336 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos Núm. 2 / 2013 Empire in India, it upholds the agreements and treaties signed by its predecessor. In the 1940s, the opportunity arose for the Afghan government to take over control of the region. The British retreat opened the door to Kabul’s demands. However, it soon became clear that the inhabitants of Balochistan and the NWFP had no interest in becoming part of Afghanistan. In light of this, the Afghan government advocated the idea of an independent Pashtunistan to include the former states of Dir, Swat, Chitral and Amb within the NWFP as well as Kalat, Kharan, Makran and Las Bela in Balochistan, based on the common Pashtun ethnicity of their inhabitants.8 Together with the participation of British India, a referendum on the five districts of the NWFP was held in 1947. The result was overwhelmingly in favour of joining Pakistan. In tribal areas, it was impossible to hold a referendum given the lack of state organisation in the region. Instead, Sir George Cunningham, governor of the NWFP, carried out a series of interviews with the assemblies of each tribe (jirgas) which confirmed wish of the majority to become part of Pakistan maintaining the same conditions in place as under the British Empire. The Pakistani government subsequently confirmed this agreement. The states of Dir, Swat, Chitral and Amb also chose to join the new state. During the Afghan monarchy, relations remained more or less stable with some tenser moments, such as the call for self-determination for Pashtunistan and Balochistan to the United Nations put forward by the Afghan representative in 1972. 3. The rise of pakistani interventionism. the “strategic depth” doctrine In Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government (1971-1977) followed a policy of rapprochement with Afghanistan, whilst also promoting major development programmes in Pakistani tribal areas with a view to bringing the population into line. The overthrow of the Afghan king (1933-1973) by his cousin Sadar Mohammad Daud (1973-1978) in 1973 saw relations between both countries begin to worsen again. Nevertheless, successive bilateral contact prompted first by Bhutto, and then subse-quently by his successor General Zia ul Haq (1977-1988), helped to defuse tensions anew. This process of mutual understanding came to an end when the Communist Party came to power in Afghanistan after a violent revolution in 1978. It was in the mid-seventies that Pakistan began to intervene more directly in Afghanistan’s affairs. After the coup d’état by Daoud in 1973, the Bhutto government received Afghan dissidents in its border regions. These included various individuals 8 EL HAQ, Noor, KHAN, Rashid Ahmed and NURI, Maqsudul Hasan, “Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan”, Islamabad Policy Research Institute Paper No. 10, March 2005.
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