include the hyphen. If all goes well and the constitutional reforms package is approved by parliament, as expected, the province will become known as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. That is 18 letters, or 19, if the second name were spelt "Pakhtoonkhwa." As Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is a long name, its abbreviation KP is likely to be commonly used. Besides, those who don't like "Pakhtunkhwa" would simply call it "Khyber." The majority in the NWFP, though, would ensure that the usage of Pakhtunkhwa, for which the nationalists have been campaigning all these years, becomes common because it asserts their Pakhtun identity. Pakhtun ultra-nationalists are angry with the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) for conceding the PML-N's demand for "Khyber" being prefixed to Pakhtunkhwa and thus diluting a name that was finally going to give an identity to their Pakhtun-majority province. Some Pashto poets and intellectuals are accusing the nationalist ANP of compromising its principled position on the renaming issue and wasting a historic opportunity to give the 109-year old province a proper name. The ANP was also accused of giving up its long-held stance that the NWFP Assembly resolution favouring only "Pakhtunkhwa" be honoured. Maulana Fazlur Rahman didn't miss the opportunity to embarrass the ANP and belittle its achievement. The Maulana, whose own party supported "Pakhtunhkwa," entered the fray by saying the new name had come from "Takht-e-Lahore," or throne of Lahore, as agreement on "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa" became possible only after it had been accepted by the PML-N leadership belonging to Punjab. Like the ANP, the PML-N, which presented the hyphenated new name as a victory vindicating the party's stance in the renaming issue, also faced criticism from supporters. In particular, in its Hazara stronghold the PML-N is now confronted with a combined challenge by all rival political parties and candidates who were defeated by its nominees in the last general elections or who are hoping to seize this opportunity and win the next polls. The PML-Q, which was the only party in the parliamentary constitutional reforms committee to oppose "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa," insisting on the meaningless name of "Sarhad" for the province, is spearheading the agitation in parts of Hazara. Obviously, the PML-Q has to oppose anything done by the PML-N, but in this case there was an opportunity to snatch Hazara from it, as well as use the renaming issue to seek votes from those opposed to "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa" elsewhere in the province and in the country. The PML-N was apparently mistaken if it thought that, because of the "Khyber" prefix, it could sell "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa" to its electorate in Hazara. While it earned the resentment of Pakhtuns who wanted an undiluted Pakhtun name for their province, it is losing the respect and support of many Hazarawals and other non-Pashto-speaking people in the province for failing to protect their identities. One is at a loss to understand why the name of a mountain pass was prefixed, because it cannot confer an identity on any ethnic group, and certainly not the people of Hazara. Still, certain PML-N leaders are claiming it as an achievement since "Khyber" will precede "Pakhtunkhwa." This is a negative approach aimed at political point-scoring, instead of giving an appropriate name to a province where 74 per cent of the population speaks Pashto, and many others are ethnic Pakhtuns who speak Hindko and other languages in place of their original mother tongue. The PML-N could have insisted on "Afghania" as the new name, which some of its leaders had hinted was acceptable. Afghania was certainly more appropriate than Khyber and was also one of the three names suggested by the ANP, besides Pakhtunkhwa and Pakhtunistan. Though no opinion survey in Hazara or elsewhere has been carried out to find out if Afghania was acceptable, there are reports that many Hazarawals would have preferred it to Khyber and Pakhtunkhwa. As someone pointed out, even Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah didn't object to Afghania, as he must have known that Chaudhry Rahmat Ali had suggested this name for NWFP when he coined the word "Pakistan" for the new Muslim homeland in India. The ANP had reasons to be happy with the renaming of the province even if it had to accept the addition of Khyber to its preferred name, Pakhtunkhwa. At the same time, the proposed constitutional amendments will accord all the provinces unprecedented provincial autonomy. In fact, these have been the cherished goals of the ANP, together with the rejection of the Kalabagh Dam project and more recently the battle against religious militancy. The party is hoping to cash in on these achievements in the next general elections. Each election, though, has its own dynamics and the outcome is determined by the situation at that particular time. However, it was felt that the ANP and its government in NWFP overdid its celebrations on the renaming issue. It is possible that this provoked opponents of "Pakhtunkhwa" to mobilise likeminded people and start a movement for a separate Hazara province. The PPP didn't arrange any celebrations in the province or elsewhere, despite the fact that its support was crucial in getting the province renamed. In fact, President Asif Ali Zardari ensured that Pakhtunkhwa was part of the new name even if that meant annoying some of his NWFP party leaders. He overruled all opposition in his party to Pakhtunkhwa and almost sealed the name by mentioning it in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York. Celebrations by ANP members and supporters were visible, and at times they were spontaneous. But there wasn't much excitement among ordinary people that their province had been renamed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Mostly preoccupied by the daily struggle to survive amid the terrorism, insecurity, displacement, inflation and unemployment, ordinary people in many cases have other priorities. The strongest reaction to "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa," as expected, has been in Hazara division, particularly in its headquarters, Abbottabad. There have been some protests in Mansehra, the second-biggest city in Hazara, and Haripur, and apparently none in Battagram, where more than 80 per cent of the population is Pashto-speaking, and in Kohistan, where Kohistani is the dominant language and many people also speak Pashto. The demand of protestors in Hazara is for provincial status for their region. Even the JUI-F has joined the movement, and so have local leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and other parties. Some PML-N leaders too are being compelled to back the demand for Hazara province in view of the growing support for the idea. Creation of a new province isn't going to be a priority in a present-day Pakistan plagued by serious security and economic problems. However, a popular movement cannot be ignored for long. The agitation in Hazara hasn't reached the stage of a movement and the ruling political parties are hopeful that the protests will subside. Rather than making an effort earlier to seek support for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Hazara and elsewhere, the ANP-led government in the province is planning to do so now. Already, there have been demands that the net hydel-generation profits the province is receiving from Tarbela Dam should be given to Hazara, where the project is located. Some serious political work needs to be done to control the damage and keep the province intact by listening to those offended by the name Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. For years the demand for Hazara province had been being championed by fringe political elements, but the bigger parties and known politicians now demanding it cannot be ignored for long. The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahim yusufzai @yahoo.com

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