Renaming NWFP

Mansehra, Abbottabad  and Hazara are observing complete strike for the past few days in protest to renaming the province and today no vehicle was allowed to enter or leave the area cutting it off from the rest of the country. It is just the beginning and more such strikes and unrest are likely to follow suit including in other parts of the province also. This was quite expected and I wouldn’t be surprised if the ANP anticipating the reaction that the renaming would cause did it on purpose. It just falls in line with their objective of giving rise to the ethnic polarisation in an otherwise a very harmonious province. Why is the ANP bent upon on dividing my province on the linguistic grounds? Are they still harbouring their age old grudge against the very creation of Pakistan and want to achieve its fragmentation and destabilisation by invoking such issues?

If they are sincere, patriotic and democratic, as they claim to be, then why don’t they hold a referendum in the province to settle the bone of contention once for all? 

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)