Hazara – Pakistan’s Fifth Province?

With the autonomy of the Gilgit-Baltistan area and the cry for making Bahawalpur a separate province, a group in NWFP’s Hazara district has raised its demand for making Hazara Pakistan’s fifth province. In a convention, held on Saturday (October 17, 2009) in Mansehra, local administrators expressed concern over the way Hazara natives were treated by the government and demanded that the NWFP province be divided in two – one of them being Hazara as a separate province.

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Organized by the Hazara Qaumi Mahaz (Hazara National Front) the convention’s audience was told by the speakers that most of the government jobs in the district had been given to people from outside the area, creating deprivation among the locals. There was looming lawlessness accompanied by a sense of insecurity in the NWFP and the provincial government was neglecting the exploration of Hazara’s precious natural resources for the welfare of the local population.

The speakers expressed grievance over the irresponsible behavior of the vice chancellor of Hazara University, calling him a man from outside Hazara who had caused the launch of strikes in the university. They also lamented the fact that the government was not spending the large sum of profit and royalty, from Tarbela Dam, on the people of Hazara.