NWFP officially renamed as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Pakistan's North West Frontier Province was officially renamed as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday.
After getting the National Assembly's nod of approval earlier this week, the bill has now been passed by the Senate. Eighty senators voted in favour of the new name, while just 12 opposed it. An amendment which had been moved by the PML-Q against the province's renaming was rejected by the upper house.
Former NWFP interior minister Shahzada Gustasap said that the change in naming the province was already expected in the Senate. He thanked those who had voted against renaming the NWFP and said that the people of Hazara would continue to struggle for a separate province.The session had started off on a turbulent note with PML-Q and PML-N senators staging a walk out over remarks that had been made by ANP Senator Haji Adeel in a talk show.The Senator, Haji Adeel, had said that some PML leaders used to ‘eat pork and drink whiskey’ in the past but was quick to clarify that his statement was not directed at Quaid-e-Azam.
Mr Bokhari, who represents Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the Senate, noted that the present bill had come when Pakistan had an elected president who did not interfere with the parliamentary committee or parliament while the previous major Eighth and Seventeenth amendments were made under duress to distort the Constitution as desired by then military rulers.
“The Eighteenth Amendment has thrown out that dirt and now you have a clean constitution …,” he said about the bill which also aimed to enhance provincial autonomy, repeal the 17th Amendment of 2003 that legitimised the decrees of then military president Pervez Musharraf, and provide for a parliamentary oversight of the appointment of judges of the superior courts.