Afghanistan–Pakistan relations
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Afghanistan–Pakistan relations refer to the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In August 1947, the partition of British India led to the emergence of Pakistan along Afghanistan's eastern frontier, and the two countries have since had a strained relationship; Afghanistan was the sole country to vote against Pakistan's admission into the United Nations following the latter's independence.[3][4] Various Afghan government officials and Afghan nationalists have made irredentist claims to large swathes of Pakistan's territory in modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistani Balochistan, which complete the traditional homeland of "Pashtunistan" for the Pashtun people. Afghan territorial claims over Pashtun-majority areas that are in Pakistan were coupled with discontent over the permanency of the Durand Line which has long been considered the international border by every nation other than Afghanistan,[5][6] and for which Afghanistan demanded a renegotiation, with the aim of having it shifted eastward to the Indus River.[7] Territorial disputes and conflicting claims prevented the normalization of bilateral ties between the countries throughout the mid-20th century.[8] During the Taliban insurgency, the Taliban has received substantial financial and logistical backing from Pakistan, which remains a significant source of support. Nonetheless, Pakistan's support for the Taliban is not without risks, as it involves playing a precarious and delicate game.[9] Further Afghanistan–Pakistan tensions have arisen concerning a variety of issues, including the Afghan conflict and Afghan refugees in Pakistan, water-sharing rights, and a continuously warming relationship between Afghanistan and India, but most of all the Taliban government in Afghanistan providing sanctuary and safe havens to Pakistani Taliban terrorists to attack Pakistani territory.[10][11] Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated to an unprecedented degree following recent instances of violence along the widely known "Durand Line".[12] The Durand Line witnesses frequent occurrences of suicide bombings, airstrikes, or street battles on an almost daily basis.[13] The Taliban-led Afghan government has also accused Pakistan of undermining relations between Afghanistan and China and creating discord between the neighbouring countries.[14]
Pakistan |
Afghanistan |
---|---|
Diplomatic mission | |
Embassy of Pakistan, Kabul | Embassy of Afghanistan, Islamabad |
Envoy | |
Ambassador Mansoor Ahmad Khan | Charge d'Affaires Mohammad Shokaib[1][2] |
Shortly after Pakistani independence, Afghanistan materially supported the failed armed secessionist movement headed by Mirzali Khan against Pakistan.[15][16] Afghanistan's immediate support of secessionist movements within Pakistan prevented normalised ties from emerging between the two states.[4] In 1952 the government of Afghanistan published a tract in which it laid claim not only to Pashtun territory within Pakistan, but also to the Pakistani province of Balochistan.[17] On 30 March 1955, a pro-Pashtunistan group attacked the embassy and the ambassador's residence. They also tore down the Pakistani flag, to protest against the unification of the Pashtun-dominated North-West Frontier Province into West Pakistan as part of the One Unit policy. The protestors were stirred up by the Afghan Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan and bussed to the site.The Afghan police did not intervene, Pakistanis in Peshawar reacted by attacking the Afghan consulate in the city following which the diplomatic relations were severed by Pakistan[18]
Diplomatic relations were cut off between 1961 and 1963 after Afghanistan supported more armed separatists in Pakistan, leading to skirmishes between the two states earlier in 1960, and Pakistan's subsequent closure of the port of Karachi to Afghan transit trade.[7] Mohammed Daoud Khan became President of Afghanistan in 1973, Afghanistan—with Soviet support—again pursued a policy of arming Pashtun separatists within Pakistan.[19]
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai (in office 2004–2014) has described Pakistan and Afghanistan as "inseparable brothers" along with that he alleged that Pakistan uses terrorism against Afghanistan,[20] which is due to the historical, religious, and ethnolinguistic connections between the Pashtun people and other ethnic groups of both countries, as well as to trade and other ties.[21] Each of the two countries features amongst the other's largest trading partners,[citation needed] and Pakistan serves as a major conduit for transit trade involving landlocked Afghanistan. Both countries are member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Economic Cooperation Organization and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
However, there is considerable amount of anti-Pakistan sentiment in Afghanistan,[22] while negative sentiment towards the Afghan refugees is widespread in Pakistan,[23][24][25] even in Pashtun-dominated regions.[26] The Pakistani government has taken significant action against undocumented migrants inside the country and is expelling all the Afghan people.[27]