Durand Line or Greater Pakistan

A lot is being said and done on both sides of the Durand Line by the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the latest being the construction of the Changezi Gate at Torkham. Unfortunately, all such traffic and migratory regulatory steps taken between the two neighbouring countries are causing more of acrimony than harmony between them. Immediately after the creation of Pakistan a bogey of Pushtoonistan was raised by the Sarhadi Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan AKA Bacha Khan on the Machiavellian advice of  Mahatma Gandhi and the former  carried it with him right to his grave as according to his will he was buried in a ‘free land’ - Jalalabad Afghanistan than in the then NWFP whom he considered a slave province usurped by Pakistan.  Mischievously, the same stance is still being nurtured by the Afghan govt. but not necessarily by all the people of Afghanistan.  According to the proponents of Pakhtoonistan, its bounda! ries extend from River Kabul in Afghanistan to river Jhelum in Pakistan. In order to bring an end to this perennial dispute I would ask the govt. of Pakistan to accept their such demand. And at the same time the people of this newly created area be asked through a referendum whether they would like to be a part of Afghanistan or Pakistan.  I am sure the verdict shall be overwhelmingly in favour of Pakistan as only the populace from Torkham to Rohtas will outnumber the populace on the other side of Torkham, though even there many would opt for Pakistan. It will not only give Pakistan yet another and its largest mineral rich province but also increase in strategic importance many fold in the comity of nations of the world.

Let’s do it for the greater Pakistan.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)