Pashtunistan Movement – A Far Dream

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Pashtunistan is a political concept that emerged prominently in the mid-20th century referring to Pashtun-inhabited regions along the Afghanistan–Pakistan frontier. In academic and political discourse, the term has carried multiple meanings — ranging from cultural unity of Pashtuns to proposals for territorial autonomy or statehood. Because its interpretation varies across historical periods and political actors, it remains a contested subject in regional studies.

The term Pashtunistan refers to a region connecting South Asia and Central Asia. Located on the Iranian plateau, it is being inhibited by the ethnic Pashtun/Pashtun people of Afghanistan, people of the province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in  and northern Baluchistan in Pakistan. Alternative names used for the region include Pakhtunkhwa, Pashtunkhwa, or, the Pashtun Belt. The name Afghanistan was used for the region during the high middle and late Middle Ages and in 20th century. It is Afghanistan by its land and ethnicity which is Afghan and by its language which is Pushto and hence Pashtun. History of India, Vol. 6 states that in the year 143 (Hijri) Khilji and Suri Afghan visited India and would decline to be called Kohistani, but Afghans. However, there are several claims about the origin or etymology of the word all of which cannot be described here.

According to one theory, the Pashtuns adopted the name Pathan when they arrived at the Indian city of Patna. Identifying them with the city of Patna, Indian started calling the Pashtuns as Pathan and the Pashtun lands as Pathanistan.  The concept of Pashtunistan was inspired by the word Pukhtunkhwa. The British Indian leader used the word Pathanistan. However, the word Pashtunistn was more popular among Pashtuns.

The Pashtunistan Movement aimed at creating a homeland for the ethnic Pashtun living on both side of the border (Durand Line) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The idea emerged after 1947, but its roots lie in the ethnolinguistic ties across the border – and it has connection with the geopolitical situation before partition 1947.

While many comment that the foundation of the Pashtunistan demand was laid before partition of India, its proponent started claiming it started after the 1947 partition. Occurrence of various events provided energy to Pashtunistan Movement – before certain people and groups started claiming it openly.

Pashtun’s struggle for unity, identity and independence spreads over history. For this purpose, the Pashtun personalities/leaders and groups fought the superpowers/empires of times. These includes Persia, Mughal Empire, British Empire and the recent USSR and NATO. The struggle continues till day in Pakistan, although certain achievements have been made through constitutional amendments.

The sixteenth century revolutionary Ormur leader Bayazid Pir Roshan and the seventeenth century warrior, poet and writer, Khushal Khan Khattak, both assembled Pashtun armies to fight for the independence against Mughal Empire.  During this era the eastern parts of the Pashtun lands were ruled by Mughals and the western parts were ruled by Safavid of Iran. Mirwais Hotak (Also Mirwais Khan Hotak or Mirwais Baba) was a Pashtun tribal leader from the Hotak branch of Ghilgi Pashtuns in Kandahar (then part of the Safavid empire in Iran).  He killed the Persian Governor, Gurgin Khan, a Georgian in 1709. Later he defeated several expeditions sent by Safavid Empire. Resultantly he ruled the Loy Kandahar and an independent Pashtun state. Although he himself did not invade Iran, but the uprising against Iran eventually led to Hotak empire expansion into Persia under his successors which contributed to the collapse of Safavid dynasty. The Pashtun later achieved unity under Ahmad Shah Abdali.

