HARIPUR: The people of Hazara division would resist if the federal government attempted to get the constitutional amendment passed from the parliament for renaming Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as ‘Pakhtunkhwa’, warned Ifran Mubarak, central information secretary of Hazara Qaumi Mahaz (HQM).

He issued the warning while talking to mediapersons here on Sunday.

Referring to the statement of ANP leader Aimal Wali Khan wherein he had demanded renaming of KP as only ‘Pakhtunkhwa’, Mr Mubarak declared that Aimal’s bent of mind was a testament to his party’s ‘hidden agenda’ of leading the province to the similar situation of April 2010 when the then PPP-ANP coalition government facilitated adoption of the 18th Amendment, which triggered widespread unrest and protests in the region.

“The situation would be different this time around, and the proponents of new amendment, especially the renaming of province after 12 years, would face stiff resistance,” warned Mr Mubarak, saying that people of Hazara had not yet forgotten the brutal killings and injuries of their brothers when the police resorted to direct firing at the peaceful protesters, who had gathered in Abbottabad on April 12, 2010 to denounce the renaming of then NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

HQM leader accuses centre of trying to appease ANP

The HQM leader said that the people of Hazara had not backed off out of their decades-old stance of carving out a separate province from KP on administrative grounds and would continue to press for their demand until its acceptance.

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“But if the sitting coalition government is not ready to learn from the past mistakes and has made up its mind to please the ANP by incorporating once again renaming of KP as Pakhtunkhwa in the proposed constitutional amendment, it should also add to the package the amendment of creation of Hazara province to avoid leading the situation to a boiling point as the country is already passing through worst political instability,” he asserted.

Mr Mubarak said by accepting the decades-old demand of people of Hazara the existing political set-up would not only avert the law-and-order situation but also win the sympathies of Hazarawals (people of Hazara), ‘who had been facing discrimination in all fields at the hands of government machinery sitting across the Attock bridge.’

It may be added that the movement for Hazara province began in 1957, when local lawyers led by Mufti Mohammad Idrees Advocate first raised the issue of a separate province.

But the movement gained momentum in April 2010 when late Baba Haider Zaman led the province’s anti-renaming protests and his tireless efforts were later joined by Hazara-based senior politicians like Gohar Ayub Khan, Amanullah Khan Jadoon, Sardar Mohammad Yousuf, Syed Qasim Shah, Mushtaq Ghani, Omar Ayub Khan and Dr Raja Amir Zaman Khan.

However, with Baba’s death three years ago the movement slowed down as most of the leaders joined the mainstream political parties of their choice deserting Baba and his Tehreek Suba Hazara party much before the 2013 elections.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024