Various demonstrations have been held across the country for a separate Hazara province in recent years. PHOTOS: EXPRESS
A welder by profession, Ziaur Rehman was just getting started for the day at his shop in Malikpur, Abbottabad on April 12, 2010 when he heard of a procession near Cantonment Chowk against renaming the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to K-P.
As soon as his younger brother Nisar, 22, got wind of the news, he tossed his welding rod and goggles aside and made a dash for the protest. Zia tried persuading his brother not to take part, but Nisar was soon in the thick of it with scores of others, chanting slogans ‘Aik hee naara, Suba Hazara’, ‘Haq humara, Suba Hazara.’
The demonstration, which had been convened on the call of Tehreek-e-Suba Hazara (TSH) chief Baba Haider Zaman and other political leaders from the region, was soon to take a tragic turn.
In a desperate attempt to restrain the protesters, the riot police opened indiscriminate fire. Reports later indicated at least seven people lost their lives while over 200 were injured. Zia searched for his brother among the dead and injured as soon as the gunshots subsided, but Nisar was nowhere to be found.
Volunteers later shifted victims to District Headquarters Hospital and Zia ran after ambulances and private vehicles praying he would find his brother alive. Instead, he found Zia’s bullet-riddled body lying on a stretcher. “I am happy my brother sacrificed his life for the cause of Suba Hazara,” Zia said fighting back tears. He is the leader of Tehrk Shuhada-e-Hazara, a group that emerged after in the name of the victims that died that day.
Naeem Khan Jadoon also lost his younger brother, Sultan Khan Jadoon, that day.
Though the case against the killing of citizens was never registered due to fragmentation and disputes within the movement, Jadoon is certain the blood of his younger brother, who also died that day, was not shed in vain. He is convinced the dream of a separate Hazara province will materialise, sooner or later.
The time may well have arrived with the K-P government passing the Hazara province resolution on March 21, which the Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government claims it had passed with two-thirds majority.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the tragic incident that shook the people of Hazara and strengthened the movement for a separate province – a cause that began as Hazara Qaumi Mahaz (HQM) in the 1980s. The movement, however, has now broken up into many splinter groups, such as TSH – led by Baba Haider Zaman, Hazara Huriyat Conference – led by former TSH member Naseer Khan Jadoon, Suba Hazara Tehrik – led by Federal Minister Sardar Muhammad Yusuf, Hazara Awami Ittehad – led by Ahmed Nawaz Khan Jadoon, Tehrik Shuhada-e-Hazara – led by Ziaur Rehman, and Tehreek-Huqooq-e-Hazara – led by Ali Asghar Khan.
While Zaman and other movement leaders have termed the resolution ‘a mere eyewash’ for its failure to garner two-thirds majority, the PTI-led government maintains that it will succeed in the National Assembly and Senate.
Despite the current squabble over the legitimacy of the Hazara province resolution and the fragmentation within the movement itself, carving out a separate province for the districts in Hazara division is now being acknowledged by mainstream political parties. Both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) as well as PTI lured votes from electorates within these districts by promising them a separate province.
However, the lack of a proper policy framework and unity within the movement may prove detrimental to the cause.
Hazara division now includes seven districts, Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Torghar, Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan. The population is multiethnic and multilingual. The main ethnic groups consist of Hindko-speaking people, which are in majority, and Pukhtuns. Battagram and Torghar are predominantly Pashto speaking districts while people in Kohistan speak different languages, including Shina and Kohistani.
Why demand a separate province?
Jehangir Khan, a prominent landlord in Haripur, claims the movement is a reaction to discrimination.
Hazara Awami Ittehad’s Jadoon said what’s most disheartening is that Pukhtuns living in K-P do not acknowledge that non-Pashto speaking Hazarewal are also their Pukhtun brothers. “They call us ‘Punjabians’ (natives of Punjab),” he said, adding that the people of Hazara do not mind being called Punjabians by their Pukhtun brothers as long as their rights are protected and they are not discriminated by those sitting in Peshawar.
He argued that despite generating billions of rupees of revenue from forests, minerals, tourism, foreign remittances, water resources and industries, they are denied their due share in jobs, healthcare, education and development.
Quoting a report of the provincial bureau of statistics, former government employee Riaz Ali Shah said the 10 million people living in the division have access to only 23 degree colleges whereas Malakand, Mardan, Charsadda and Bannu have around 40 each. Likewise, the number of higher secondary schools is also lower compared to other divisions.
According to a leader of the Tehreek Huqooq-e-Hazara, the region should have received 19.4% or Rs16.1 billion as per the National Finance Commission formula in fiscal year 2013-14 out of a total development outlay of Rs83 billion. However, he said the government only allocated Rs4.6 billion for the six districts in Hazara. The Express Tribune received a copy of these official budget documents.
Quoting budget documents, the senior leader says most development funds are held back and then spent on constituencies of senior government figures, adding that the last chief minister diverted most funds to Mardan whereas the present CM is already allocating additional funds for Nowshera, his home constituency.
“Speaking Hindko doesn’t mean that the ethnic identity of Hazara Pukhtuns has changed – they are Pukhtuns and demanding their separate province on administrative grounds,” said former speaker National Assembly and Haripur district resident, Gohar Ayub Khan. He added that India has 29 provinces, one of which has a population as small as 600,000.
He said that Hazara province would include many Pukhtun tribes living in Hazara for centuries. Some of them now speak Hindko while others like the ones in Sirikot, Nara Amazai, Bafa, Torghar and Battagram areas still speak Pashto. Khan appeared to be optimistic about PM Nawaz Sharif’s stand on the new province.