Ahmad Shah Abdali in his famous couplet (“Da Dili takht herauma cheh rayad kam – zama da khkule Pukhtunkhwa da ghro saroona”. Translation: “I forget the throne of Delhi when I recall the mountain peaks of my beautiful Pukhtunkhwa.”) called his homeland as Pakhtunkhwa.  He said this while returning to Afghanistan from an expedition in India. Ahmad Shah Abdali (also called Ahmad Shah Durrani) founded the Afghan state with the name of Afghanistan in 1747. His empire at its heigh stretched across much of today Afghanistan, parts of Iran, Punjab and Kashmir region. Soon after his death and the war of succession between his heirs, it started losing its control over far areas. Eventually it lost even the Pashtun areas in nowadays Pakistan and Baluchistan to British India in 1893 due to signing of Duran-Line Treaty. After signing the treaty, Emir Abdur Rahman went to the tribes and told that he signed the treaty under duress. Durand-Line by itself was a line of identifying British and Afghan influence, not a permanent border. But Duran-Line now forms an internationally recognized border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 1833, Shah Shuja Durrani — who was then a deposed Afghan ruler living in exile — made an agreement with Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire. Under the treaty both the parties agreed that Sikh will assist Shah Shuja to regain the Afghan throne. In return, Shah Shuja agreed to acknowledge Ranjit Singh’s control over border regions like Peshawar after regaining his position.  Ranjit Singh assisted politically and logistically, though the alliance did not quickly succeed in restoring Shah Shuja at that time. After escaping control of Ranjeet Singh, Shah Shaja joined hands with the British. He made a Tripartite Treaty signed on 26 June 1838 with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and the British East India Company. This treaty aimed to restore Shah Shuja to the Afghan throne with British and Sikh support and formalized cooperation against the then-ruler Dost Mohammad Khan of Afghanistan. Shah Shuja agreed not to enter into foreign negotiations without British and Sikh consent. The British agreed to fund and lead the restoration campaign, which was part of what became the First Anglo-Afghan War. Therefore in 1893, during a meeting regarding Afghanistan and Russian border, Henery Mortimer Duran, tabled the Shah Shujah and Ranjeet Sing agreement and claim that the tribal areas and Peshawar valley has been handed over to them sixty years ago by Sikh and Shah Shuja. Making a claim and threatening use of force, Ameer Abdur Rahman was compelled to sign the treaty. The later Afghan leaders declined to accept Duran-Line as a legal agreement as it was based on the agreements signed by individuals and that the Durna-Line treaty was signed under duress.

In 1905 the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) was created which roughly corresponded to the Pashtun majority areas. But this was not as per Pashtun aspiration for an identity and autonomy. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas were created and put under the federal administration. This further alienated the Pashtun as they always looked forward for unification under their Pashtun identity. FATA people were kept under the British draconian law, the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). Under the regulation the FATA people had no fundamental rights. There was a system of collective responsibility. The whole tribe was punished for the crime committed by single member of the tribe. All the powers vested in Political-Agent who would inflict special punishment such as confiscating of property, block people or a tribe moment in Trible or settled areas, arrest and detain and impose fines and restrictions.  In a democratic country where one man had one vote, only maliks had right to vote in FATA. Only Maliks had the rights to vote. The citizens of FATA were granted the right to vote in 1997 general election. The FCR was eventually repelled through 25th amendment and FATA was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in May 2018. So, a large number of the Pashtun people were deprived of the basic right to vote, right to protection and legal rights for fair trial and access to lawyer for contesting in a court and even courts procedures were not in vogue.

Many famous activist fighting against colonial Raj emerged from the Pashtun land called Pashtunkhwa. These included Abdul Ghafar Khan. In June 1947, Abdul Ghafar Khan, the Khudai Khidmatgar leader and Mirza Ali Khan commonly known as Faqir of Api passed the Banu Resolution demanding that the Pashtun areas instead of becoming part of Pakistan be given a chance to become an independent state of Pashtunistan composing of all Pashtun majority areas under the British Raj. The British govt refused to comply with the demand of the resolution. Later the Khudai Khidmatgar, for the referendum seeking NWFP population choice regarding joining India or Pakistan – demanded to give Pashtun a third choice of choosing to become independent state instead of only two choice such as to joint India or Pakistan. As the Khudai Khidmatgar’s demand was not accepted – therefore they boycotted the referendum.

During the Second World War, the Nazi Germany proposed an alliance with the neutral Afghanistan. In return Afghanistan sought to cede Karachi port and NWFP and Baluchistan. But these exploratory political talks. Not a treaty was signed to this effect.

During the 1942 Crips Mission and 1946 Cabinet mission, Afghan Govt made repeated to attempt seeking a role in debating future of India, especially NWFP. British Govt rejected their plea insisting that NWFP is an integral part of India.  In the first instance, Afghanistan voted against Pakistan’s entry into United Nations due to its claim over areas across Durand-Line which they considered as part of the common homeland. Pertinent to mention to mention that the negative vote was later withdrawn. Diplomatic relations were established with Pakistan soon.  In December 1947 on Indian intervention in Kashmir, Afghanistan started skirmishes along Duran Line to put Pressure on Pakistan.

