Renaming NWFP
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Westridge, Rawalpindi
Mr. Rahimullah Yusufzai has tried to defend the ANP’s demand in his article “The case for Pukhtookhwa” in The News 30 March 2010. He has heavily drawn upon the statistics of 1998 census to say that 73.9 percent of the people in the province speak Pushto. Firstly, it is a well known fact all over the world that the statistics can be highly deceptive as the data can be manipulated in many a way to show the required results. Secondly, even if we take the figure correct, do all those who speak Pushto also want the province to be renamed Pukhtoonkhwa? The answer is a big NO.
Interestingly, Mr.Yusufzai himself says in the article that there are many tribes like Jadoons, Tarins, Miankhels, Gandapurs, Kundis etc. who are non-Pushto speaking but would come to blows with anyone challenging their Pathanhood. But, he forgets conveniently that quite a few of them oppose the name Pukhtoonkhwa. A case in poi nt – Saifullahs of Karak – thoroughbred Pathans but against the name Pukhtoonkhwa. That proves that not all Pukhtoons want the province to be renamed Pukhtoonkhwa. Making the claim, therefore, on the basis of the number of the people speaking Pushto instead of the Pukhtoons themselves is not tenable.
Next, why must only a few ANPwalas be allowed to impose their wish and will upon the millions others? I don’t have the foggiest idea as to how the change in name will benefit the common man who is being crushed excruciatingly by the spiraling prices of items of his daily use? Come to think of it, is the change of name his real priority? Okay, even then if at all it has to be changed, then to my mind the most democratic way will be to hold a referendum in the province. Let the people themselves choose the name from the mostly proposed names of (1) Pukhtoonkhwa, (2) Khyber, (3) Abassin, (4) Afghania, (5) Sarhad, etc. and that would be the final word. And, if the ANP still insists upon Pukhtoonkhwa then I smell the hidden rat of Pukhtoonistan in its insistence.
I need hardly emphasize that NWFP is not only Mardan, Swabi and Charsada – strongholds of the ANP - but also Kohat, Hangu, Tal, DI Khan, Bannu, FATA comprising of seven large agencies with independent and strong tribal traditions, Haripur Hazara, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Kohistan, Dir, Bajaur, Amb, Buneir, Swat, and Chitral that have neither much love lost for the name nor for the ANP party itself.
Not all of them come from a Pukhtoon-dominated or Pushto-speaking area but have a distinctly different tinge and tone of culture, language or dialect of their own..
Bannuwals call their lingua franca Bannuchi and not Pushto. Though intelligible to most Yousafzai Pushto-speaking Pathans, it nevertheless sounds quite different. Kohistani ‘Pushto’ is again not easily comprehensible for many. Urmar, the language spoken by the Urmar tribe (Burkis) of South Waziristan, is altogether a different language. It is not understood by most Pathans.
Apart from these variations, a very large populace of the province speaks Hindku – the second largest language of the province - and they do not wish to be associated with the name Pukhtoonkhwa. They have their own identity and feel threatened of being subjugated by the Pukhtoons of Pukhtoonkhwa.
However, the real reason for opposition to the name is the disturbing memory of 1947 when the Congress government of the province and the forefathers of the present ANPwalas wanted the province to accede to Bharat and the Brits were forced to hold a referendum in a province with 98 percent Muslim population! Of course the outcome was in favor of Pakistan as it had been a foregone conclusion.
They have also not forgotten the dying declaration against Pakistan and the will of the Sarhadi Gandhi, the godfather of ANP – Bacha Khan – to bury him in Afghanistan rather than Pakistan – a country that he continued to loathe after it came into existence. Ghaffar Khan worked tirelessly to establish an independent Pukhtoonistan – a brainchild of his political and spiritual mentor Karam Chand Mohan Das Gandhi – to destabilize Pakistan in its infancy. Therefore, the opponents of Pukhtoonkhwa smell the rat of Pukhtoonistan in the name. They are not averse to the change of the name but are disinclined to own Pukhtoonkhwa. Quite understandably, the more doggedly the ANP sticks to the name of Pukhtoonkhwa the more its opponents would misconstrue its motives – the realization of its dream of Pukhtoonistan - which is not acceptable to any patriotic Pakistani.
