PkNAP Rejects Attempts to Alter Quetta’s Pashtun Status, Announces Protest Movement Against New Districts and Divisions

**Quetta:** The Pashtunkhwa National Awami Party (PkNAP) has rejected what it termed “anti-Pashtun” decisions by the provincial cabinet regarding the creation of new districts and divisions in Balochistan, announcing a comprehensive protest movement against the move.

In a statement issued by the party’s central secretariat, PkNAP said efforts to establish new administrative units in the Pashtun-Baloch province were aimed at changing the Pashtun national status of Quetta and other areas. The party recalled that in February 1975, a proposed separation of Pishin from Quetta had sparked a strong protest movement led by PkNAP and Pashtun communities, which resulted in negotiations at the Quetta Governor House in the presence of then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

According to the statement, those negotiations concluded with a formal notification by the prime minister, clearly stating that no area from the southwest would be added to Quetta and that no step would be taken to alter the Pashtun national majority of the city.

The party alleged that since 1970, when the historic Pashtun-Afghan land of southern Pashtunkhwa was given what it called an “unnatural” name of Balochistan, successive measures have been taken to change the Pashtun national character of Quetta and Sibi. These include the separation of Harnai from Sibi, the inclusion of Lehri in Sibi, the imposition of municipal constituencies in Quetta, an increase in the number of districts and divisions in Baloch areas, and restrictions on administrative units in Pashtun regions.

PkNAP further claimed that the recent proposal to include Mastung in Quetta Division and merge Barkhan into a newly created division is a deliberate attempt to consolidate control over Pashtun areas and turn Pashtuns into a minority on their own land.

The statement reiterated that Pashtuns are the original inhabitants of their historic homeland, asserting that colonial-era and later administrative arrangements imposed artificial identities on the region. It added that Pashtuns have consistently worked to maintain equality and coexistence in a joint Pashtun-Baloch province, but accused certain groups of pursuing dominance and territorial control.

Concluding the statement, the party warned that under the prevailing circumstances, Pashtuns in the province would be compelled to take firm and decisive steps to defend their historic homeland and national identity.