 The Afghan govt supported the idea early on as a part of their opposition to the Duran-Line cutting through Pashtun triable areas they considered part of common homeland. On June 21, 1947, the Afghan Prime Minister, Hashim Khan, a paternal uncle of King Zahir Shah, in a press statement argued that if an independent Pakistan could not be achieved, then the North West Frontier Province should join Pakistan. This statement was interpreted as an attempt to reject Duran-Line and a claim on the Pashtun majority areas. He linked this to the broader idea that the Durand-Line agreement should be nullified once British India ended, because the tribals in Pashtuns lands had not genuinely consented to that frontier under colonial rule.  This was one of the earliest public statements from an Afghan leader challenging Pakistan’s future border and promoting the Pashtunistan question. It set the stage for later Afghan governments — especially under Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan (1953–1963 and later president) — to repeatedly oppose the Durand-Line and raise the Pashtunistan issue throughout the mid-20th century.

    On July 26, 1948 the Pakistan Airforce bombed and Afghan village on the border.  After 1948, Afghan govt started providing moral and material support to the Khudai Khidmatgar and National Awami Party demanding Pashtunistan or seeking  union with Afghanistan.  The same year the Afghan Govt established ties with Mirza Ali Khan, the Faqir Api, who were attacking the Pakistan forces with the objective to establish an independent Pashtunistan or merge Pashtun areas with Pakistan. In October 1951, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated by an Afghan national Said Akbar in Rawalpindi. This act broke the already strained relations between the two countries.

So far Abdhul Ghafar Kahn’s stance about the Pashtunistan is concerned, it had a different connotation. Once he stated that Dawood Khan was only exploiting the idea of reunification of Pakhtun people only to meet his political end.  He took an oath of allegiance to Pakistan in 1948. During his speech in the legislative assembly, replying to the query of Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan about Pashtunistan, he replied that Pashtunistan is a name of the Pashtun’s province like Bangal, Sindh and Baluchistan; contrary to the general belief that Pashtunistan is a struggle for an independent state for Pashtuns. However, Mirza Ali Khan (Faqir of Api) continued his attacks against the Pakistan Govt from his base in Gurwek.

In 1960-61, the Afghan Prime Minister Dawood Khan started openly supporting the Pashtunistan movement. He wanted the Pashtun dominated areas of current Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the province of Baluchistan to  become part of Afghanistan. An offensive was started along the borderline to annex the Pashtun areas. To counter the offensive, Pakistan mobilised its army and Airforce. Afghanistan also attempted capturing Quetta-Zahidan railway-line.

Because of his autocratic rule and failed foreign policies and the resultant blockade of Afghanistan trade by Pakistan and its effects on the Aghan economy and people and his close ties with the Soviet Union, Afghan King Zahr Shah deposed him. Later Mohammad Dawood Khan overthrew his cousin, King Zahir Shah, in a bloodless military coup on July 17, 1973 while the King was in Italy for medical treatment.  Daoud Khan seized power in Kabul, abolished the monarchy, and declared Afghanistan a republic, becoming its first president.

In 1970, Afghan Govt had launched a full-scale propaganda campaign with support of Aghan Govt machinery targeting Pashtun population in Pakistan’s frontier region, nowadays Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In 1973, after in power through a coup, President Muhammad Dawood Khan with the support of his proxies, the militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan started subversive activities. One of the major events is killing of the KP Chief Minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan in university of Peshawar on Feb8, 1973. 

The Pakistan Govt decided to retaliate against the Afghan Govt Pashtunistan policy by creating proxies to fight against the policies of Dawood Khan. These included Gulabadin Hikmatyar, Ahmad Shah Masood and Burhanuddin Rabbani  who later become popular Mujahidin leaders. They mobilised forces against Dawood Govt. Captured  Govt buildings and effected the Panjshir Valley rebellion in 1975. The rebellion was crushed and they fled to Pakistan.  Bhutto’s government saw Daoud’s drive for Pashtunistan and his support for ethnic nationalist militants as a strategic threat. In response, the government and Pakistani intelligence began to cultivate Islamist opposition figures as a way to Pressure Daoud’s regime internally.This operation proved remarkably successful. By 1977, the Afghan Govt was willing to settle all outstanding issue in exchange of autonomy for Pashtun and lifting of ban on Awami National Party. During the year several rounds of negotiations were held on high level. Both Bhutto and Sardar Dawood visited Kabul and Islamabad. Sardar Dawood did formally agree to accept Durand-Line as the permanent border. But the willingness was not formalised as a legally binding and lasting treaty. This was for the good reason the Bhutto’s govt fell to a military coup in 1977 and Dawood Khan was overthrown and killed in Saur Revolution (1978) which brought the communist regime in power in Afghanistan. The following govt changed its course on the Duran-Line and rejected the border as permanent.  

