Pakistan High court judge to probe name change clashes

Islamabad: The government of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province has nominated a high court judge to probe the violent disturbances in the Hazara Division over renaming the Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while people held more rallies in the region Wednesday.

Clashes between the police and demonstrators during widespread public protests in Hazara on Monday and Tuesday left 12 people dead and around hundred injured, mainly in the town of Abbotabad.

Justice Abdul Aziz Khundi of the Peshawar High Court will conduct the inquiry and submit a report to the provincial government within a fortnight.

A ban on public gatherings in the Hazara area was lifted while federal interior minister Rehman Malek told reporters in Islamabad people arrested during the rioting this week had been released and the situation was under the control of the administration.

But no political solution to the unrest is in sight yet, while the Senate or upper house of the Parliament debated for the second day a constitutional reforms bill already approved by the National Assembly.

The bill, which includes a clause renaming the Province as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is likely to be adopted by the Senate today. Malek said the aspirations of the people of Hazara, where Hindko is spoken, would receive due consideration.

The main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and the former ruling PML-Q traded allegations over the situation in Hazara.

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PML-N chief, Nawaz Sharif, accused the PML-Q faction of stoking the unrest while the latter's leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said two-time premier Sharif had backed the new name for the province in return for the lifting of a constitutional restriction on third-time premiership.

"The PML-Q politicians were exploiting the people's sentiments and playing politics over dead bodies," Sharif told the media.