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While the concept was first mentioned in the 20th century by Wali Khan and Ghaffar Khan , practically within the NWFP Provincial Assembly the first party to table a bill for the renaming of NWFP was the Pakistan Peoples Party NWFP chapter under Aftab Khan Sherpao. Sherpao cleverly exploited the renaming issue to cause a split between the Awami National Party and its right wing allies (traditional opponents of the ANP's ethnic politics and in particular renaming). The bill failed to pass in it's first attempt but the issue did anger opponents in the party of the ANP's alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League . The ANP leadership however cited its lack of a majority in the provincial assembly and how the issue has not been placed as part of a formal agreement with the leader of the Muslim League Nawaz Sharif as a reason for the bills failure to pass. Prior to the 1997 general elections the ANP obtained a formal commitment from Nawaz Sharif on the renaming issue as part of their political/electoral allinace prior to the elections. After the alliances victory in the 1997 elections, the PPP under Aftab Sherpao again tabled a bill for a resoluiton on the renaming issue in the provincial assembly. The issue was eventually taken up by the Assembly in the latter half of 1997, and after a brief debate the NWFP Assembly speaker Hidayatullah Chamkani called the issue to a vote asking those members opposing the issue to stand up. this move caught the Muslim League members offguard as they had already decided they would not support the renaming issue. As such the resolution was passed with only two members opposing it, Humayun and Salim Saifullah Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League Junejo faction. Despite the resolutions passing the backlash in the rightwing press and conservative supporters of Nawaz Sharif in Punjab in particular was intense. The issue was then addressed at the Federal level as a formal renaming could only be done through a constitutional amendment requiring a two third majority. Nawaz Sharif under pressure from the right wing of his party and outside backtracked on his previous committment. In an attempt to save the alliance, attempts were made to resolve the issue by Nawaz Sharif by instead offering a compromise name like Nuristan or Abasin . The offer was rejected by the Awami National Party by it's leadership and the ANP withdrew from the Federal government and provincial government. SEE ALSO |
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