Tuesday, October 12, 2004
[ Afghania – a suitable name for Pukhtoons’ province
PESHAWAR: An extended province for Pukhtoons living in NWFP and adjacent areas of Punjab and FATA should be created and named Afghania, said Khairul Hakeem Hakeemzai, the president of the Afghan National Party Pakistan (ANPP).
“We want to unite all the Pukhtoons living in all parts of the country whether they are in NWFP, seven tribal agencies, 12 districts of Balochistan or in the Punjab’s districts of Mianwali, Khoshab, Attock and Bhakkar,” he said. “Afghania is a suitable name for the Pakhtoons’ province.” Addressing a press conference on Monday, he demanded an immediate halt to what he called “the genocide of Pukhtoons” in Wana, South Waziristan Agency, and urged a political solution to the issue. ghafar ali](“http://www.batkhelaforum.com/javascript%20;”)
Why can't they just agree on a neutral name like Khyber? Something without ethnic connotations? They should do the same for Balochistan and give the whole province a neutral name like Gwadar.
Look at Sindh it is named after Darya-e-Sindh (River Indus), Punjab is named after five rivers, panj-aab means five rivers or paanch darya, both have nothing to do with any language or ethnicity.
Pakistan has many ethnic groups and most of whom live in pockets scattered all around the country, it is not practical nor fair to start naming provinces after ethnicities, in our own communities we can recodnise with our respective ethnic groups but on a national level we're only Pakistani and only Urdu should have any national recognition.
Fighting over petty things. These reta4ds should be focusing on improving their life style, educating themselves, making a name for them selves like islam has laid out for them. Bast@rds
It needs a new name. NWFP does the province a disservice since it is no more a frontier than Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan are.
Balochistan is where Balochs come from.
Sindh is where Sindhis come from.
Punjab is where Punjabis come from.
Kashmir is where Kashmiris come from.
Why then is the NWFP where Pathans come from?
42% of the Afghan population of 29 million is Pashtu speaking, giving around 12 million Pathans there. 8% of Pakistan's population is Pashtu speaking, giving around 13 million Pathans there, mainly concentrated in the NWFP.
Therefore, given that the majority of the world's Pathans are from the NWFP, and form the dominant ethnic group of the province, I am now of the opinion that the NWFP should be renamed Pakhtunistan to reflect its status as the most heavily populated Pathan region in the world.
Fraudz you’re right dividing the provinces into smaller more “manageable” ones will have many benefits but it’s Pakistan, we can’t get right something as petty as a name.
I’m glad you agree with the neutral name bit and that only our Pakistani identity and the Urdu language should have any national recognition, our Persianess or Pakhtuniyyat should be limited to our families and our communities, the state has nothing to do with that.
They need to look at Punjab, Punjabi just means anyone from Punjab because Punjab is home to a diverse people with dialects which are so different they can be classed as separate languages, Pahari, Hindko, Multani, and Doabi probably have as much in common with each other as they do with the dialects of Sindh or with Urdu.
Gammey I agree with you man, some of the things these idiots say make me wonder if they’ve ever set foot outside their village, don’t know whether to laugh at them or cry out of pity for them.
It’s their stubbornness and pride which keeps them in their backward position, God forbid if anyone offers them any advice or tries to help them they’ll be at his throat because they see it as demeaning to their self respect, they are too arrogant to see their own ignorance, the only thing they are good at is scapegoating Punjab for their problems, this mentality will only mean they’ll rot for generations to come in their present condition, cutting themselves off from the rest of the nation and being selfish wont benefit anyone.
Pakistan is for all of us and that includes NWFP, it isn’t just for Pashtuns, I’ve been reading up on this and have found Pashtuns are not the only ones in the NWFP, Hindko is spoken there and the Hindko have been living in and around Peshawar well before the Pashtuns arrived, Farsi, Seraiki, Kohistani, Doabi, Balti and Chitrali are also spoken by sizeable minority communities who migrated later.
Pashtuns like every other linguistic group are a respected part of Pakistani society but they should remember they are not God's gift to the world and they aren't the only ones in Pakistan, every linguistic group is equal in Pakistan, nobody has the right to trample over and undermine somebody elses identity like the Pashtuns wish to do with the Hindko.
Balochistan is where Balochs come from.
Sindh is where Sindhis come from.
Punjab is where Punjabis come from.
Kashmir is where Kashmiris come from.
Why then is the NWFP where Pathans come from?
42% of the Afghan population of 29 million is Pashtu speaking, giving around 12 million Pathans there. 8% of Pakistan's population is Pashtu speaking, giving around 13 million Pathans there, mainly concentrated in the NWFP.
Therefore, given that the majority of the world's Pathans are from the NWFP, and form the dominant ethnic group of the province, I am now of the opinion that the NWFP should be renamed Pakhtunistan to reflect its status as the most heavily populated Pathan region in the world.
Bro first quit being a chamcha.. Second there is no such thing as "Pathan", it is a misnomer, the real term is Pashtun or Pakhtun (depending on the dialect).
