Pakistan Set To Rename Province
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan is to rename its North-West Frontier Province because it is a “British colonial anachronism.”
The government will pass an amendment in parliament next month. The ruling Pakistan People’s Party has approved a new name for the province, Pukhtunkhwa, at the behest of its coalition partner, the Awami National Party, which governs the province.
“Sixty years after independence our demand will be met,” said Zahid Khan, a leader of the ANP, a party founded on the principles of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, dubbed the “Frontier Gandhi” for his peaceful opposition to colonial rule.
The North-West Frontier was fixed in the British firmament at the turn of the last century when “soldier sahibs” struggled to subdue its bellicose Pukhtun (or Pashtun) tribes.
