Peshawar: The rugged Pakistani province that was once a stomping ground for the British, and more recently gained a reputation as a Taliban and Al Qaida haven, may soon get a mouthful of a new name.
Feuding lawmakers on a committee reached a deal on Wednesday to rename North West Frontier Province "Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa," members said.
The agreement removed a key obstacle to the approval of a constitutional reform package aimed at reducing the president's powers and easing political tensions. The debate that led to it also showed how much ethnic and cultural divisions still burden Pakistan's 175 million people, fostering everything from separatist violence to demands for new provinces six decades after the country was formed.
Under tremendous pressure, the ruling Pakistan People's Party has pushed the reform package, which would leave President Asif Ali Zardari, the party chief, largely a figurehead.
Renaming the province was included in the package by the ruling party to get support from the Awami National Party, which leads the provincial government in the northwest.
ANP leaders wanted to call the province Pakhtoonkhwa to reflect the Pashtun (or Pakhtoon) ethnicity of three-fourths of its 20 million people. They argued the province's current name does little more than help people find it on a map, while other Pakistani provinces — Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab — have names that match ethnic groups.
The main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, said the name "Pakhtoonkhwa" marginalised other ethnic groups in the province.
"The fact is that after 62 years, we are not a nation," said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a political commentator in Islamabad.
"And although we could eventually become one, there's been a lot of time lost and we have moved in fact into the other direction."
