Pukhtun Acquiring Naturalized Citizenship of Pakistan after 63 Years!
By Rais Khan
Fremont , CA
The areas presently known as NWFP was for centuries called Gandhara since around 300 BC, the days of Ashoka the Great and Knishka. After the attacks of Mahmood Ghaznavi changes took place in the culture and demography of the area. Pukhtuns started inhabiting the area in 14th and 15th centuries but no specific name was given to the region. Later on some Pukhtun poets described the region as Pukhtunkhawa as could be found in Akhun Derwaiza's reference to Pir Baba and later in the poetry of Khushal Khan Khattak and in one couplet of Ahmad Shah Abdali. One can be lead to believe that Pukhtun then called their land as Pukhtunkhawa.
The British did great injustice with the history and rich culture of the region by annexing it to Punjab Province in 1849 and inflicted even further evil on it at the time of separation from Punjab by conferring on it the misnomer of N-W-F-P, as if no proper name existed in their poor vocabulary for the new province. They had better named it as "Pukhtunshire" or any other 'shire' in line with their own counties.
In the referendum of 1947, Pukhtuns overwhelmingly abandoned their Indian nationality and opted for the new nationality of Pakistan. They were of the opinion that with the fall of British Raj and the birth of a new Muslim State, they will find not only new nationality but also their true identity denied to them over the years. But that was not to be. Some misguided persons at the helm of affairs, who were still loyal to their old colonial masters, frustrated the genuine demand of the people of the area. Most unfortunately for the people of Pakistan in general with the exit of British Raj, the news masters were either those who had lived on the largesse of the Raj or civil and military bureaucracy with ingrained instincts for imperial snobberies.
Now after 63 years of the birth of the new nation, it had been realized, though belatedly, that the province at the north deserves to shed its misnomer and adopts its identity in line with its demography, history and culture. But the solution offered by the present political leadership, mostly martial law created class or leadership by default, could not work as panacea for the old wounds of the people. Sixty plus years are a long wait for recognition of the due right of an area and its inhabitants. The identity should not have come with hyphen but straight and pure.
The people of the area are born nationals of Pakistan and did not acquire its citizenship through migration or later on. They are first class citizen by any definition and only and only Pakistani citizen first and last. Why are they considered otherwise by people of other provinces? Why are they regarded as naturalized citizens like in USA where they become Pakistani-Americans, Indian-Americans, African-Americans etc? Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa seems like combining two nationalities-an old with a new one that is not acceptable to Pakhtuns where-ever they live on the globe. Let there be one name- Pukhtunkhwa, Pukhtoonistan or even Afghania. Ancient name like Gandhara will also satisfy most of the non-pukhtoon living in the province.
If constitutional history of Pakistan is rewritten and if this is the new trend, then let other provinces be also renamed to remove any sense of discrimination. If the name of a pass is prefixed to the name of Pukhtunkhwa, then let other provinces be also named in the same style like; Attock-Punjab, Thatta-Sind and Gawadar-Balochistan as these prefixes have deep relations with the demography and culture of these provinces.
