First, please understand that it does not matter if you are pathan or belong to Hazara. It is not a linguistic issue – it has become an ethnic issue. So, not everyone living in Hazara speak Hindko and there is a respectable chunk of population that converses in Pushto, but, these Pushto speaking people too are fighting for Hazara’s legitimate rights. Second, for 62 years, people in Hazara were unable to get admissions in colleges and universities across N.W.F.P across the provinces because wherever we went, we were denied access, just because we had no representation in civil administration or bureaucracy, which believe it or not, it makes tremendous difference.
I remember going to Peshawar after school and the way I was treated there, (just because I did not speak Pushto and my domicile said Hazara) has stayed with me. So, what you see today is the reaction of being persecuted, harassed and ridiculed for over 6 decades. Remember, countries (if this case a new province) don’t come into existence in a day or two. Neither do countries break into pieces instantly. There is always history behind these events.
No question with government comes responsibility and people of Hazara are ready to govern.
Also, it is important to know that when Nawaz Sharif struck a deal with ANP for ANP’s vote to amend the constitution to allow members of National Assembly to become Prime Minister in favor of PML (N) voting in favor of new name, everyone warned NS that would create a very serious situation in Hazara. In fact, Nawaz Sharif’s own son-in-law is from Hazara and if anyone should have know about the situation, it was Nawaz Sharif, but he became too greedy or perhaps, he thought that Hazara will remain silent, but both PML (N) and ANP seriously misjudged the anger and frustration in Hazara. And, you are not going to believe this, but is true that in order to control the people, the provincial government ordered the local police to leave and ordered police from Pushto speaking areas to come to Hazara and deal with these ‘troublemakers’ and what did this non-local police do? They opened fire and killed 10 innocent people. Therefore, it would help, if people understood that before 10 people were killed, protesters were protesting without any violence and if you look at the history of Hazara, you will never find any incident of terrorism or even law & order there.
Finally, the people of Hazara are neither going to forget nor forgive the unjustified, and unprovoked torture and killings of our brothers in this fight to gain autonomy. They are the victims and that is precisely why they are requesting to give this issue some time. All they ask is that people should study this issue as an impartial observer (just talk to the media folks reporting from Abbottabad) and they’d realize that yes, the people of Hazara have suffered for a very long time and people wold automatically pour heart and soul into helping the honorable people of Hazara.
