Nwfp Renaming: Pml N, Anp Inching Towards Consensus

The sources said the nationalist parties adopted a tough stance on the issue of provincial autonomy and warned if this issue was not settled, no nationalist from Balochistan would come into parliament. We will boycott parliament if the issue of provincial autonomy was not settled," nationalists from Balochistan said in the committee proceedings.

 ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the PML-N and the ANP are inching towards an agreement to rename the NWFP as "Pukhtoonkhwa-Abaseen" and a final decision would be announced in this regard soon.

According to sources in both the parties, the ANP had already showed flexibility on its demand of renaming the NWFP as Pukhtoonkhwa and even agreed on the names of ‘Afghania' or ‘Pukhtoonistan' but the PML-N was demanding the affix of "Abaseen' or "Khyber with Pukhtoonkhwa to satisfy the people of Dera Ismail Khan and Hazara belt, where Saraiki or Hindko dominates, respectively.

Sources said the PML-N agreed on the proposed name of "Pukhtoonkhwa-Abaseen' and it is expected that a formal announcement would be made soon before the finalisation of the recommendations for the constitutional amendments by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms.

The sources said President Asif Ali Zardari, who returned to Islamabad on Saturday after two weeks, will now focus on the proposed constitutional amendments so that these might be finalised before his presidential address to a joint sitting of both the houses of parliament.

According to the sources, the government intends to summon a joint sitting of both the houses of parliament by March 17, hoping that the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms would complete its task by mid March.

The sources said if the draft of the 18th Constitutional Amendment that would be scripted on the recommendations of the committee got delayed, the government would present the reports of the Public Accounts Committee for a debate in the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the sources said the nationalist parties held an informal meeting at the Parliament House to evolve a joint stance on the provincial autonomy during the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms on March 9 (Tuesday) that would deliberate on provincial autonomy.

The sources said the nationalist parties adopted a tough stance on the issue of provincial autonomy and warned if this issue was not settled, no nationalist from Balochistan would come into parliament. We will boycott parliament if the issue of provincial autonomy was not settled," nationalists from Balochistan said in the committee proceedings.

Earlier, the PML-N claimed that a consensus was evolved on the thorny issue of the NWFP renaming, whereas the Awami National Party (ANP) expressed its ignorance regarding an agreement in this connection.

PML-N Senior Vice-President Saranjam Zamindar, who hails from the NWFP and was part of the recent PML-N-ANP deliberations on the issue, when contacted by phone, said the two parties had agreed on giving a consensus nomenclature to the province.

"We have reached a conclusion on the subject and the controversy has been closed once and for all," he contended. However, he declined to disclose what exactly was the proposed name, as the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) entered a crucial phase, as it would come up with a constitutional amendment package soon.

He dispelled the impression that the two parties had failed to evolve a consensus and that their parleys were deadlocked, possibly leading to standoff in parliament, when the package would be presented for approval. Besides the PML-N, the PML-Q was also averse to changing the NWFPís name.

Answering a question, Saranjam said a meeting was on the cards between his party Quaid Nawaz Sharif and ANP President Asfandyar Wali on their return. Coincidentally, both are out of Pakistan these days.

"There is no problem in the PML-N Quaid having a meeting with Asfandyar Wali, which is due next week. Nawaz Sharif is expected to be back within 2-3 days from England," he maintained.

Talking to our sources here, ANP Central Information Secretary Senator Zahid Khan, on the other hand, said neither he was aware of a fixed date regarding Nawaz-Asfandyar meeting nor was in the knowledge of a consensus reached on this issue.

Though he was optimistic about an agreement between the two sides on the matter, Zahid said he had no information of a consensus evolved between the two sides. However, he made it clear that the proposed constitutional package would be meaningless in case it did not envisage the long-standing demand of provincial autonomy or a new name for his province.

Zahid, replying to another query, said they would consider backing the proposed package only after carefully studying it. It is learnt that the ANP would not support it in parliament if the NWFP was not renamed and provincial autonomy was not granted in real terms.

He pointed out that everything could possibly be very clear next week, when the PCCR would be totally focusing on the quantum of provincial autonomy, the NWFP renaming being an integral part of it.