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The cost of renaming Khyber-

Pakhtunkhwa

ISLAMABAD: The cost of updating infrastructure and official documents to reflect

the new name of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is Rs8 billion, according to provincial
government statistics.

Of this amount the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government will have to bear Rs5 billion while
the federal government will have to pay Rs3 billion.

Driving through the province on the winding Indus Highway, stretching along the bank of
river Indus, will reveal that the signboards still bear the province’s old name – the North
West Frontier Province, or NWFP. The billboards of various law-enforcing departments,
educational institutions and private entities are also outdated.

Then there are some signboards that have both the old and new name of the province.
The historic Rail-Road bridge of Khushal Garh, for instance, has boards on roadsides that
bear both NWFP and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s name. Vehicles in the province, too, have
their old number plates.

Government officials say that the paperwork needed to update the existing infrastructure
to reflect the province’s new name had already been finished. “The provincial
government has also asked other provinces and federal and provincial departments to
update their records to the new name,” the official added.

Senator Zahid Khan, who is the general secretary of the ruling Awami National Party
(ANP), said the process of updating the infrastructure to reflect the new name was slow
because of financial constraints. The provincial government’s finances, he said, were
already stretched thin due the war against terrorism and the recent floods.

The North West Frontier Province was created on November 9, 1901. Administrative
affairs and geographical locations were given preference over ethnicities in demarcations.

After the creation of Pakistan, the majority Pakhtun population has been trying to get the
province renamed but it was not until 2010 that the Pakistan Peoples Party government
caved-in to ANP’s demand of a new name.

Several names, including Frontier, Pakhtunkhwa, Sarhad, Pakhtunistan and Afghania,

were suggested for the province. The province finally got its new name through the 18th
Amendment to the constitution. It was renamed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – a name that
attracted much criticism both from Pakhtuns (who just wanted the name to be just
Pakhtunkhwa) and the Hazarewals division, an ethnic minority in the Hazara division of
the province.

While Pashtu is the dominant language, Hindko (spoken by Hazarewals) and Seraiki are
other indigenous languages of the province.

Pashtu itself has three main dialects: the Eastern Pashtu that is spoken in the province; the
Southern Pashtu, which is spoken in Balochistan; and the Central Pashtu spoken in
Waziristan.