Anti-renaming rally staged in Chitral

The News - CHITRAL: The activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao Tuesday staged protest against renaming of the NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.

Led by lawyer Abdul Wali Khan, district president of the PPP-S, the protesters including lawyers protested at the Shahi Bazaar Chowk. Addressing the protesters, Abdul Wali said the rulers had failed to come up to masses’ expectations and were raising controversial issues to hide their failure.

“We will oppose the bid to divide the people of NWFP and the government should resolve issues like law and order and unemployment instead of renaming the province,” he added.Former district nazim and JI leader Maghfirat Shah also opposed the renaming of the province and said that this would create more crises in the province.

It was the first anti-renaming rally in Chitral, where majority of population is non-Pakhtoon. Earlier, the Awami National Party had staged a car rally to celebrate the renaming of the province.

Meanwhile, former member of the National Assembly and District Chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali said the people of Chitral, Hazara and DI Khan should have been taken into confidence before renaming the province. Addressing a press conference, he said the renaming issue had created a crisis-like situation in the province.

He asked the ANP leaders to review the renaming issue keeping in view the prevailing law and order situation. He said there was no point in dividing the country along ethnic and linguistic lines.

The former MNA also criticised the provincial government for ousting the prayer leaders belonging to Chitral, Buner, Swat and Dir from Peshawar. “Every dweller of the province has the right to stay in Peshawar. The authorities have no right to expel prayer leaders from the provincial metropolis,” he said.