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
1) I have mixed feelings about the name ‘Khyber-Pakhtunkwa’. I, mean, yes, there are other provinces named after ethnicities OR ethnicities named after geographical features (‘Punjab’). However, to a modern-day Pakhtun that does not matter. And nor should be look too suspiciously on ANP’s past. But nor should we ignore culturally and ethnically distinct communities like Seraikis or Hazarawalis or…. As I said, I have mixed feelings.
2) The best course forward, to me, is to pass the 18th Amendment with a provision to seriously look into renaming/recreating provinces AND doing away with Zia’s so-called Islamic Laws in a proposed 19th Amendment within a couple of years. I think MQM and perhaps other parties are already suggesting it.
3) Not passing the 18th Amendment at this point will very likely have far-reaching negative consequences for Pakistan. Make no mistake about it: The 18th Amendment has many, many clauses and most of them are for the betterment of Pakistan. All of Pakistan’s problems have their roots in the deviation from the Constitution of Pakistan (and, too bad, such deviances were often accepted as the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ by the Superior Courts).
4) It is very interesting to see that the PMLQ is taking a lead for the Hazarawalis. What were they doing before a couple of days ago other than some token protests while still getting onboard with the 18th Amendment? Are they waiting for another military coup to get back to power?
PS. Interesting ideas by @Watan Aziz and @Syed Jafer.
Chaudhry Shujaat and Gohar Ayub Khan deserves “credit” for his role in the deaths that have happened instead of trying to defuse the situation they aggravated things.
Hazara has benefitted well from being part of NWFP and federally ..they have had a large number of chief ministers and it’s districts are the wealthiest in NWFP
i share the view that there need to be many more provinces in pakistan. however, creating provinces exclusively on the basis of ethno-linguistic considerations is not a good idea. new provinces, wherever created, must be for the benefit and well being of all groups by providing better services and more responsive representation and governance to all residents.
that said, i do not see a problem with naming a new province carved out from pukhtunkhwa, as hazara (though gandhara or potohar might be better). similarly a new province in southern punjab can be named in a way to also reflect – at the same time – the cultural aspirations of the people living in that region. however, lahore and karachi if made into provinces – must remain lahore and karachi, and not be the fiefdom of any particular political or ethnic group. it cannot be any other way.
We should upgrade the existing infrastructure of ‘Administrative Divisions’ into new provinces instead of creating provinces on racial basis. By this approach every one (including hazara division) can get its fair share without ending up the endless fights for rights.
By this new approach, the fedral grants sharing should be based on population. The new small administrative areas help the money reach towards the poors. The royalty from the local resources (like natural gas, revenue from port and dams) should give some ‘extra cash’ to the poor divisions like baloch and Hazara areas.
It would create 26 provinces in Pakistan and every political party would get something to chew upon instead of being labeled as a one province party (think about it PML-N and MQM) :)
Here are the divisions that can easily be upgraded to new provinces; they have governmental infrastructure in place.
PakhtoonKhuwa/NWFP
——————-
Bannu
Dera Ismail Khan
Hazara
Kohat
Malakand
Mardan
Peshawar
Punjab
————–
Bahawalpur
Dera Ghazi Khan
Faisalabad
Gujranwala
Lahore
Multan
Rawalpindi
Sargodha
Sindh
————-
Hyderabad
Karachi
Larkana
Mirpur Khas
Sukkur
Balochistan
—————
Kalat
Makran
Naseerabad
Quetta
Sibi
Zhob
Oh! I forgot that there are educated people amongst us who have figured it all out. Everything about humans be it psychological, social or metaphysical. But if they have figured it all out I wonder why do we have so much injustice, inequality and suffering in the world today? Perhaps it is because of jahils who choose to have a parochial preference compared to the enlightened individualistic libertarians who only want peace and prosperity for all. I wonder who rules us? Those disenfranchised jahils or these self-righteous bunch of Westernized and humane jahils who can’t see anything except in a black and white hue?