PESHAWAR: Leading the two-party coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and sharing power at the Centre, the Awami National Party (ANP) has failed to get the Peshawar International Airport renamed as Bacha Khan Airport despite the provincial assembly adopted a resolution to this effect more than two years ago.
Those who want the airport’s nomenclature changed believe that the federal government seems to be least interested in renaming the lone international airport in the province after great freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan lovingly called by his admirers as Bacha Khan.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has sent several reminders to the federal government to approve the resolution and notify renaming of the airport, but to no avail. “Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti especially talked to the prime minister about the issue before leaving for the UK last month and handed over another copy of the resolution,” Minister for Information and Culture Mian Iftikhar Hussain told The News.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour had moved a resolution in the provincial assembly in August 2008, asking the federal government to rename the Peshawar Airport as Bacha Khan Airport. The resolution was adopted unanimously.
The resolution had stated that the people who worked for the interest of the province deserved to be appreciated by naming the places after them to pay tribute to their services in a true manner.
The federal government has already renamed the Islamabad Airport as Benazir Bhutto Airport. After the renaming of the Islamabad Airport, it was expected that the federal government would take the minimum time to meet the demand of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
Mian Iftikhar said the provincial government was still hopeful that the federal government would soon honour their genuine recommendation. “I think the delay in this regard is not good. It is a genuine and simple demand and it should be accepted at the earliest,” he said.
“It has always been observed that the Punjab-dominated establishment at the Centre shows reluctance to accept demands of the Pakhtun majority pertaining to provincial rights and other nationalist issues,” said senior ANP leader Hameedur Rahman Mohammadzai while talking to The News.
A resolution adopted by the same assembly in 1997 pertaining to the renaming of the province was accepted at last when the province was renamed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 18th Amendment in April 2010.
The known facilities having the name tags of the great Pakhtun leaders are Bacha Khan Medical College in Mardan, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Abdul Wali Khan Complex at the Civil Secretariat, Peshawar and many important squares, roads and other places.
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