Frontier Houses renamed as Pakhtunkhwa Houses

Peshawar,Dec.16 (ANI): The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Government on Tuesday decided to rename all Frontier Houses owned by provincial government as Pakhtunkhwa Houses.

A Geo News report said that a notification in this regard has been issued.

Last month, a furor was witnessed in the National Assembly (NA) over calling the NWFP Pakhtunkhwa, even as provincial ruling party --the Awami National Party (ANP) expressed the hope that the province would be renamed without objection and through a consensus.

According to reports in Pakistani dailies, the laws of the country say that to rename a province like the NWFP, the nationalist ANP needs two-thirds majority in both the NA and Senate for a constitutional amendment.

"We know that the required two-thirds majority in the two houses for renaming the province as Pakhtunkhwa will be difficult without support by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)," ANP spokesman Zahid Khan told the Daily Times last month.

For this purpose, the party would send a delegation to win the PML-N support for developing consensus to rename the province as Pakhtunkhwa, he said.

The renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa, the longstanding demand of the nationalist ANP, is part of the constitutional package announced by President Asif Ali Zardari a few months back.

The package also asked for provincial autonomy, one of the key demands of the three smaller provinces. (ANI)