PML-Q chief Ch. Shujaat said on Wednesday that the Hazara Division should be given the status of a separate province and this issue cannot be mixed with South Punjab. He voiced his demands in PML-Q's CEC meeting convened to ponder over the issue of renaming the NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PML-Q leader Ch. Pervaiz Elahi also supported the stance of the Hazara people, and said that it should be declared a separate province. Former PML-Q chief Farooq Leghari also spoke to the media and said that he was disappointed over PML-N's way of mishandling the entire issue regarding renaming the NWFP.Leghari said that Nawaz Sharif had a habit of constantly taking u-turns and backtracking. However, he stated that PML-Q stood firmly by its stance and did not want the name of the province to be changed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He made it clear that PML-Q's stance on new provinces should not be intercepted as demands for a new Jinnahpur, Paktunkhwa or a liberated Balochistan. PML-Q leader Ameer Muqam demanded a judicial inquiry into the violent protests that gripped the entire Hazara Division and claimed innocent lives.
