It has taken me few days to write on the topic because I wanted the noise and chatter to settle down a bit. While we have a war like situation in the newly named Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, it was interesting to see how all political parties came together for and against renaming of the province and ended up creating a new war zone within a war zone. The parties for it got it all settled within 2 weeks and those against it are still battling it out on the streets of Hazara Divsion.
Renaming of old NWFP has been at fore and back of ANP politics since atleast 1980s but the speed with which it got passed this time baffled even its supporters. My opinion on this issue is ‘fine!’ If the majority of people want this name for the province then why not? However, what is happening in Hazara for the past two weeks has been more a muted reaction. Just yesterday several people lost their lives.
What I have not completely understood yet and I am sure our readers will have a lot to say about it in comments below is why renaming a province has been such a polarizing issue in Hazara? May be my views are very simplistic but naam mein kia rakha hai yaar? Naming a province to one ethnicity or group doesn’t give or take anybody any extra rights. I however still think that a decision like this should’ve been taken by referendum where majority of people could have voted on the issue rather than few people deciding on it.
Another dimension of last few days’ events, and it appears quite obvious is that PML(Q) seems to be exploiting the situation in the area which has been the vote bank of PML(N) in the past.
Looks like what started with just renaming of the province may actually end up creating a separate province – Which by the way, may not be a bad idea either. At ATP we’ve discussed the idea of creating more provinces in Pakistan few times. See here and here. Yesterday PML(N)’s Javed Hashmi gave a very strong statement in favour of a separate province of Hazara region. Today PML(Q)’s Chaudhry Shujat has also called for a separate Hazara province.
Urdu newspaper Jang reported that in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s assembly two resolutions have been submitted – by two ANP members – to carve out Hazara province. So this appears to be another dimension of the conflict. The news cutting is to the right.
While the streets of Mansehra-Abbotabad simmer with burning tyres the usual blame game is also going on in full swing. So much so that it appears to be a league tournament – where everybody takes on everybody else. I’ve seen on-record news items where PTI has blamed ANP, PML(N) has blamed PML(Q). PML(Q) has blamed PML(N), local PPP guys have blamed ANP and ANP has blamed every body mentioned above for creating the chaos in Hazara.
This is time to rise above petty politics, because I think all parties want good in the end – It is just their inflated egos which they can’t seem to overcome. The name Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is fine. Congratulations to all those who wanted it. Those who want separate province called Hazara, I hope they lobby and arrange for public referendum on the issue and measure their support by ballot and not by burning public property.
I was especially saddened to see an Edhi ambulance burnt by the mob protesting for Hazara rights two days ago. Photos of this burning Edhi ambulance were published in news media all over – see our title photo above which captured this sad moment. Which cause teaches anybody to burn an ambulance? It is a shame. An excerpt from Dawn news of April 12 goes like this:
The protesters blocked roads, pelted police with stones, torched two police vehicles and an ambulance of Edhi Foundation, smashed billboards and also set a police station on fire.
On the ground – just by renaming the province, nothing changes in terms of rights of people, creating more jobs, better sanitation, more electricity, more schooling etc – Those issues still remian where they were before North West Frontier province was renamed as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
The writer is either very unfamiliar with the history or naive. In fact I think it’s a combination of the two. We “provincial” people are used to the urban “intelligentsia” sitting in their ivory towers whilst deliberating on our problems in the English press.
The name matters. The name matters because of everything that’s associated with it. It implies a Pakhtun province, which it isn’t. It’s always been the province of the Hindkowans (Hazara region). Only recent demographic changes have led to the dominance of the Pakhto speakers. We in Hazara have been marginalised by this shift and our region neglected and starved of development.
The ANP has been an enemy of Pakistan since the days Bacha Khan was conspiring with the Afghans and Indians. Now his descendents have their hands on power they are beginning to prove they are indeed the enemy within.
There is nothing wrong with parochialism per se. It is only natural for the people belonging to the same ethnic, linguistic, religious or cultural group to have sympathy, preference and goodwill towards each other. But I agree that ethnic discord can have disastrous consequences. Instead of arguing against parochialism from the start, we should focus more on the causes that lead to inter-ethnic friction and conflicts.
I believe this renaming of the province issue has brought to the fore the limitations of democracy, i.e. it is essentially the will of the majority whether it is right or wrong, inclusive or exclusive, compromising or uncompromising.
Even a simple referendum can’t solve this issue because Pashtun’s have a 73% majority in the province. But if a referendum is held on a district-to-district basis and territorially contiguous districts who vote for a separate province are given a choice to form such a province, will be a wise strategy.
I am getting a feeling of déjà vu. Add the differences of religion and culture to the already existing differences of ethnicity and language and the history of pre-independence sub-continent will repeat itself :)
Precisely the result of lack of basic education in our Society!
It is so easy to flare up the sentiments of uneducated masses and make them the cause of suffering for many others (like, for example, torching an Edhi Ambulance).
I wonder how many of these ‘hazara supporters’ asked them the question as to what will they achieve by getting their own province? Why can’t they just think as being Pakistanis ?
I am forced to say today that we Pakistanis are a bunch of jahils, a coterie of social barbarians, and a motley crew of illiterate people who better learn lessons from history before history lashes back at us with its full force and we are doomed in oblivion.
Just my 2 cents!
Pakistan needs more provinces.
80 miles or 5 million population, whichever comes first.
Exceptions for Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi as they need to be provinces by themselves.
This will no longer a language or ethnicity issue but a matter of good governance and meeting local challenges by local people.
Each area can have it’s own referendum on naming the name, except the big urban centers which are already named.
Equity and Justice, faster and better!
Yet another sad chapter in Pakistan’s long history of ethnic discord.Unfortunately,there are lots of people in Pakistan who think of themselves first as belonging to a particular ethnic group first and as Pakistanis later.Pakistan can do with less of such parochial attitudes.