New boundaries: Jirga sets April 2014 deadline for Hazara province

ABBOTABAD: Activists demanding a Hazara province have given the government a deadline for April 12, 2014 to create the new province, following which they will launch large-scale protests.

The decision was made at a jirga of pro-Hazara groups and political parties held on Monday. Hazara Awami Itehad convened the jirga, which was attended by representatives of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Suba Hazara Tehreek and Hazara Qaumi Mahaz.

The participants discussed the emerging political situation after a resolution on a separate Hazara province was tabled in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly by Qaumi Watan Party and PTI MPAs from Hazara. The speakers appreciated the resolution and said it is a step towards achieving the common objective of the people of Hazara.

The Awami National Party’s (ANP) leadership was severely criticised for opposing a separate province. The ANP claims carving out another province is a ‘conspiracy to divide K-P along ethnic lines’. What the ANP did in the past by renaming NWFP as K-P isolated the people of Hazara, who have a separate identity, said former National Assembly deputy speaker Sardar Muhammad Yaqub.

The speakers said the demand for a separate province is the constitutional right of the people of Hazara.

The speakers also asked political parties who have supported the cause of a Hazara province during and before the general elections and have representation in the parliament to honour their word and get the resolution passed from all three tiers of parliament. The speakers asked the ruling parties to ensure the creation of Hazara province by April 2014 otherwise they would suspend construction work on all the power projects that are underway in the area.

Besides Yaqub, JUI-F’s former MPAs Mufti Kifayat Ullah, Naseer Khan Jadoon, Pir Kamal Shah, Syed Riaz Shah, Ahmed Nawaz Jadoon, Advocate Mushtaq Khan Swati, Khanzada Zafar Ali Khan, Prince Fazal-e-Haq and Maj (retd) Abdul Hameed Qureshi were among those in attendance.