Demand for Hazara province picking up pace

With local government elections in the Hazara division of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province looming, calls for a ‘Hazara province’ have started making the rounds.

Former federal minister Sardar Mohammad Yousuf is leading the movement for a Hazara province, backed by former deputy speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi.

Interestingly, both politicians had made no such demands on the floor of the Parliament during their serving tenure of the then ruling party, PML-N.

However, the same leaders are now protesting outside the assembly for a Hazara province ahead of the local government elections, making the public wonder why Sardar Yousuf and Murtaza Abbasi did nothing for Hazara province when their party was in power.

It would be pertinent to mention here that when the Awami National Party (ANP) renamed NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, they went through the Parliament route for their cause instead of staging protests.

While the people of Hazara division have long dreamt of a province of their own, the void left in the leadership after the demise of Baba Haider Zaman seems to have put a damper on the cause.

The followers of the movement believe that Hazara province will only become a reality once politicians from the region including Sardar Yousuf, Murtaza Abbasi, Senator Talha Mahmood, Captain (Retd) Safdar, Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah, Syed Qasim Shah, Saleh Mohammad Khan, and Azam Swati join hands for the cause.

They further said that other political leaders also need to raise their voice on the floor of the assembly, since a new province can be created only through legislation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2022.