PESHAWAR, July 20: The Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party has welcomed the formation of a parliamentary committee by the NWFP Assembly to decide a new name for the province, and expressed the hope that the committee will act according to the people’s aspirations. Speaking at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, PMAP provincial chief Mukhtiar Khan Yousufzai said his party had trust in the parliamentary committee and considered its formation a good omen.

He said the names of Pukhtunistan, Afghania and Pukhtunkhwa were acceptable to the PMAP but it was opposed to Abasin and Khyber, which were the names of a river and a mountain pass, respectively.

He said the province should be given an identity on national and cultural grounds.

He said the NWFP Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution in the past and agreed to christen the NWFP Pukhtunkhwa.

However, his party was ready to accept the two other names, Afghania and Pukhtunkhwa, which referred to identity of the Pukhtuns, he added.

After the change of the province’s name, the PMAP would launch a struggle to get the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pukhtun area of Balochistan and the districts of Mainsail and Attack annexed with ‘Pukhtunkhwa’, he announced.