PESHAWAR, Feb 15: Renaming of a province is the constitutional right of the NWFP government and soon a decision will be taken to give the province a new name.

This was stated by Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Malik Zafar Azam here.

“Neither the federation nor the concurrent list bars the provincial government from going ahead and renaming the province. The government has completed a survey in this regard and Pukhtoonkhwa, Khyber and Sarhad are among the suggested names,” the minister said.

The survey report, he said, would soon be presented to NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Drurrani and efforts would be made to settle the politically-motivated issue once and for all after approval of the cabinet.

Referring to the Chief Justice of Supreme Court Iftikahr Chaudhry’s remarks made during the judicial conference in which he termed 2007 as the year of important decisions, the NWFP minister said that the chief justice’s speech was nothing less than a ‘warning’ to the nation, especially to politicians and rulers.

A press statement issued here on Thursday quoted Malik Zafar Azam as saying: “If we do not learn a lesson now, we will lose a golden opportunity to promote democratic values and progress and development.” He observed that the country could only move on the right track if the judiciary was independent without any interference.—PPI