HARIPUR: As the general elections approach fast the mainstream political parties have started highlighting their manifestos to lure the voters, but to the disappointment of people of Hazara division, no party has on its priority list the topic of creating a separate Hazara province if it makes it to power.

During the 2013 elections when the Tehreek Suba Hazara (TSH) led by Baba Haider Zaman peaked all the major political parties, including PML-N, PTI, JUI-F, MQM, PML-Q, and JI, had publicly announced their support for the new provinces, especially the Hazara province.

Former military ruler Gen retired Pervez Musharraf’s party and MQM’s central leadership had also lent support to the Hazara province demand, however, the movement suffered setback when the leaders from Hazara started parting ways from Haider Zaman on the pretext that he had taken a wrong step of registering TSH as political party before the 2013 elections.

One of Zaman’s close associates, PML-N leader Sardar Mohammad Yousuf, founded his own Suba Hazara Tehreek and kept it alive during his tenure as federal minister, but failed to convince Nawaz Sharif, the then prime minister, and his party that enjoyed a two-third majority in the National Assembly, to table a resolution for Hazara province.

On the other hand, Mushtaq Ghani, and Qalandar Lodhi from Abbottabad, who joined the PTI and became ministers after winning elections, also could not lobby for smooth tabling of Hazara province resolution in the provincial assembly.

However, in 2017, some MPAs from the ruling PTI from Hazara managed to table Hazara province resolution in the KP assembly but constitutional experts termed it a mere joke as the party lacked the constitutional requirement of having a two-third majority.

Under these circumstances when all the big names ditched Zaman, the elderly politician was left with only a few voices to support his cause which he had launched following the killing of seven protesters and injuries to over 100 who took to the streets against the renaming of then NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on April 12, 2010.

In the 2013 polls, Baba’s party failed to impress the voters as it could not bag even a single seat from Hazara, the political base of the movement, which disillusioned the workers.

“Undoubtedly it was one of the popular movements, but self-centered approach and disloyalty of politicians of Hazara have caused great loss to the Tehreek,” observed Syed Noman Shah, a political analyst.

He accused Haidar Zaman of being stubborn that forced the politicians to distance themselves from him.

Lala Zaman Khan, a journalist from Abbottabad, said despite ruling the country for five years both the PML-N and PTI had no impressive slogan for the people of Hazara.

He recalled that when Haider Zaman threatened not to allow Imran Khan to address a public meeting in Abbottabad in April, both Mushtaq Ghani and former speaker Asad Qaiser signed an agreement promising to table the Hazara province resolution in the KP Assembly, but they backed off soon after the Imran’s visit.

Lala Zaman said voters themselves had lost interest in the movement when its leadership failed to pursue cases against the local administration and former KP chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, who were directly nominated in the FIR of the Abbottabad killings.

Sultanul Arifeen Jadoon, the TSH general secretary, said this time not a single candidate had applied for the ticket of TSH while Hider Zaman had himself withdrawn from NA-16 due to his worsening health.

He said if the nine MNAs and 17 MPAs from Hazara would have united on a single platform and founded a pressure group the creation of Hazara province would have been much easier.

Omar Ayub Khan, PTI candidate from NA-17, claims that after coming to power, his party would work for creation of new provinces.

Qazi Asad, a former MPA who is now contesting from PK-40 on PML-N ticket, also vows to continue struggle for Hazara province.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2018