Mohammad Jamil
mjamil1938@hotmail.com
Since Pakistan’s independence in 1947, Durand Line remains a contentious issue between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is said to be the main reason for strained relations between the two countries. Afghanistan calls it the Durand Line after the British diplomat Sir Mortimer Durand under whose watch the demarcation was done following a treaty between him and the Afghan ruler Amir Abdur Rahman in 1893. Pakistan considers Durand Line as international boundary recognized and confirmed by Afghanistan governments on several occasions. In fact, Afghanistan was the only country in the world to oppose Pakistan’s membership in the United Nations in 1947 taking the plea that it did not recognise the Durand Line as a permanent border. From King Zahir Shah to President Najibullah Khan, all Afghan governments had supported Pakhtunistan movement in Pakistan based on its claim that the ethnic Pashtuns ought to be given the right of self-determination.
Afghanistan had reaffirmed the Durand Line agreement by making additional treaties with the British in 1905, 1919, 1921 and 1930, but Kabul claimed that these were signed under duress. In particular, the 1919 treaty signed in Rawalpindi after the Third Anglo-Afghan War upheld the Durand Line agreement. Some of the objections that emanate from the Afghan side regarding the validity of the Durand Line are: The agreement was forced upon the Afghan King Abdul Rahman Khan after negotiations with the British government in 1893. Secondly, it was signed only for a period of 100 years, which expired in 1994. And thirdly that the agreement was made with the British Government and not with Pakistan; hence it was invalid. Writers and analysts of Afghanistan and Pakistan supported stances of their governments, but people were not informed about the facts and realities and also what UN had to say about this issue.
Pakistan as a successor state to British India derived full sovereignty over areas and its people east of Durand line and had all the rights and obligations of a successor state. As the Treaty was inked in Afghanistan and was further ratified in subsequent pacts of 1905, 1919, and 1921, it negated the claim that it was a forced treaty. Finally, nowhere in the treaty it was mentioned the treaty is for 100 years. As stated earlier, the basic reason for strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been non-acceptance of Durand Line by the latter as an international border between the two countries because of its leadership’s perception that Pushtoons on both sides were inseparable. In July 1947, a month before the partition and independence of the subcontinent, Afghan government informed the British government that the tribesmen in the tribal areas wanted to dissociate themselves from India.
Afghan government of course meant Pakistan, and then governor of the NWFP, Sir George Cunningham after touring the tribal areas and meeting the tribal chiefs declared that the people wanted to retain the same ties with the new state of Pakistan, as they had with the British India. After the establishment of Pakistan in August 1947, Kabul argued that Pakistan was not a successor state to Britain but a new state that was carved out of British India. Both Indian National Congress (Nehru) and Muslim League (Jinnah) agreed to the referendum plan. NWFP Chapter of Congress tried to persuade Nehru to boycott the referendum but he refused. Voter lists for referendum were the ones used in 1946 provincial elections (won in NWFP by Congress). NWFP Governor Sir Olaf Caroe was replaced on insistence of Congress just 2 weeks before the referendum (19 Jun 1947) and Sir Rob Lockhart who enjoyed Congress’s confidence, was made Governor.
Referendum was conducted in July 1947 under NWFP’s Congress-led Govt (CM Dr. Khan Saheb, brother of Baacha Khan). Number of eligible voters: 572,798. Number of votes polled: 292,118 (51% turnout), the same turnout as was recorded in provincial elections. It is worth mentioning that only 2,874 votes for union with India. Secondly, the world courts have universally upheld the binding bilateral agreements with or between colonial powers, and are passed down to successor independent states, as was the case with most of Africa. A unilateral declaration by one party, however, is of no consequence and has no effect. The Afghan government has yet to produce evidence to back its claim. In fact, it is argued that Afghanistan has refrained from taking this issue to the UN, the International Court of Justice or any other world forum because of the weakness of its legal case.
In July 1948 Kabul announced that it didn’t recognise “the imaginary Durand or any similar line.” It named a few busy squares in Kabul and Jalalabad as Pakhtunistan and began celebrating Pakhtunistan Day in presence of Pakistani Pakhtun and Baloch dissidents by hoisting the flag of Pakhtunistan. Anyhow, almost all Afghan borders were demarked in the second half of the nineteenth century. Among them, the Durand Line was the only border in respect of which the king of Afghanistan was taken into confidence. The borders with Tsarist Russia and China were determined through dialogue between Britain and Russia. Similarly, the Afghan-Iran border was fixed through dialogue between Iran and Britain. Afghanistan never raised the border issue with other countries. Those voicing against the Durand line need to realize the new realities. The reality is that there are more Pashtuns living on this side of the Durand Line than in Afghanistan.
