Mar 98
What
our viewers say on
The Pakhtoonkhwa issue
As the world is forging ahead with advances in computer, information, biotech, electronics and other technologies, we in Pakistan are bogged down with issues such as this one which has no meaning and does not affect any citizen in any way possible.
Instead of spending time and efforts on such a useless cause, I suggest Mr. & Mrs. Wali Khan should concentrate on measures aimed at attracting foreign investment, spreading education, creating better health care facilities, educating the masses to lower the birth rate, and suggesting ways to reduce inflation and creating more jobs.
But watching them for the last so many years, I am sure they do not even comprehend what I am talking about. God help our beloved Pakistan.
Haroon Imtiaz,
USA
I have got no problem with changing the name of NWFP to a better name. The people change their names what they have been given by their parents at the time of their birth if they do not like when they become adult. So there is nothing wrong renaming a province. The problem I have got with the name and the proceedure by which it is changed. Let us first consider the name. Just change the second "K" in the word Pukhtoonkhwa to Pukhtoonghwa which means "Cow" rather a mad cow. The Pukhtoons will make fun of this word themselves at a later time when they get mad. The leader of the ANP, Begum Nasim Wali Khan will become known as the "Pukhtoonghwa" of the NWFP. I would strongly suggest she finds a better and more Masculine name to rename the province.
The process of changing the name is wrong. There should be a selection process to search for the best name and then there should be referendum to involve the people in the selection process so that the name change is acceptable to people. These politicians once they are elected they care less for the common good of the people. They cater to their own good.
Pakistan has got a hard time to shed its colonial image. It rather perpetuates it. Take the example of the Institution of the governor of the fourprovinces. In a poor country like Pakistan why it needs an unelected governor and an elected cheif minister of each province at the same time. By doing away with the governerships of all the provices, Pakistan can save money. Let the army reruns do some thing else if they want to get out of the armed forces early. Pakistan needs to do some bitter basic changes to keep this nation intact. Just changing the name of one province to another laughable name in a hurry will do no good
Shah Khan, USA
Hi !
My name is Rizwan, I am a student in Canada, for PukhtoonKhua
option I think it will not be useful in the long future for
Pakistan casue if we let it happen everybody will ask for an
identity for his area like people from Hazara, Sraiki or from
Multan,and elase whare like who else live in Pakistan has his
unique identity and they will ask for a unique name for their
areas according to their identity and this will spoil the idea of
Pakistan or Muslim nation and in the long term we will loose our
identity....
Thats all
Long live Pakistan
Rizwan Muhammad
email:mrizwan@rocketmail.com
or :rizwan@ee.ualberta.ca
No country has ever lost or disintegrated by renaming a province according to the wishes of its people , but is Pakhtoonkhwa a true wish of the Srhad province? There are many ways to resolve this issue in the true spirit of democracy. Let the province call for a referendum on name issue, give people three choices namely; Pakhtoonkhwa Pashtoonawaz NWFP Let the majority decide and if no choice receives more than 50%, hold another round of balloting with a contest between the top two vote getters in the first round. Mr. Sharif just can not hide from the issue. He needs to be bold, creative and imaginative to resolve the issue in a democratic spirit. I am afraid Mr. Sharif will mess up this issue to thedetriment of Pakistan.
Naveed Khan
2726 kesey lane
San Jose, CA 95132
USA
Tel: 408-272-1227.
Nothing wrong with that let them name it whatever they want to.
Nawaz Sharif first blunder. Second will be the MQM ! Third the
forward block in Punjab.........remember last time. Two thirds or
one third majority .....democracy in Pakistan does not work like
else where. Nawaz Sharif should pull up his socks otherwise its
the beginning of the end. Hope he is not caught unaware and we
are declared a terrorist state . Then the establishement has to
remove him and bring in Benazir, the whole cycle. Hope they don't
do that blunder this time. Try some other guy from the IMF this
time instead of Moin Qureshi. IMF calls the shots anyways ? They
tell us how much we will eat next month ! So why take orders via
Bhatinda ? They can give orders directly without red tape. We
shouldn't worry about integrity of the country. We can't fight a
war with 40 planes can we and no money ?
If Nawaz Sharif really wants to pull Pakistan around he will have to work with the people. How long a horse traded government last in any province. He really needs to understand before its too late.
Hope this emial rings one bell somewhere. We just need one
ting ! Whenever will that be ? I love Pakistan but we need to
wake up to the facts !
Hasan Ansari
Huntsville
Alabama
In my opinioin, this is no doubt an important issue to rename the provence. In present situation, I think it is not very important issue as compared to our other severe problems degraded economy, sectarian and ethnic violance, energy etc. If Pakistan is not stable than the names of cities or provences or places have no importance. We already require to shorten our expenditures. Have anybody thought of the expenditures which will be spent on the paper work for changing the name of Provence. I have a lot respect for Mr Wali Khan and his party due to their political role during the last ten years. But it seems that he has also started getting the cheap popularity like other politicians e.g. Benazier Bhutto, Pir Pagara etc. etc. In short I must say that I am against the proposal of changing the name of Provence.
Sincerely
Shafaat Ahmed Bazaz
PhD Student,
INSA de Toulouse, France
Dear editor,
I don't think it is a big problem to change the name of the
province. It is not against the country or constitution. Every
boby loves it's Identity and proud to be what he is, its a human
psychology that they feel comfort in their own people and feel
easy with the people who speaks their language. If it is wrong
then change the name of other provinces as well or make one unit
and make small division (like small counties) otherwise you not
gonna overcome this raceism problem and people will continue
blame punjab for eating all the national wealth. Stop before the
things goes wrong I mean before the country divided into many
small countries. Punjab will then realise it is nothing without
Sind, Balochistan and surhad. One more thing I want to let you
know that we are not a muslim no matter how we insist on it,
because in our religion we are not allowed to call ourselves
punjabi, pathan etc.