Pakistan is not as clear cut as Pashtun, Balochi, Sindhi and Punjabi, there are close to 80 ethnic groups in Pakistan, where do the Hindkos, or your "Mahajirs" or my Persians fit in??? Are we not worthy of recognition because our ancestors arrived later or because we don't multiply like rats? Is it not our home too? Do we love Pakistan any less? Are we not worthy of any respect? Do we have to live under somebody elses name? A label which is not ours?
That's why I say neutral names will satisfy us all, Punjab I can settle for because it is not named after a people but rather it simply means "five rivers", there are many dialects spoken in Punjab which are almost mutually unintelligible and can be classed as seperate languages and the people who speak them are very different from each other in terms of culture and genetic makeup, they can be reffered to as simply Potohari or Doabi and not Punjabi.
I don't know much about Sindhi dialects but I know the province is named after River Sindh which runs through the whole of Pakistan and not after any people.
If need arises that the names of Punjab and Sindh should be changed if people think they have ethnic and linguistic connotations, but never ever undermine an ethnic group just because they are small in number.
We are all Pakistanis and Urdu is the national language of us all. Regional languages and dialects are between us and our little cliques and the state should not give recognition to any of them because it is impractical if it did with all of them and unfair if it does to a select few.
Some people will not be happy no matter what you do, you break the whole country up if you like and make them an independent state, nothing will change, they will be each others throats like they were prior to Pakistan and the British, they'll finish each other in tribal warfare and only temporarily unite if there is a foreign threat.
Or you can return them to Afghanistan and then the Tajiks will be the new Punjabis, not that the Tajiks are any better.
Just as majority ethnic groups should be sesitive of us minority ethnic groups, the reverse situations apply and minorities should be sensitive of larger ethnic groups.
The fact is that the Pakhtuns are one of of the largest ethnic groups in Pakistan, and the province that they dominate has a name that denies the character of most of its people. Indeed, it is the only province of Pakistan which bears a name not directly tied to the name of its majority population.
Bro then we should have neutral names for all provinces, I think it was you in another thread who suggested some very appropriate names similar to NWFP.
mady you getting mad over here, Punjab name is not named after its people or language. it was named cause of “five rivers” first then people became punjabi!! not other way around. same goes for Sindh, first named sindh cause of River Sindh, and then people called themselves sindhis!! same goes to Kashmir named after kashmir valley!
we all agree NWFP is not a name, but new name shouldnt be based on the one ethinic group. but something wich is common to all , that all people can associate to it.
Actually, the name Punjab literally translates from Persian into the words ‘Panj’ (پانج) five, and ‘Aab’ (آب) water respectively i.e. ‘land of the five rivers’, referring to the Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Chenab and Jhelum rivers.
Also, Sindh is also named after the river Sind/Indus.
Hence, neither Punjab or Sindh are named after any ethnic groups.
Additionally, the ethnic ‘Balochi’ group (distinct from Brahui’s and Makrani’s) only make up barely a 1/3 of the population of Balochistan province as a whole. I believe the largest single population group in the province these days are actually Pakhtun-speakers. Hence the name of the province is somewhat misleading.
What makes you think I was implying that? I mentioned them both separately didn’t I?
Although the Hindko people belong to the Indian branch, they are actually quite closely related the Iranian ethnic groups, sometimes more so than they are to other Indian groups. Far back enough the Iranians and Indians were one people (this is evident from the Avestan and Vedas) but then the Indians broke away moved southeast wards and intermingled with the Dravidian and other races whilst those that stayed relatively northwest tended to retain much of the genetic traits of the original Vedic Aryans who were cousins of the Iranians, that’s why you’ll find the ethnic groups from north west of the subcontinent such Kashmir and NW Punjab tend to resemble people of the Iranian ethnic groups such as Persians and Pashtuns more so than they do with Gujaratis or Sindhis because the latter intermingled with other races.
Since we are naming places according to rivers..we need to rework things..as the major river going through NWFP are the Kabul/Swat/Indus river i say call it the KSI province ..Punjab only has 3 rivers since the indus basin and perhaps less at the rate india is going for Baghliar ..we should rename the part where 3 rivers pass through " theenab"..the Seraki belt and Sind won’t be having any water post kalabagh so we’ll call that South Asias new desert uptill karachi ..where because of the marshes we should call it daldalistan..last but not least we should call the Northern areas ad Baluchistan which have no major rivers going through them.."“no mans land” (North And South) because apparently rivers are the criteria for naming places..and Islamabad should be renamied North Central Federal Capital..
Now jokes aside…a history lesson for those uninformed, taken from wikipedia:
P for Punjab, A for Afghania the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Baluchistan, thus forming ‘Pakstan.’ An ‘i’ was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing Pakistan
Finally on to a side note..the original resolution for renaming NWFP was passed minus two votes by all parties in the then NWFP assembly..that includes the Muslim League, PPP, MMA lot and independants as well as the ANP.. renaming is not a big issue in Pakistan when leaders in Islamabad have wanted ..cities names like Faisalabad have been changed in seconds..
but that’s not what i’m talking about. i’m talking about YOU specifically. how did you convert from hindko-speaking punjabi to farsi speaking persian within 2 usernames?
