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Call for creation of Southern Pashtoonkhwa province

Map courtesy Government of Balochistan website — www.balochistan.gov.pk/Newper cent20Folder/maps.htm

QUETTA: The Pashtoon Qaumi Tehrik has called for creating a ‘Southern Pashtoonkhwa’ province by dividing Balochistan.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, PQT chief Rafiq Pashtoon said his party had been struggling for the creation of the province comprising Pashtoon areas from Sibi to Zhob.

He said that in order to protect their rights Seraikis, Pothoharis, Muhajirs and Hazaras were also demanding that Punjab, NWFP and Sindh be divided and new provinces be created.

He claimed that the late PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, former presidents Pervez Musharraf and Farooq Leghari, former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, politicians Saleem Saifullah, Dr Sher Afgan and S. M. Zafar had supported the demand for new provinces in the country.

Rafiq Pashtoon accused ex-president Yahya Khan of merging the Pashtoon areas from Sibi to Zhob into Baloch areas in 1970 and converting the Pashtoon majority into minority.

DAWN: Friday, 12 Jun, 2009