Pukhtunkhwa-Now or never

THE FRONTIER POST
Ghani Khan
Renaming of the North Western Frontier Province as Pakhtunkhwa has assumed importance in view of the fact that it is under active consideration of the Constitution Reforms Committee of the Parliament. The said committee is working under the Chairmanship of Senator Mian Raza Rabbani which has almost completed its task except certain important issues, which include the quantum of Provincial autonomy, the unification or merger of Pakhtun areas into one province and the renaming of North Western Frontier Province. The attitude of the Reforms Committee is friendly towards changing the name of the Frontier to "Pakhtunkhwa" as there is no harm, either covert or overt, in changing the name which is the demand of millions of inhabitants of the province. The demand for changing the name of the province has not emerged all of a sudden but in fact it is as old as the province. At the time when this province was formed in 1901, a Hindu scholar, Ram Chand belonging to Yar Hussain village in Swabi district had proposed in 1907-08 that this province be given a suitable (Pathan name) appropriate to the people inhabiting this province. This was the time when there was neither any movement for Pakistan nor any vision had come forth in this regard which only proves that the name Pakhtunkhwa is not against the integrity of Pakistan. After the creation of Pakistan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in his maiden speech in the constituent Assembly of Pakistan i.e. on 5th March, 1948 had demanded that now that Pakistan was an independent state, there was no need to keep Pakhtuns divided into so many different administrative units as that was the requirement of the British for their colonial needs. On this occasion he had proposed that such a united Pakhtun province be named as "Pakhtunistan", He had argued that this was essential to reflect the identity of the people of the province. But not only the reply of the then Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to Bacha Khan's speech was un-accommodating but a member from Punjab and as well as a federal minister had gone so far as to say that " Pakhtunistan" was an un-Islamic name. To this Bacha Khan had replied that if Pakhtuns were Muslims, how their name was non-Muslim. Between that and this day an innocent demand was given political clolour. More than 40 years after the original demand was made by the great Pakhtun leader, Muhammad Afzal Khan popularly known as Khan Lala i.e. elder brother was the third person who in November,1990 touched this issue most forcefully on the floor of the National Assembly of Pakistan. This was as a result of his fight for the name in the Assembly single handedly that the issue never died thereafter. The Awami National Party's efforts for renaming of the province as Pakhtunkhwa cannot be qualified as forceful or much serious and this fact is evident from its reaction that when Muhammad Afzal Khan was fighting all alone on the floor of the Assembly facing the anger and annoyance of the Punjab, not a single member from ANP had supported him in order to keep its alliance with Mian Nawaz Sharif intact. Now the objective of renaming the province is being pursued in the Constitution Reforms Committee and there is no impediment as all other parties are supporting the renaming of the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa except the PML (N). Instead of Pakhtunkhwa, the PML (N) is suggesting a combination of two names i.e. Pakhtunkhwa-Abbasin or Pakhtunkhwa-Khyber or Pakhtunkhwa-Hazara. The PML (N) considers Hazara division to be a separate entity for the sake of securing its few seats in the provincial and National assemblies. To agree to their suggestion tantamounts to further disintegrating the province and this will be a price unbearable for its people. Some circles even now consider that this is not an opportune time to rename the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa as this is not just a change of name of a street or a road. They think that even the resolution of the provincial assembly in support of change of name is not worthy of respect as another assembly may suggest another name. So they think that there is no desirability of changing the name. To oppose certain suggestion is not unexpected or an unwelcome thing but to oppose an appropriate proposal on spurious grounds indeed becomes a matter of concern. It has always been striven to make the people of the province believe that in the name of Pakistan, the alphabet "ALIF" was indented by Ch. Rehmat Ali to stand for "Afghania" as a name for the province and the people of the province were expected to consider the concealed "ALIF" as a sufficient substitute for a proper name but ultimately when Afghania was demanded, it was also outrightly rejected. The committee representing the ANP and PML(N) is comprised of Pakhtuns from both sides. It is apparent that the Pakhtuns representing PML (N) were never in position to go beyond the instructions of Mian Nawaz Sharif and as such this was evident from day one that the committee will fail to arrive at consensus. Certain news stories suggest that the matter is almost settled and during their meeting for the purpose, the leaders of both the parties will take no time in reaching consensus and Pakhtunkhwa will be declared as the new name for the Frontier. It is believable because not only the ANP had almost surrendered itself to ML for nine long years in hope of getting the province renamed at the cost of its popularity and integrity and this was also the reason for the ANP members to leave Muhammad Afzal Khan high and dry when he badly needed their help. Mian Sahib ultimately opted to break the promise given to the ANP leadership. Once upon a time Mian Nawaz Sharif used to call the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa in his speeches on the floor of the National Assembly and therefore one is inclined to hope that he is not seriously opposed to the proposed change just to please a division which is 50 per cent Pakhto speaking, he might only be intending to gain some political importance through delaying tactics. But one cannot ignore the fact that Mian Sahib has always used negative politics as a means of popularizing himself in Punjab. If he persisted in his opposition to the change of name this will without doubt seriously damage the harmony which has always existed in the Frontier province but will also damage relations between the two provinces and the leaderships of both parties. It is advisable that to rename the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa may not be considered as an affront to the ideology of Pakistan or its stability as this is not a demand for a free and sovereign Pakhtunkhwa nor this is an issue like Kashmir or Palestine. It is worth mentioning that at present there is no opposition to rename the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa from Sindh and Balochistan. The Punjabis belonging to PPP from Punjab also seem to favour the change which is over due. It is hoped that Mian Sahib will not ignore the pleasure of millions of Pakhtuns for the sake of the so-called minorities which are existing in every province of the country and no country in the world is ever empty of minorities and therefore the yard stick which is applied to Pakhtunkhwa has no precedent at all in the entire world, if there was any they should bring it forward. Few words of advice for the leadership of ANP that the people and particularly intellectuals are afraid that ANP being habitually a party of compromise will eventually agree to two names in one i.e. Pakhtunkhwa-Abbasin or Pakhtunkhwa - Hazara. This will further complicate and compound the issue and in fact this will be even worse than NWFP. In Seventies; when the party had had the opportunity to declare Pakhto as the official language of the province, the party leadership succumbed to its compulsions and even today the party cannot defend itself on the issue. For renaming the Frontier province as Pakhtunkhwa, this is the most opportune time and if lost will be lost for ever so this is a matter of now or never and the party leadership must keep it in mind. The party should agree to 18th amendment only after Pakhtunkhwa is conceded and therefore the party has no option to retreat from its stand which is just, desirable and need of the hour not only in the interest of the Province but of the entire country.