Another argument in favour of a separate administrative province is the language barrier faced by Hindko-speaking Hazarewal that form a majority in the division.
According to former minister of state for finance and sitting chairman of the National Assembly standing committee on finance, MNA Omar Ayub Khan, the economic activity in Hazara division would grow immensely thanks to its location in the Pakistan-China trade zone. According to him, existing trade via the Karakoram Highway is $2 billion despite poor road infrastructure. He claims it would increase to $10 billion within the next five years. With regards to revenue, Khan said the new province would earn a substantial amount from its natural resources, such as water. Under the Constitution, Hazara would receive partial royalties from power generated through major projects like Tarbela Dam and Ghazi Barotha Power Project. The latter would be shared with K-P and Punjab as units were located in all three areas, but billions of rupees would come from about a dozen other hydropower projects, which function exclusively in Hazara division.
By Khan’s calculations, the new province has GDP potential of over Rs100 billion and based on population estimates of 8 million, the per capita development expenditure would be at least Rs13,000.
Against a separate Hazara
Awami National Party (ANP) President for Haripur, Shaukat Mishwani, says the Hazara movement is a “conspiracy against the Pukhtuns,” adding that those (political parties) favouring a separate province are only doing so for political gains. Responding to claims that the former ANP-led government discriminated against Hazara districts, he said his party had appointed a chief minister from the division three times, adding it was treated the same as other districts.
When K-P passed the Hazara province resolution last month, local leaders and workers of ANP, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came out on the streets in DI Khan to protest against the resolution.
“We will not let them divide Pukhtun land and we will also not allow the changing of the name of K-P,” said Muhammad Ali Wazir, a local leader. The K-P government simultaneously passed a resolution last month to change the province’s name to “Hazara Pakhtunkhwa.”
A few days later, workers of National Youth Organisation (NYO), the youth wing of ANP, staged a similar demonstration in Swabi.
“Our leadership has opposed the tactics of the ruling party. The PTI leadership should implement its manifesto instead of creating an environment of hatred and disunity in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,” said Azeem Khan Yousafzai, NYO district president.
Pukhtuns in Hazara
Battagram-based journalist Attaullah Naseem says Pukhtun tribes from Battagram district are in favour of Hazara province as they expect better development opportunities and facilities. However, they are equally concerned about the discrimination they have faced in both the Hazara division as well as K-P.
“In Peshawar and other Pukhtun areas across Attock Bridge they call us Hazarewal while in Mansehra and Abbottabad they treat us as Pukhtuns,” he said. Although the Hazara movement could not garner substantial momentum in his district, Naseem said their elected MNA from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and MPA from PML-N were in favour of ‘Suba Hazara’ and had the power to mobilise people for support.
Coordinator for Human Rights Commission Pakistan (HRCP), Zahid Khan, said the people of his Pukhtun-dominated district, Torghar, feared that the dominant Hindko-speaking districts would treat Hazara Pukhtuns as a minority group. “The rights of minorities are often not respected in Pakistan,” he said, adding his people would need assurances that the province will be formed purely on administrative grounds.
Meanwhile, former MPA from Kohistan, Malik Qadam Khan, said he would support a separate Hazara province, adding the caveat that since his district was rich in minerals and other resources, the people would appreciate if the name of the new province would include ‘Kohistan’ as a suffix or prefix.
What lies ahead
Chairman Hazara Qaumi Mahaz (HQM) Qazi Azhar says that the movement is nearing its end goals. According to him, there are only three options to advocate for. Either the Hazara resolution must be passed with two-thirds majorities in all three houses – as required by the Constitution, or the prime minister (PM) must issue an administrative order similar to that of Gilgit-Batistan. As a last resort, the PM must authorise a referendum to gauge what Hazarewal want for themselves. Otherwise, his party together with TSH would continue their struggle.
TSH leader Baba Haider Zaman, said they did not wish to repeat the bloody history of April 12, 2010, adding his people would observe the anniversary in a peaceful manner.
National Assembly and Senate members must also consider how a seperate Hazara province will affect other similar movements accross the country, such as the Seraiki movement in Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2014.
COMMENTS (2)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
ET Employ Standard of knowledge and Education are Exposed. Even they don't know the People of Pakistan. For Your information ET The Hazara community of Queta are Mangol Shia origin and they are living here before English Arrival and their Cousin are living in Afghanistan .The hazara KP is the regional Name of some parts of KP and Due to its Regional settlement the people of hazara are called Hazara Majority of them are pashtun but they forget Pashto and adopted Hindko Language and Gojar kashmiri and some punjabi castes are living in hazara. The KP hazara have no Relation with Quita Hazara community. Correct your mistake and Accept your ignorance (I accept my spelling mistakes)
Hazara identity is linguistic so talking like Hazara Pukhtoons or any other is wrong. Hazara people have hsitoric Pukhtoon tribes and non Pukhtoon tribes as well who are the Original Inhabitants of this land before the arrival of Pukhtoons.. For example Baba Haider Zaman is Gujjar. Gujjars are not Pukhtoons and they are the original Inhabitants of this land as well . Similarly Awans, Kiyanis, Baig, Maliks and Abbasis etc are not Pukhtoons rather they span the regions of Lower KP and Upper Punjab regions.
Also historically all are original inhabitants of this land and no one can claim that they are not locals. By naming this region on one ethnicity does not end the Multi Ethnicity of KP province. In the past there were no borders and Potohari tribes of Punjab span all those regions that now make up the majority of Hazara regions.