Renaming riddle
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
14.04.20101,Peshawar-The News: Concerned by the growing protests in Hazara division against the proposed renaming of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti called a meeting of politicians belonging to all major parties in the province on April 8 in Peshawar to seek their support as the National Assembly passed the constitutional reforms bill unanimously. It was a good move but this should have been done earlier.
At this meeting held in the Chief Minister´s House, Hoti declared that the credit for giving a new name to the NWFP should go to all the political parties and not to the ruling Awami National Party (ANP) alone. This again was a belated recognition of the contribution of a number of parties that wanted the province renamed as Pakhtunkhwa. The ANP leadership had hitherto been claiming that getting the province renamed was its achievement. The ANP and the coalition government led by it was celebrating the occasion even before the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment by the parliament as only then the change of name of NWFP to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would become legal and official.
Apart from the ruling ANP and PPP, parties such as the PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, Maulana Fazlur Rahman´s JUI-F, Maulana Samiul Haq´s JUI-S, PPP-Sherpao, Imran Khan´s Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf and Mahmood Khan Achakzai´s Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) were represented at the meeting convened by the chief minister. It was kind of a jirga of elders deliberating issues that concern all the people and all the political parties in the province. This practice was introduced by the six-party religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), which ruled the NWFP for five years from 2002-2007, for jointly campaigning for provincial rights, particularly for seeking the NWFP´s share in the net hydel-generation profits from the federal government. It often proved effective as politicians from different parties spoke with one voice.
The ANP too is now trying this method to show that most political parties supported the renaming of the province as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Chief Minister Hoti stressed this point when he argued that while segments of the population had every right to protest the renaming of the province, they should also follow democratic norms and respect the wishes of the majority. He pointed out that the name Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was proposed and discussed in the Parliamentary Constitutional Reforms Committee and accepted as part of the political process.
The chief minister also highlighted the fact that all politicians irrespective of their party affiliation were attached to the soil of their province. Arguing that he was speaking as son of the soil and not as chief executive of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he said all parties and politicians have to unite to win provincial rights and serve their province.
All this talk is sensible and inclusive rather than being divisive, but the problem is that it has come somewhat late in the day. The chief minister and his ANP colleagues are planning to visit Hazara and win over the estranged Hazarawals. They would have to take along with them the PPP leaders also as it was a joint ANP-PPP project to rename the province as Pakhtunkhwa. The PPP in the NWFP has neither celebrated the move to rename the province nor shown much enthusiasm for the idea at the public level. The party is part of the coalition government in the province but it often seems that the ANP alone is running the show. The ANP leaders claim credit for any achievement made by the provincial government and also suffer the consequences if something goes wrong. Even on the issue of fighting terrorism, the ANP has been in the forefront and has had to sacrifice scores of its members in attacks perpetrated by the militants and terrorists. In comparison, the PPP leaders in the province have been less forceful in condemning the militants and some of them have often maintained a meaningful silence to avoid harm at the hands of the terrorists.
The most crucial role, however, in pacifying the angry protestors in Hazara division would have to be performed by the PML-N leadership. However, it may not agree to undertake this role if it realises that the reaction by those leading the agitation in Hazara would be hostile. Already, at least one PML-N lawmaker has announced support for separating Hazara from NWFP and making it a new province. Others could follow suit if the campaign for Hazara province gathers momentum. The PML-N leadership could also come under pressure to withdraw its support for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and revert to its old demand that a consensus name should be chosen for the NWFP. Though PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal has made it clear that his party would abide by its commitment to back Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as part of the constitutional reforms package, the situation could change if the movement for Hazara province turned violent or continued to paralyze life in urban centres, particularly Abbottabad.
The campaign against Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has now turned into a movement for Hazara province with the elderly Sardar Haider Zaman, a former provincial minister and until recently Abbottabad District Nazim, becoming its leader. The focus of the protests that entered the 10th day on April 8 is Abbottabad though demonstrations have also taken place in Haripur, Mansehra and other places. However, there hasn´t any major protest in Battagram and Kohistan, the two districts where Hindko speakers are in a minority. In fact, a big majority in Battagram speaks Pashto while in Kohistan the major language is Kohistani, and Pashto-speakers and those bilingual are found in abundance.
It is clear that PML-Q politicians and those who suffered defeat at the hands of PML-N candidates in the 2008 general elections are spearheading the protests in Hazara. Apart from other considerations, they see it as an opportunity to settle scores with the PML-N and improve their chances of winning assembly seats in the next general elections. Gohar Ayub Khan´s son and former minister of state Omar Ayub Khan, former federal minister Amanullah Jadoon, ex-deputy speaker of National Assembly Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Tariq Khan Swati, Shahzada Gustasap, Nisar Safdar, etc had all lost the previous assembly elections and are now in the forefront of the agitation.
However, some leaders of the JUI-F, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, etc have also joined the campaign after witnessing its strength. Many protestors are Pakhtun by origin or Pashto-speakers, though the majority belongs to the Hindko-speaking communities.
It is interesting that no protests have taken place in Chitral, Dera Ismail Khan and other districts where non-Pakhtuns have a significant presence. The ANP, which should have restrained itself while rejoicing the occasion to avoid provoking its opponents, did hold a rally in Chitral and other such places to celebrate the renaming of the province. Its decision to stage such an event in Timergarha, headquarters of Lower Dir district where the Jamaat-i-Islami and PPP are in much stronger position, ended in a tragedy when a suicide bomber sent by the Taliban militants struck and killed around 50 ANP workers and supporters. This area was recovering from Taliban militancy and holding such celebrations in Lower Dir afforded the militants an opportunity to attack the meeting.
The situation is still fluid despite the fact National Assembly has passed the constitutional package. The ANP, until now feeling triumphant, has to find ways to achieve its target without antagonising a sizeable chunk of population. Apart from the non-Pakhtuns, it also annoyed ultra Pakhtun nationalists who didn´t want addition of Khyber to Pakhtunkhwa. The demand for Pakhtunkhwa was genuine as 74 per cent of NWFP´s population is Pashto-speaking and most of them wanted a name for the province that highlighted their identity.
The PML-N is in a fix as its insistence on prefixing Khyber to Pakhtunkhwa was a strange move that neither endeared it to Pakhtun nationalists nor calmed down its voters in Hazara. The PML-Q and some other parties see a window of opportunity to bounce back in electoral politics. Politics and self-interest is on the minds of most of the politicians as they try to tackle the issue.
The News On Sunday, Monday, 12.04.2010 - 
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