MANSEHRA: The Subah Hazara Tehreek has decided to hold public gatherings across the country to mobilise the people before presenting a resolution in the National Assembly, demanding a separate province.

“Our core body has decided to adopt a multipronged strategy for the Hazara province’s cause. We will reach out to parliamentary leaders of political parties to seek their support for the approval of the Hazara province resolution from the National Assembly,” Sardar Mohammad Yusuf, chief of the movement, told reporters here on Sunday.

Accompanied by other leaders of the Tehreek, he claimed that people from across Hazara, which comprises eight districts, were united for the cause of a separate province regardless of their political affiliations.

Mr Yusuf, who is also an MNA and central vice-president of PML-N, said that their core body had recently decided to hold public gatherings across Hazara and the rest of the country.

“The complete schedule of our public meetings, which will likely begin from Karachi, will be issued shortly,” he said.

Mr Yusuf, who is also a former federal minister of religious affairs, added that a committee had been formed under his chairmanship and comprising former lawmakers Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Qasim Ali Shah and Captain retired Mohammad Safdar to engage parliamentary leaders of all major political parties in the National Assembly to persuade them for the passage of the Hazara province resolution, which has already been submitted to the lower house of the parliament.

“We are optimistic that our struggle, in which we have lost many precious lives since the renaming of the North-West Frontier Province to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2010, will soon achieve a breakthrough,” Mr Yusuf said.

He said that creating more federating units was essential to address the country’s socioeconomic challenges.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2024