The reality is that Pakistan needs to do away with the current provincial structure and replace it with smaller provinces. Some provinces have names ie Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan but they have had them for a longer time and got those names when people probably cared less about names.
Sindh and Punjab's name originate from the rivers/river that flows through, and the people of these regions, all of different extractions became known after them ie Punjabi, Sindhi.
Once upon a time Afghan was synonymous with what is now known as Pashtun. If any of you read Babur Nama he refers to Afghani a language which was spoken in Kabul alongside so many others. 60 years ago pakistani ID cards had a qaum section and many included Afghan. But meanings change. 50 years ago I could say "Hey, i feel very gay today!", or "hey why are you smiling? you look so gay!" Of course back then gay meant happy but now we dont say that as its meaning has completely changed.
Pakistani Pashtuns should not refer to themselves as Afghans because Afghanistan is now a country to our west whose people belong to various ethnic groups ie pashtuns,s turkmen, uzbek, hazara. An Uzbeki speaker from Mazar-I-Sharif is more of an Afghan than an Afridi from Khyber Agency could ever be. Do Punjabis, Sindhis, migrants from India consider themselves Indians still? An Uzbeki speaker from Mazar I Sharif is just as much an Afghan as a pashtu speaking Kandahari Durrani.
If Afghans want their Afghan identity to be solely pashtun then they give some of their land to neighbouring states ie tajjkista, uzbekistan, iran so they become more "Pashtun"
Now there is no langauge called Afghani. There is Pashtu and the ancient code of Pashtuns known as Pashtunwali.
One of the reasons why the land known as NWFP has never had a name is because pashtun migration to this area has been on-going and probably more recent. Before the Pashtun/Afghan migration eastwards which has been recorded at least since the last 1000 years from the arrival of Mahmud of Ghaznawai to Afghan refugees escaping the last 30 years, the area was known as Gandhara and Hindko was more widely spoken. Hindko, the most likely native language of the area, has more or less disappeared from NWFP except within urban and rural areas of Peshawar, Kohat, Naushera, Mardan and Swabi. The most vocal objectors to renaming it Pakhtunkhwa are of the course the Hindko speakers who fear their culture and language will disappear in the Pashtun sea, a feeling that some pashtuns feel that their language and culture will disappear in the urdu/punjabi speaking sea.
One way to solve the problem of the minorities is giving provinces such as Chitral, Kohistan, Mansera, Abbottabad, Haripur the chance to opt out if they wish. Its a fair point as these areas are on the fringes of the Pashtun belt anyway but Pashtun nationalists would probably never give this a chance as they they claim the whole of NWFP, Attock, Mianwali, and then as far south into Balochistan as the Bolan pass and the other reason is the Terbela Dam. They will lose a major source of revenue, or it will be halved if the Hazara division was allowed to opt out.
Bashful Khan - you forget how many Pashtuns are in power in pakistan and how they are probably the first to exploit their own before anyone elses does it.
The problem is when you mention the water issue you dont realise the water which I assume you mean Indus does not actually flow through any Pashtun directly. It divides the predominantly Pashtu speaking western region of NWFP from the predominantly Hindko speaking region east of the Indus. If wanted to be all ethnic and Pashtunize the issue rather the provincalise it, then half of whatever revenue that comes from terbela would go to the Hazara division.
Exploitation is rampant in Pakistan and I have witnessed how Pashtuns in NWFP exploit their own people systematically yet no one bats an eye lid about that?
What have so-called representatives of Pashtuns said about the American slaughter of Pashtuns in Afghanistan and the Tribal belt? The ANP dont seem to have any real problem with the people being killed in the War on Teror by the Americans. They said nothing in 2001 and that cost them the election in 2002. Many Pashtuns were angry that their so-called representatives did not utter any condemnation. As hypocritical as the MMA/JUI-JI are at least they spoke out against this wrong and continued to do so. They protested too.
A name means nothing to the poor common person of the region whose major worries are the rising cost of food, the rising cost of health, income.
But it means everything to the lesser in number middle and upper classes who are more worried about how many rooms to install AC in, should i fly to lahore or drive in my 4WD, what date shall i have my party on?
It is about time the politicians put their priorities in order and fulfill some of their promises to the electorate unless the renaming was the top of the agenda.