PESHAWAR, Jan 22: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani said on Monday that his government was striving to achieve consensus on giving the name of Pukhtunkhwa to the province. The chief minister told the divisional convention of the JUI-F in Mardan that there was a near-consensus on naming the NWFP as Pukhtunkhwa and that he had formed a committee to achieve total consensus on the issue before taking further steps in this regard.

He recalled that he as a lone parliamentarian of his party in the NWFP Assembly in the past had favoured naming the NWFP as Pukhtunistan but had decided to support the Awami National Party (ANP) resolution on Pukhtunkhwa after seeking advice from his leadership.

“There is a consensus on naming the NWFP as Pukhunkhwa, yet we will make efforts to bring everybody on board to achieve this goal,” he told the convention that was also addressed by party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The chief minister announced that the people of the province would soon hear some good news in this regard. He, however, did not elaborate.

The NWFP Assembly, it may be mentioned here, had passed a unanimous resolution moved by the ANP demanding the province be named as Pukhtunkhwa, deadlocked over the issue with the than ruling Pakistan Muslim League government led by Mian Nawaz Sharif later, led to the parting of ways between the two coalition partners.

The MMA government has formed a committee led by NWFP Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam to consult other parties and reach a consensus on the issue.

The chief minister, however, said that despite his best efforts other political parties had not paid any heed to his invitation to discuss the issue.

“I invited other parliamentary parties, including the ANP to come to the meetings but nobody turned up,” he lamented.

Under the Constitution of Pakistan, only the federal government can legislate in such matters and resolutions passed by the provincial assemblies are not binding on it.