Asfandyar prevails over Zardari on Hazara demand

Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has reportedly used the influence of President Asif Ali Zardari to counter demands by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) for a separate Hazara province, warning his allies of quitting the ruling coalition if pressed for creating a new province.
A source in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) told Pakistan Today that no headway had been made for the new province and the PPP leadership had informed the PML-Q chief not to insist on a demand that is “politically not viable”.
The source said the PML-Q leadership had been conveyed that continued demands for Hazara province might jeopardise the ruling coalition, and none of the allied parties were in a position to pay the price.
Abbottabad, the headquarters of Hazara division turned into a battlefield on April 11, 2010, when police used batons and teargas shells to disperse protesters who fought back with sticks and stones in the streets. Around a dozen people were killed and over 100 sustained injuries when police shot indiscriminately at the participants of a protest rally taken out against the renaming of NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The protesters, led by local PML-Q leaders, were demanding the creation of Haraza province. The angry mob blocked roads with burning tyres, set two police vehicles on fire and attacked a couple of police stations.
“President Zardari has informed PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain that the demand for the creation of Hazara province was not viable in the current circumstances as some of the ruling allies were against the idea. He has advised Shujaat to keep the issue burning and contest the next polls on the same slogan,” the PPP insider said.
On the contrary, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has shown readiness to consider the demands for Hazara province in his meeting with a PML-Q delegation led by Shujaat on December 19, 2011, assuring them of referring the matter to the party’s Manifesto Committee to evolve consensus within the party after discussing the idea with the president.
However, despite a lapse of three months, not a single meeting of the PPP’s Manifesto Committee has been held to “You see, the son of one of the leaders has been appointed as state minister, while another leader has been appointed as a special assistant to the prime minister. What else they would need now,” he argued.
When contacted, the newly-appointed special assistant to the prime minister said the PML-Q had not budged even an inch from its demand. “Yes, we have been given ministries but it is wrong to call these portfolios as a sell out. Actually the PPP leadership is being pressurised by the ANP leadership to ignore the popular demand for Hazara province,” he added. However, he admitted that the PML-Q leadership was not pushing the PPP leadership further to introduce legislation in this regard.discuss the Hazara province, the source said, added that the PML-Q leadership was aware of the ruling party’s limitations.
In a recent cabinet reshuffle, the PML-Q chief accommodated two leaders from Hazara as a reward for popularising the party in the region. Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf, the elder son of Hazara movement chief Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, was appointed as state minister for professional and technical training, while another leader from Hazara, Qasim Shah, who has lost all elections since 1990s, was accommodated as a special assistant to the prime minister with the status of a state minister.
However, a prominent office bearer of the PML-Q KP chapter said the party’s local leadership from Hazara had used the demand for a new province as a bargaining chip to win personal benefits.