PESHAWAR: The Governor of the West Pakistan Awami League ... Mr Ghulam Mohammad Khan Lundkhwar, has said that if the National Awami Party insisted on naming the former NWFP as “Pakhtoonistan”, the issue should be decided through a referendum.

At a Press conference here on Wednesday [Dec 10], he refuted the NAP Chief, Mr Abdul Wali Khan’s rejoinder to Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan’s assertions about the dismissal of Dr. Khan Sahib’s post-independence Ministry and the “Pakhtoonistan”. The Awami League leader expressed his confidence that the advocates of “Pakhtoonistan” would receive a “serious blow” from the people as they did in the 1946 Referendum.

He said the word “Pakhtoonistan” was coined by the late Mr. Gandhi and later adopted by the Red Shirts at their Banno convention on June 21, 1947.

Khan Lundkhwar, who was a member of the Sarhad Muslim League Working Committee at the time of independence, said the meeting held at the Cunningham Park in Peshawar for saluting the Pakistan flag was arranged by the then Governor, Sir George Cunningham, and not by the Muslim League, as claimed by Mr. Abdul Wali Khan. — Agency

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2019