It’s KP, not KPK

Some in the ruling elite and even members of the intelligentsia keep referring wrongly to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as KPK.

If an abbreviation is to be used, it has to be KP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa consists of two words, not three. The abbreviation KPK would be correct if the name of the province was Khyber Pakhtun Khwa – which it isn’t.

Both Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have, in their speeches and statements, been repeatedly describing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the abbreviated form as KPK instead of KP. Imran Khan should know better as his party has been ruling the province for more than three years since winning the 2013 general elections.

Physician Dr Alaf Khan, who has a keen eye and an alert mind despite his old age, was so exasperated by the frequent recent use of KPK by the prime minister and those managing KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak’s website that he wrote a letter to this writer registering his protest.

The previous name of the province, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), was coined due to its geographical location and direction from Delhi. Lord Curzon as the viceroy of British India created the province in 1901 by carving it out of Punjab. For 109 years the name stayed the same as efforts to rename it to highlight the identity of its Pakhtun majority didn’t make any headway due to opposition largely by lawmakers from Punjab.

NWFP was finally renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in April 2010. The renaming campaign was led by the ANP, a party of Pakhtun nationalists that ruled the province from 2008-2013 in alliance with the PPP, which under the then president Asif Ali Zardari’s leadership was running the federal government. Zardari used the word Pakhtunkhwa for the first time when he spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on September 26, 2008. Though the ANP is mostly credited for renaming the province, this could not have happened without support from the PPP.

Initially, a number of names were proposed for the province. These ranged from its ancient names, Gandhara and Afghania, to the controversial Pakhtunistan and Pashtunistan and the absurd Pathanistan, and from Abaseen denoting the River Indus passing through it to the meaningless Sarhad.

Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N proposed prefixing Khyber to Pakhtunkhwa, apparently to dilute its ethnic intensity and make it acceptable to non-Pakhtuns, particularly the Hindko-speaking people of Hazara. A compromise was worked out by renaming NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but that didn’t appease the Hazarawals, who staged protests against it and demanded a province of their own named Hazara. The protests culminated in violence in Abbottabad and caused the deaths of several protesters. The shedding of blood wasn’t a good omen for a province with a new name.

Long names are invariably abbreviated in this busy world. NWFP had over the years been widely used and understood. It also had a familiar aura to it and many simply called it the Frontier, which had a rustic charm.

When the province was renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it was pointed out that the abbreviation, KP, is short and not rhythmic as NWFP. Before long, the word KPK gained currency and started to be widely used. The ANP-PPP coalition government officially clarified that the correct name is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its abbreviation should be KP and not KPK. However, the term KPK stuck and even government departments started using it. The number-plates of vehicles also started using KPK.

Due to the disinterest of the PTI-led coalition government, it won’t be easy getting those calling the province KPK to refer to it as KP.

The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahimyusufzai@ yahoo.com