5 killed in Abbottabad over Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa renaming issue


PML-Q leaders have been agitating day and night for the last one week over the issue of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa renaming. On 6 April 2010 Umar Ayub Khan, son of Gohar Ayub Khan and former MNA and formerly State Minister of Finance under Musharraf appeared on Bolta Pakistan. His voice was hoarse from shouting at rallies in his home constituency of Haripur. Similarly, other breakaway PML leaders like Sardar Haider Zaman Khan (district Nazim of Abbotabad) have been agitating against the provincial government but mainly against local PML-N leaders like Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi and Sardar Muhammad Mushtaq Khan. On Talat Hussain’s show of April 7 2010, Gohar Ayub Khan (famous for his role in instigating ethnic riots in Karachi in 1965) and Pir Sabir Shah of PML-N got into a shouting match which showed the depth of hatred between the two sides over the issue of PML-Q leadership’s defection from PML-N.

Now the latest news is that thanks to PML-Q’s efforts, 5 people have been killed in Abbottabad over violence related to the renaming issue. It seems clear that PML-Q has taken up this issue because it hopes to regain its lost seats in Hazara district from PML-N and doesn’t care how many of their constituents have to lose their lives in order for them to achieve their selfish political goals.

The latest news is that PML-N leadership is now thinking of doing a double U turn and now wants the province name that they proposed – i.e. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – and which they almost stalled the entire 18th amendment for, to be renamed to Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa.

Please also see the following report from Milwaukee Journal of January 19 1965 regarding Gohar Ayub Khan’s shamefule role in the violence in Karachi following the 1964-65 elections. He is a politician whose entire political career seems to consist of pitting his own constituents against other groups in the country just for his own short-term political gain.

Another disturbing aspect of the Hazara district agitation has been the ease with which PML-Q leaders have immediately used the anti-Pakistan card against the ANP. On the Geo TV 50 minute special on the issue, leaders of the agitating crowds were seen riling up the crowds with slogans that ANP always opposed Pakistan and the people of Hazara always supported it and so they must now protect themselves from anti-Pakistan designs by the ruling party. On Kal Tak show, Kashmala Tariq also immediately accused Haji Adeel of ANP of his party being anti-Pakistan and anti-Jinnah. It’s alarming how far supposedly mainstream political parties are willing to go in inciting hatred against other parties just to make short-term political gains.

Related article:

In defence of the ANP and Kyber Pakhtunkhwah – by Hamid Mir

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