335 Carlos Setas Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the peace process with the afhgan taliban whether they reside in Afghanistan or Pakistan, form one and the same nation and should be united under the government of Afghanistan. Based on the idea of Pashtunistan3, the Afghan government claimed the right to self-determination for the Pashtun population in the Pakistani NWFP and in Balochistan4. The demand was made public immediately after the British announced their plans to partition India. The then Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Mohammad Hashin Khan, stated that, if Pashtunistan were not created, the NWFP should be incorporated into Afghanistan.5 Afghan hostility to the new State of Pakistan represented a serious threat to the latter given the constant snag of India in East Pakistan and the eastern border of West Pakistan6. Troubled relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are underpinned by the ambitions of the former as regards the two western provinces of the latter. Afghan leaders have based their claim on historical arguments since these regions were conquered by the founding father of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747-1773). His successors lost their sway over these provinces in successive wars against the Sikhs and the British. Moreover, the border between both countries, known as the Durand Line, has not been ratified by Afghanistan, which, even today, still refuses to recognise it. The Durand Line7, negotiated in 1983 between the British Empire and the then Emir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan (1880-1901), was to split Pashtun and Baluchi tribes in this border region into two. What is more, it transformed Afghanistan into a buffer state between the British and the Russian Empires, who were at that time embroiled in a complex race known as the Great Game whereby they vied for influence in Central Asia. In 1947, Afghanistan refused to recognise the validity of the treaty signed with the British Empire, arguing that the new Pakistani state had not ratified the agreement with Afghanistan. Pakistan maintains that, as successor to the British 3 Pashtunistan represents the concept of a state uniting all territories inhabited by populations of Pashtun ethnicity, namely, approximately half of Afghanistan, the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the north of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. As Afghanistan had traditionally been governed by Pashtuns, the idea of integrating these territories under the control of the government in Kabul was promoted despite the varied ethnic make-up of Afghanistan. 4 Balochistan is the south-western province of Pakistan. The north of this province, which borders Afghanistan, is predominantly inhabited by Pashtuns. 5 JALAZAI, 2003, p. 210. 6 After its creation in 1947, the State of Pakistan consisted of two wings separated by some 2,000 kilometres: West Pakistan, today Pakistan, and East Pakistan, which gained independence as Bangladesh in 1971. 7 Named after Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary of colonial British India between 1884 and 1894.
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