Khuda hafiz.............
Abid
salam to every one my name is alam and , I am in alberta,canada & student of Msc Computer engineering ,for a two three week I am seeing these types of issues in our news papers in jang and dawn I just want to say something to our pakhtoon bahi that what you think that if you change the name of sarhad to hong kong can it will become hong kong ,in my view if ANP is want to do someting for their people they will 1st introduce the education , water and electricity to their people , they will stop the injustice within their homes and try to concertrate on education in which we are lacking , majority of our pakhtoon bahi are not educated and they are living under siege of sarder .In my opnion fist try to open schools and industries in your areaes and do some thing for your country and province then you seems good for demanding something .
ap ka bahi
Alam Fakhre
Alberta Canada
alam@rocketmail.com
The government of Pakistan seems to be having a lot of problems with changing the name of NWFP to Pukhtoonkhawa. There are compatriots whose argument is, that NWFP is a name given by the British. It smells of the colonial past. Let us wipe out the last vestiges of that part of our history.
What I fail to understand is why the government of Pakistan is being so stubborn about it. This government and its predecessors had no qualms about replacing every other British legacy with a local variety.
The British left us with, among others, a
judicial system bordering on perfection, according to late Chief
Justice Alvin Cornelious of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. We had
no hesitation about changing that system with one where the
justices of the Supreme Court, no less, can be bought and sold
like pairs of shoes. Our worthy Prime Minister recently bought
ten of them. The British believed in 'justice delayed is justice
denied.' The native variety believes in sitting on case files for
so long that the litigants don't live to hear the verdict –
remember the man who served 65 years in Hyderabad jail without
making even one court appearance and yet another man, in the same
jail, served 35 years just because he was born in jail.
Elnino
I think it is totally insane to even concieve of something like this.They have to live as Pakistanis. The government should take stern action against people having such motives, and in every possible way the government can.
A Patriot
Lets look back at our history. We didn't accede
to some of the very genuine demands of the population of the East
Wing and tried to impose a military solution. The result: loss of
one part of the country and ultimate military defeat. The present
government should trust the people of
Pakistan and let them be the judge. A referendum in N.W.F.P on
that issue is the only solution. The demand is not that of
secession from the country but only to give meaningful name to a
province. Our north-western border has always remained a trouble
spot and anymisadventure is extremely ill-advised.
ANP will certainly gain in the local politics
and PML is a certain loser. At national level, ANP has proved
itself to be a party of principles while, it seems, the only
principle of PML is "to remain in power".
Mustafa Zeeshan
I think that the government doesn't support this case. Perhaps
due to the fear that other people would adopt this method. And it
is totally against the Pakistan Resolution. This is the time to
defeat such evil powers, which are trying to break our homeland.
It seems too odd to even think about this thing. The issue has
merely been hyped up as serious issue by some opponents of
Pakistan. I think this is an evil thinking of some people that
the name of NWFP be changed to Pukhtoonkhwa.
Raja Saqib
Qatar.
In every country, people change the names
of streets, towns and even states and provinces, if there is not
any evil motive behind. There is nothing wrong in changing the
name of the province.
Mohammad Ijaz
Rather than dealing with the Riffat Afridi and
the Pukhtoonkhwa cases, it is more appropriate at this time to
solve terrorism and sectarian violence issues facing our nation.
Why has it become so easy for us to take the news of killings for
granted? I wonder why cant we sit and think over what has really
gone wrong with our people, or rather with us.
M. Saleem Koul
USA
Democracy is the only way to solve this problem. Mr. Nawaz Sharif does not have to take it as a challenge for himself and try to be hard-headed on this issue. And Mr. Wali Khan has to show some patience.
The simple way of doing it is, that you just tell ANP that in the next elections, you would ask the people living in NWFP to decide the issue. And Muslim League can promote what they want to do and ANP can promote what they want. As we are a poor nation and can not afford elections/referendums every other day, Mr. Wali Khan should be a little patient and wait for the next polls when the whole elections can be fought on this issue alone. If people want the name to be changed, they should vote for ANP. If not, then for Muslim League. Then who ever wins will settle the issue automatically. I think that this will pave the way for one party to win and democracy to flourish in our motherland.
Ghayas Ahmed, MD.
Let's wait a minute and consider this: are we
Punjabis, Sindhis, Balochis or Pathans? To me all are
"Pakistanis", and we must be proud of it. Renaming the
province is not a problem; the NWFP has been there for the last
1200 years, and no one thought of renaming it. But now since it
has nothing else to do, it is thinking of igniting a new problem
for the country. They must join hands with other parties to solve
the problems of Pakistan instead of renaming the province. .
Pathans are our brothers and we respect them with great honour,
and so are all the other Pakistani brothers. Remember the
statement of our great leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah " United
we stand, divided we fall ". I hope that Pathans, Punjabis,
Sindhis, and Balochas will live in peace and prosperity. This
will make Pakistan one of the most powerful countries.
Rao Abdul Jabbar Khan.
Once again our politicians have opened their mouths and proved that they are the biggest fools. To change the name of a province with consensus of the residents of the province is totally justified. The important question is: will the change in name bring better conditions? If only our politicians could work equally hard to reform education, health care and most of all the judicial system. I would not even mind if we decided to change the name of Pakistan to Pakhtoonkhwa provided it would bring better economic and social conditions.
If the resident of NWFP want to call it Pakhtoonkhwa, we have no right to oppose this, until and unless this affects the solidarity of Pakistan.
Tariq Majeed
USA