The insurgent planted by Bhutto paved the way for the Saur Revolution, although it didn’t play any direct role in facilitating the revolution. But there was some connection between the Pakistan-backed proxy activities in the mid-1970s and the Saur Revolution of April 1978, but the role was indirect and limited. The Saur Revolution (27-28 April, 1978) was an internal coup launched by the Afghan Communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), not a foreign led coup. But the Bhutto planted insurgent  proxies  insurgency against Daoud’s government in 1975–77 played a role. They helped destabilise the regime, creating broader conditions of political tension and distrust, especially between Daoud and factions within the army and political class. Dawood’s repression of all opposition — Islamist, nationalist, and leftist — contributed to a fragmented opposition climate by the time PDPA began plotting its coup.  Whoever may be responsible, Afghanistan still bleeds. Dawood Khan and PDA are long gone. But the Bhutto’s insurgents legacy still prevails. Ahmad Shah Masood and Rabani are dead – but Ahmad Shah’s son and Rabi followers are still making futile efforts to win back Panjsher from Taliban. Gulbadin Hikmatyar and Genral Dostam are still alive. The former has mended fences with Taliban but the latter is in exile working against Taliban. 

The concept of Pashtunistan has different meaning across Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan the movement was based on the unity of the Pashtun ethnic group across the border. They favoured the idea of Loy Afghanistan/Greater Afghanistan and maintained an irridentist claim on the entire Pashtun areas of Pakistan. The cause was also an object of the local politics where several govts need support of the ethnic Pashtun groups. The movement in Pakistan aimed at political autonomy for the Pashtuns rather than irridentist politics. The Pashtun nationalist did not exploit Pakistan’s vulnerability during the Pakistan India conflicts in 1965 and 71 and during the Russian Afghan war in the eighties. Rather it backed Pakistan against the much larger India and Russia.

The Afghan government’s official push for Pashtunistan declined significantly after the late 1960s and especially after the Soviet invasion (1979) and later decades of war.  In subsequent decades, Afghan leaders generally prioritized broader diplomacy, and the overt Pashtunistan agenda faded from top foreign policy. Ethnic and cultural advocacy continues among some circles — but not as a major separatist movement demanding a new state. Modern identity movements (e.g., those addressing Pashtun rights inside Pakistan) are often about civic rights and justice rather than creating a separate state.

The struggle for the Pashtun unity, autonomy and solidarity with Afghanistan due to ethnolinguistic, neighbourhood and co-religious relations still continue in one form or another. The Pashtun belt is hit hard by violence and extremism. Many call it terrorism and other call it jehad. Pashtun especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan are suffering enormously. Most of the Pashtun leader instead of fighting with Afghanistan due to suspicion of Afghanistan harbouring terrorists, are laying emphasis on dialogue with Afghanistan and the militants. Pashtun’s in Pakistan are still suffering due to militance and armed forces actions and Pashtuns in Afghanistan are suffering due to fictional wars. The Taliban regime is struggling for international recognition as a state but of no avail. The Pashtuns unification and autonomy may not have its identity as Pashtunistan, but it is still a dream – as even the Pashtun state has lost its international identity as a state due to Taliban govt there.

References:

 

    1. Durand Line overview — Britannica,  https://www.britannica.com/event/Durand-Line

    1. Durand Line details and historical context — Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durand_Line

    1. Afghanistan’s recognition and dispute over Durand Line — DW (Urdu & English reports), https://www.dw.com/ur/%D9%BE%D8%A7%DA%A9%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%BA%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%AE%DB%8C%D8%A7%DA%BA-%DA%A9%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B1-%DA%A9%DB%8C%D8%B3%DB%92-%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7-%DB%81%D9%88%D8%A6%DB%8C%D9%86/a-57557157

    1. Anglo-Afghan Treaty / 1919 confirmation of Durand Line — Wikipedia,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Afghan_Treaty_of_1919

    1. Pakistan–Afghanistan relations and Durand Line dispute — IPS (Institute of Policy Studies – Pakistan),  https://www.ips.org.pk/pak-afghan-relations-the-durand-line-issue/

    1.  Detailed history of the Durand Line and its implications — Times of India

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/the-durand-line-a-128-year-old-thorn-in-af-pak-ties/articleshow/88955917.cms.

 

    • Afghanistan Country Page (independence & modern state) — Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan

 

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