Senior NWFP minister and ANP leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour has been caught in a controversy following his remarks at a function in Abbottabad but his supporters insist he (Bilour) never made the statement being attributed to him.Sections of the press, particularly the newspapers published from Hazara, had reported him as saying that those opposed to the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa should leave the province and shift to the Punjab.
Reporters, who attended the function that was held in connection with the death anniversaries Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, or Bacha Khan, and his son and late ANP head Khan Abdul Wali Khan, at Abbottabad's Jalal Baba Auditorium, maintained that Bashir Bilour did utter those words.
However, supporters of Bilour and officials in the ANP-led provincial government are adamant that he never spoke those words. They stressed that Bilour at no stage asked the people of Hazara to accept Pakhtunkhwa as the new name of the NWFP or move to Punjab.
Some reports said two ANP office-bearers from Abbottabad, in their emotional speeches, made comments to this effect and asked all those people in the NWFP who opposed the name Pakhtunkhwa to migrate to the Punjab. They claimed Bilour and two other provincial ministers, Qazi Mohammad Asad and Nimroz Khan, didn't make any such comment. It was learnt that Bilour did do some tough talking while referring to the track record of most politicians from Hazara.
He argued that a number of such politicians changed loyalties and joined the government. He felt some of the lawmakers from Hazara would join the ANP-led provincial government if offered berths in the cabinet. The District Council Abbottabad and some PML-N politicians came down hard on Bilour and condemned the comment attributed to him.
They pledged to oppose the renaming of the NWFP. District Council Abbottabad, while condemning Bashir Bilour's comments, also passed a resolution. Though the office of Bilour subsequently issued a clarification and denied reports that he had made the said comment, the controversy has refused to go away. Rather, it has intensified with more people joining in and expressing their views on the subject.