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Chitralis perceive discrimination
A Hazara based NGO worker hailing from Chitral
recently complained that he and his other Chitrali colleagues
were facing discrimination at the hands of their Pathan bosses
or politicians in matters of posting and promotion. I found this
young man highly qualified, energetic and promising and it
pained me to hear that he was being discriminated against,
especially when ANP is in power. I have high regards for Khan
Ghaffar Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgar movement. The humanism of
Pathan poets and philosophers is widely known and admired. How
come this tradition has been mired at the hands of the very
people who were expected to uphold it? Has the renaming of the
province given them the wrong sense of ownership or arrogance or
the dispensation is driven by selfish motives?
“What is in a name “so spoke William Shakespeare meaning thereby
that it is the substance not form that matters in the final
analysis. Our friends in the then Khudai khidmatgar movement,
now ANP did not agree. They considered renaming of their
province as life and death matter. As a result of their long
struggle, which at times earned them the unenviable distinction
of being anti- state, they were finally able to get the name,
though in a diluted form, through the 18th constitutional
amendment. Their jubilation over the success had barely
culminated when the highly reputed Transparency International
branded the Khyber Pakhtoonkha (KP) province as the most corrupt
province and their detractors in the Punjab ended up as the
least corrupt among the four provinces. Now the devastating
floods have exposed the limitations of their Government to
provide the effectees timely relief. There are reports of
pilferage in the distribution of relief goods
The response of the Government of KP to the Transparency report
was initially lukewarm and apologetic. However as an after
thought and by way of damage control exercise the out-spoken and
charismatic Information Minister of the Province posed a
question to media persons in a press conference that how can a
corrupt government wage successful anti - terror war? The point
was valid but so was the reply. The successful anti -terror war
was being led and fought by the Pakistan Army and the para
military heavily drawn from non Pashtoons, especially Chitralies
and the provincial Government only gave its assent. The nature
and quality of post- war rehabilitation work rather than conduct
of the war should therefore be used to establish the credentials
of the provincial Govt. Unfortunately there is no achievement
worth mentioning in this area to project its claim of good
governance. It is true that ANP has paid considerable price in
the anti- terror war in terms of men and materials to rid KP of
the scourge of militancy and terrorism. It is not incidental
that the policy would benefit the liberals and the secular left,
which includes the ANP. So ANP can claim credit for its
steadfast policies and sacrifices in the war against terrorism
and the fact that religious right is again ganging up to bolster
support explains the kind of challenge that ANP still faces and
this challenge demands merit based policies rather than
monopolistic ones that the case in point brings up.
ANP led Govt. in KP should not take shelter behind the anti
-terror war success euphoria to wash the stigma of being the
most corrupt Govt. They owe it to their ancestors, the Khudai
Khidmatgars, to come out clean. Even the excuse that its
leadership has shifted from one family to another may not bail
them out. The torch bearers of Khudai Khidmatgar ideology owe it
to history and to their future generations to accept
responsibility for their present performance and come down
heavily against the corrupt. They can not deny that KP is the
only province that has failed to establish the office of
provincial Mohtasib to redress public complaints against Govt.
functionaries and punish those guilty of maladministration. How
could ANP explain its opposition to the establishment of this
constitutional office, if it is not for the fear of being
exposed?.
Instead of looking for short cuts to establish Pakhtoon
ownership of the province, the ANP Govt. must follow the more
sustainable route through good and clean governance. Pathan
ownership of KP is already under strong challenge by Hazarawals
and other ethnic minorities may also join the foray if issues of
governance are not addressed in right earnest. Chitralies have
aggressively been defending their image as simple and honest
people throughout history and they will not be prepared now to
let it go for fear of being held hostage by the majority. One
must not forget that the economy of KP largely depends on
Chitral and an alienated Chitral may hurt them the most. Thus in
its own interest ANP must accept pluralism and collective
ownership of the province if it wants other nationalities to
sustain the existing dispensation, failing which Hazarawals may
go for a separate province, triggering similar demands
elsewhere. Chitralies may be forced to re-invent their demands
for a province of their own or in collaboration with Gilgit-
Baltistan , with whom they have enjoyed close historical,
cultural and ethnic links. There was a recent movement for
Bloristan province in Gilgit –Baltistan-a name that was perhaps
given to the region under the Chinese rule or the more
unfamiliar name- Dardistan that it is said to have carried in
the past because of the Dardic group of languages spoken in the
region.
At the moment things are not looking up good for ANP or the
future of KP. Extremism, terrorism, floods and Transparency
International report have given it a rude shock and a timely
wake up call. The complaint of my Chitrali friend may be a petty
matter but it does indicate a looming malaise that every right
thinking person must guard against. It is a testing time for ANP
leadership. It is wants to prove its detractors wrong, it must
make KP stand for virtue, humanism (with which Ghaffar Khan’s
name is synonymous) and good governance, otherwise narrow
mindedness would drown it, bringing to naught its struggle to
find identity in a name which might prove to be a zero sum game
and a non- starter, if not a beginning of its own unmaking as a
pluralistic society respectful of diversity as Pakhtoon poets,
mystics and philosophers would have liked it to become.
--By Islamuddin, 30 Aug 10.
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