Renaming NWFP
[29.May.2008 - 17:37]After announcing the renaming of the NWFP in the proposed constitutional package revealed by Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the issue of renaming the NWFP has once again come to the fore.
In the election on Feb 18, the Awami National Party emerged again as the largest party of the NWFP. Sharing power with the PPP at the centre and in the province, the ANP leadership has put forward a three-point agenda of priorities to the PPP. War on terror and enhancing the quantum of provincial autonomy are common to both parties’ programmes, while on the question of renaming NWFP, the PPP was reported to have indicated its readiness to back ‘Pakhtoonkhwa’ — the new name proposed by the ANP.
As a political activist, a student of social sciences and an inhabitant of this nameless province, I opined Pakhtoonkhwa (Pukhtoon Land), of course , is a purely Pashto name, so shall not only take precedence over the others but rather shall never be contested at all on any grounds whatsoever.
The NWFP was the name given to the province during the British Raj, which did not represent the true identity of its residents. With the name of Pakhtunkhwa, the people of the province will get their identity.
Take the province where the Baloch live; it is called Balochistan. The province where Punjabis live: it is called Punjab. Likewise Pakhtoons live in the province and so should be named Pakhtoonkhwa.
ZIA UR REHMAN )
- ZIA UR REHMAN 
بېرته شاته