By IANS
Islamabad : The provincial government of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) wants to rename the region – which has been "without a proper name" since its creation in 1901 – Afghania, an abode of Afghan people.
The NWFP was created "without a proper name" in the British era in 1901 and deserves a distinct name to establish its identity, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Malik Zafar Azam told Dawn newspaper.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, a rightwing Islamist conglomerate that has been ruling the NWFP since 2002, selected Afghania out of six names proposed by various political parties.
A formal request has been forwarded to the federal government. "We have sent some recommendations on provincial rights to the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee that also include the change of province's name," said the minister.
NWFP was the name given by bureaucrats to this area that borders Afghanistan after the international boundary – named Durand Line after a British officer – was delineated in 1893. The line remains a point of dispute with Afghanistan which says its then leadership was coerced into accepting it as the border.
For a century and more, the very name NWFP has been associated with violence and chivalry in popular imagination. Before partition, the Mumbai-Peshawar train was called the Frontier Mail. Only recently was the train renamed.
The move to rename the province is still tentative. The minister said renaming of the region "might open up a Pandora's box".
The MMA government, the minister said, did not want to "open new fronts".
According to the constitution the region is called NWFP and only the National Assembly can amend the constitution to change the name.
One of the names that came up earlier was Khyber, after the strategically located pass that connects the province to Afghanistan and has been the principal gateway for centuries for those taking the land route to India.
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