Mohammad Jamil
Since partition of the sub-continent and inception of Pakistan, Afghanistan has refused to recognize Durand Line as boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now India has joined hands with Afghanistan to raise settled issues to put Pakistan on the mat. India’s biggest publishing house Rupa Publishers has published a book on the Durand Line written by Rajiv Dogra, a veteran diplomat, which appears to be a renewed effort to further defame Pakistan. The book titled ‘The acrimonious Durand Line’ by Rajiv Dogra was scheduled to be launched this autumn, but till today it is neither available in the market nor on any of the websites. Only daily ‘Afghanistan Times’ revealed that Rajiv Dogra wrote a sensational book on the Durand Line, claiming “it is set to bring out the truth the world has not known so far – the one that challenges the current history.”
In his earlier book titled ‘Where brothers bleed: An insider’s account of Indo-Pak relations,’ published in 2015, Rajiv Dogra used conjectures and ruses, instead of giving an objective analysis. He wrote: “Would terror have affected the world the way it has, if Pakistan and India had been a benign single entity? What if India and Pakistan were to reunite, much like East and West Germany? As the now-largest nation in the world, would the mammoth Pakistan-India radically change the globe’s geo-political framework?” In that book, he had termed Durand Line agreement as iniquitous, which meant grossly unfair and morally wrong. Given his background, he is likely to distort history in his new book on Durand Line. But he is bound to fail, as historical record is available in all the libraries of the world, and it is not possible to change the maps and contents of treaties and pacts.
Durand Line was demarcated under the British diplomat Sir Mortimer Durand’s watch following a treaty between him and the Afghan ruler Amir Abdur Rahman in 1893. Afghanistan had reaffirmed and ratified the Durand Line agreement by making additional treaties with the British in 1905, 1919, 1921 and 1930 under different governments. However, Kabul claimed that these were signed under duress; in particular the 1919 treaty signed in Rawalpindi after the Third Anglo-Afghan War that upheld the Durand Line agreement. Afghanistan does not recognize Durand Line as an international border between the two countries on the pretext that Pushtuns on both sides were inseparable. The objections raised by various Afghan governments after 1947 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. Afghanistan also takes the plea that the agreement was made with the British Government and not with Pakistan; hence it was invalid. But the treaties signed by various Afghan governments belied the claim that it was a forced treaty. It has to be mentioned that nowhere in the treaty it was mentioned that it was for 100 years. Finally, 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. Pakistan considers Durand Line as international boundary recognized and confirmed by Afghanistan governments on several occasions. Unfortunately, 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, which amounted to showing disregard to international agreements.
To create problems for Pakistan, King Zahir Shah and subsequent Afghan governments had supported Pakhtunistan movement in Pakistan taking the plea that the ethnic Pashtuns ought to be given the right of self-determination. Historical evidence suggested that at the time of partition of the sub-continent, then governor of the NWFP, Sir George Cunningham after touring the tribal areas and meeting the tribal chiefs had declared that the people wanted to retain the same ties with the new state of Pakistan, as they had with the British India. Kabul had argued that Pakistan was not a successor state to Britain but a new state that was carved out of British India. It is worth mentioning that in NWFP a referendum was held in July 1947 in which 289244 votes were cast in favor of the NWFP’s union with Pakistan and 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 African countries. A unilateral declaration by one party, therefore, is of no consequence and has no effect. The Afghan government has never produced concrete evidence to back its claim, as it has none. There is a perception that Afghanistan 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, especially when the UN and international community consider Durand Line as permanent border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The question is why Afghan governments did not raise any objection when almost all Afghan borders were demarked with Iran, Russia and China in the second half of the nineteenth century?
It is part of history that Durand Line was the only border in respect of which the king of Afghanistan was taken into confidence, whereas 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. Since Afghanistan never raised the border issue with other countries, it did not seem to be on high moral ground when it disputed the border with Pakistan. 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. Furthermore, the referendum of 1947 and the decision of tribal Jirga of FATA are the strongest and undeniable facts to judge the affinity of Pashtuns. Unless Afghanistan accepts this eidetic reality, peace in the region will remain elusive.
