"Pakhtunkhwa" (and the other transliteration variants) is derived from "Pakhtun" and "khwa", the former refers to the ethnic group and the latter literally means "heart". Metaphorically, it is used to indicate "near the Pakhtuns (Pashtuns)". Nationalist Pashtuns claim "Pakhtunkhwa" is an old name of the area inhabited by Pashtuns. But in fact Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan) proposed this name as alternative to "Pakhtunistan" to military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1978, when the latter refused to accept the demand from the former to rename the NWFP as Pashtunistan. The famous Greek historian Herodotus had recorded it as "Paktia", but Pashtun poets from the time of Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghori down to the present age, have been mentioning it as Pakhtunkhwa.