Chapter 2 Pakistan’s Afghanistan predicament continues...


Afghanistan argued that the agreement signed in 1893 between the British representative, Sir Henr y Mortimer Durand and the Afghan ruler, Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, lapsed once Afghanistan became an independent state in 1919. Another argument put forth was that all agreements and treaties were signed under duress and the Pashtun areas, historically and legally, formed part of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan made its anger against the division known by refusing to accept Pakistan’s membership to the United Nations in 1947, becoming the only country to do so. The Afghan representative to the UN stated that “Afghanistan cannot recognise the NWFP as part of Pakistan so long as the people of the NWFP have not been given the opportunity, free from any kind of influence, to determine for themselves whether they wish to be independent or to become part of Pakistan.”1 Although these objections were subsequently withdrawn and diplomatic relations were established, Afghanistan continued to raise doubts about the legitimacy of Pakistan’s control over the Pashtun areas coveted by Kabul, thereby fuelling Pakistan’s insecurity.
This was evident from Afghanistan’s immediate support to the declaration of independence by Pashtun tribesmen in Pakistan and from the Loya Jirga organised in Afghanistan in 1949 that rejected all the boundary treaties signed between Afghanistan and British India. In addition to such declarations, Afghanistan also supported and actively participated in attempting to subvert Pakistan. Afghan agents operated within Pashtun areas distributing large amounts of money, ammunition and even transistor radios in an effort to sway loyalties from Pakistan to Afghanistan.2 Afghan forces disguised as tribesmen, along with regular Afghan troops, crossed over into Pakistani territory in 1951. Ransacking of the Pakistan embassy in Kabul in 1955 and military skirmishes on the border with Pakistani forces in 1960 and 1961, when Afghan Prime Minister Daoud Khan sent Afghan troops into Pakistan’s NWFP, underlined Kabul’s belligerent attitude towards the Durand Line and Pakistan, much of which remains as strong even to this date.


To be continued...