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Monday, March 29, 2010

No name except Pakhtoonkhwa acceptable for NWFP: ANP

* Haji Adeel says only PML-Q, PML-N opposed name in constitutional reforms committee meetings
* Says PML-N will resolve renaming issue by Wednesday

By Akhtar Amin

PESHAWAR: The deadlock over renaming of the NWFP persists as the Awami National Party (ANP) on Sunday said that any name without the use of “Pakhtoonkhwa” in it would not be acceptable to it.

Talking to Daily Times, ANP leader Haji Muhammad Adeel said that any name that did not contain “Pakhtoonkhwa” would not be acceptable.

Only opposition: The ANP central leader, who is also his party’s representative in the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms, said five out of seven committee members had agreed on Pakhtoonkhwa, except the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PML-Quaid. He said the ANP did not object to the PML-N’s proposed name of “Pakhtoonkhwa-Abaseen”, adding that at the last committee meeting, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif proposed “Pakhtoonkhwa-Khyber” as the name, to which again the ANP did not object.

“But, astonishingly, Nawaz backtracked from the second proposed name as well and created a virtual deadlock in the country’s politics,” he said. Adeel said the PML-N had first rejected “Afghania” as an option in meetings between the ANP and PML-N committees meetings, on the basis that Afghanistan had been claiming its ownership of the area spreading from the Durand Line to Jehlum, adding it was illogical for the PML-N to now start proposing that the same name be used to which they had earlier objected.

Resolve: Feigning ignorance about any “secret meetings between the ANP and the PML-N”, he said the PML-N has said that it will resolve the renaming issue by Wednesday (March 31). Separately, NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said the issue relating to constitutional reforms would be resolved by Wednesday and all conflicts including the naming of the province would be settled.

“I have requested PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to rise up for parliamentary democracy and the supremacy of parliament, so that the present deadlock can be broken,” he said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

 

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