Editing Durand Line (section)

=== Territorial dispute between Afghanistan and British India ===
{{See also|Afghanistan–Pakistan relations|War in Afghanistan (1978–present)|Afghan civil war (disambiguation)<!--intentional link to DAB page-->}}
Pakistan inherited the 1893 agreement and the subsequent 1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi after the [[Partition of India|partition from the British India]] in 1947. There has never been a [[Formality|formal]] agreement or [[ratification]] between [[Islamabad]] and Kabul.<ref name="DTP">{{cite web |url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_1-2-2004_pg7_23 |title=Durand Line Treaty has not lapsed |work=[[Daily Times (Pakistan)|Daily Times]] |location=Pakistan |first=Khalid |last=Hasan |date=1 February 2004 |access-date=11 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606143303/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_1-2-2004_pg7_23 |archive-date=6 June 2011 }}</ref> Pakistan believes, and international convention under [[uti possidetis juris]] supports, the position that it should not require an agreement to set the boundary;<ref name="WM"/> courts in several countries around the world and the [[Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties|Vienna Convention]] have universally upheld via ''uti possidetis juris'' that binding bilateral agreements are "passed down" to successor [[Sovereign state|states]].<ref name = OAU-Cairo>Over 90% of present African nations signed both the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU) charter and the 1964 Cairo Declaration, both of which "proclaimed the acceptance of colonial borders as the borders between independent states...through the legal principle of uti possidetis." {{cite web
 |url=http://www.paulhensel.org/Research/cmps07.pdf
 |title=Territorial Integrity Treaties and Armed Conflict over Territory
 |author=Hensel, Paul R.
 |publisher=Department of Political Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee
 |access-date=5 December 2009
|archive-date=27 July 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727164749/http://www.paulhensel.org/Research/cmps07.pdf
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> Thus, a [[Unilateralism|unilateral]] declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must be made bilaterally.<ref>Hensel, Paul R.; Michael E. Allison and Ahmed Khanani (2006) [http://mailer.fsu.edu/~phensel/garnet-phensel/Research/iowa06.pdf "Territorial Integrity Treaties, Uti Possidetis, and Armed Conflict over Territory."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615031212/http://mailer.fsu.edu/~phensel/garnet-phensel/Research/iowa06.pdf |date=15 June 2011 }} Presented at the Shambaugh Conference "Building Synergies: Institutions and Cooperation in World Politics," University of Iowa, 13 October 2006.</ref>

At the time of independence, the [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous]] Pashtun people<ref name="LoC" /> living on the border with Afghanistan were given only the choice of becoming a part either of [[India]] or Pakistan.<ref name="Newsweek"/> Further, by the time of the Indian independence movement, prominent Pashtun nationalists such as [[Abdul Ghaffar Khan]] and his [[Khudai Khidmatgar]] movement advocated a united India, and not a united Afghanistan – highlighting the extent to which infrastructure and instability together began to erode Pashtun self-identification with Afghanistan.<ref name="Arwin">{{cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1353172|title=Would India and Afghanistan have had a close relationship had Pakistan not been founded?|work=Dawn|date=22 August 2017|accessdate=9 September 2017|first=Arwin|last=Rahi}}</ref> By the time of independence, popular opinion amongst Pashtuns was split amongst the majority who wished to join the newly formed state of Pakistan, and the minority who wished to become a part of the [[Dominion of India]]. When the idea of a united India failed, Ghaffar Khan pledged allegiance to Pakistan and started campaigning for the autonomy of Pakistan's Pashtuns.<ref name="Arwin"/>

On 26 July 1949, when [[Afghanistan–Pakistan relations|Afghan–Pakistan relations]] were rapidly deteriorating, a [[loya jirga]] was held in Afghanistan after a [[military aircraft]] from the Pakistan Air Force [[1949 Mughalgai raid|bombed a village on the Afghan side of the Durand Line]] in response to cross-border fire from the Afghan side. In response, the Afghan government declared that it recognised "neither the imaginary Durand nor any similar line" and that all previous Durand Line agreements were [[Void (law)|void]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+af0022) |title=The Pashtunistan Issue |publisher=Library of Congress Country Studies |location=United States |first=Craig |last=Baxter| author-link = Craig Baxter |year=1997 |access-date=11 February 2011 |archive-date=16 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216071805/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+af0022%29 |url-status=live }}</ref> They also announced that the Durand ethnic division line had been imposed on them under [[coercion]]/[[duress]] and was a [[diktat]]. This had no tangible effect as there has never been a move in the [[United Nations]] to enforce such a declaration due to both nations being constantly busy in wars with their other neighbours (See ''[[Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts|Indo-Pakistani wars]] and [[War in Afghanistan (1978–present)|Civil war in Afghanistan]]''). In 1950 the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]] held its view on the Afghan-Pakistan dispute over the Durand Line by stating:

{{blockquote|[[Government of the United Kingdom|His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom]] has seen with regret the disagreements between the Governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan about the status of the territories on the North West Frontier. It is His Majesty's Government's view that Pakistan is in international law the inheritor of the rights and duties of the old Government of India and of his Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom in these territories and that the Durand Line is the international frontier.<ref>Durand Line, 1956, p. 12.</ref>|[[Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker|Philip Noel-Baker]]|June 30, 1950}}

At the 1956 SEATO ([[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization]]) Ministerial Council Meeting held at [[Karachi]], capital of Pakistan at the time, it was stated:

{{blockquote|The members of the Council declared that their governments recognised that the sovereignty of Pakistan extends up to the Durand Line, the international boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it was consequently affirmed that the Treaty area referred to in Articles IV and VIII of the Treaty includes the area up to that Line.<ref>Durand Line, 1956, p. 13</ref>|SEATO|March 8, 1956}}

In June 1976, a summit was held between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan which both sides made concessions, Pakistan publicly recognising the existence of the [[Pashtun question|Pashtunistan question]] which was a key part of Afghan foreign policy for decades, and the Afghans were willing to hold high-level bilateral talks without bringing up the subject regarding the fate of Wali Khan and his banned [[National Awami Party]] in [[Pakistan]] which the Pakistanis considered as "internal matters".<ref name=":0">[https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP08C01297R000100140003-5.pdf AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: THE POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DURAND LINE] (''www.cia.gov'')</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve08/d22 |access-date=2025-04-16 |website=history.state.gov}}</ref>