RELEVANCE OF DURAND LINE
ASIFA QAYYUM*

INTRODUCTION
The boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan takes its name from Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, foreign secretary of British India, who concluded an agreement with Amir Abdul Rahman Khan (ruled 1880-1901) of Afghanistan on 12 November 1893. This agreement formally adjusted the "the eastern and southern frontier of His Highness's dominions, from Wakhan [corridor] to the Persian border."
According to Article 4 of the Durand Agreement,
“The frontier line will hereafter be laid down in detail and demarcated, wherever this may be practicable and desirable, by Joint British and Afghan Commissioners, whose object will be to arrive by mutual understanding at a boundary which shall adhere with the greatest possible exactness to the agreed map, and have due regard to the existing local rights of villages adjoining the frontier."
While the Durand Line set the limits of the territories of Afghanistan and British India on paper, the entire border was not actually demarcated at that time.

Durand, Floating Between the Mountains and the Indus
The issue of the Durand Line became more sensitive after 1947, when the British Empire in India was split into two independent states: India and Pakistan. Afghanistan, deep into its own search for identity and the formation of a nationalistic agenda, called for the right of self-determination for Pashtuns inhabiting the region between the Durand Line and the Indus River. This became known, at least in Kabul, as the "Pashtunistan" policy, and it had the effect of alienating Afghanistan and its new neighbor, Pakistan. On official Afghan maps at that time, the Durand Line was marked as disputed.
The issue of "Pashtunistan" had brought Afghanistan and Pakistan to the brink of war on more than one occasion, and drained Afghanistan's political and real economy. For Pakistan, the existence of two hostile neighbors, Afghanistan and India, had become a source of great concern. Even though Kabul eventually opted to stay out of all of the Indo-Pakistani wars, the possibility of having to fight on two fronts at one time pushed Pakistan to try to muscle the weaker of the threats – Afghanistan -- continuously over the years.
Pakistan’s golden chance to reduce the real or perceived Afghan threat came when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Although initially Pakistan was viewed as the next step in the Soviet march towards the "warm waters" of the Indian Ocean, the Soviets became bogged down in Afghanistan. And this occurred with the help of mainly Pakistan-based resistance groups. Finally, Islamabad could envision a friendly post Soviet Afghanistan, if not its own satellite state. The quest to have an Islamabad-friendly government in Kabul manifested itself in the person of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other resistance leaders, all the way to the formation of the Taliban in 1994.
The Durand Line was, once again, in the limelight. It remained a subject of detailed discussions at high level meetings in Islamabad. The need for greater vigilance on the border with Afghanistan is stressed to prevent the illegal cross-border movement of goods and people. Islamabad plans to 'impress upon' the Taliban the urgent need and importance of effective measures against the fresh influx of Afghan refugees through the 'porous’ Durand Line.
After 9/11 event, the Taliban led by Mullah Mohammad Omar and the Al Qaeda Network, headed by Osama bin Laden, have been removed from power. These groups formerly controlled most of Afghanistan. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda were defeated by the forces of United National and Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (UNIFSA), backed by United States’ air bombing campaigns. The US got directly involved in Afghanistan to seek revenge for the death of thousands of Americans killed when a few airplanes were hijacked, two of them were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, and the other plane crashed in an open field in Pennsylvania after the flight members tried to subdue the hijackers.
Pakistan, who supported the Taliban regime militarily and financially, made a drastic policy change and cooperated with the United States in going after Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Despite this, Pakistan, led by General Musharraf, still tried to influence the future stability of the Afghan government by attempting to secretly sabotage the talks in Bonn by flaring up ethnic issues. Many observers and analysts believe that the Pakistani government wanted to use the Taliban to restore the so-called "sanctity of the Durand Line", which separates Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan's objective was to rule Afghanistan by proxy, hence giving them a strategic depth against their South Asian rival India.
Currently, Afghanistan is being run by a United States backed, transitional government headed by President Hamid Karzai. Afghanistan adopted its new constitution, establishing the country as an Islamic Republic, in early January 2004.
Traveling in London, he told the Telegraph that while he sought ‘‘a civilized relationship with Pakistan,’’ it had to be conditioned by certain parameters. ‘‘One, we want friendship. Two, we want trade and business links. Three, we want a civilized relationship with Pakistan,’’ Karzai said, adding, ‘‘But Pakistan must avoid acts of aggression against Afghanistan and attacks across the border by extremists must stop. We will not remain silent spectators.’’

Conclusion
To ensure that Afghan and Pakistani forces do not cross the poorly defined border between the two countries during antiterrorist military activities, Kabul and Islamabad have agreed to use the Global Positioning System (GPS)
Today, both Afghanistan and Pakistan have suffered from their misjudgments of one another over the past five decades. There is no need to prolong this suffering, which has served as an indirect catalyst for international terrorism and a source of great instability in both states. The Durand Line that was drawn on the map by a British emissary 110 years ago should not be allowed by the leadership of both states to become a flashpoint. To ensure its viability and secure the sovereignty of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, it should be demarcated wholly and officially.

References
1. ‘The DURAND LINE – From Imagination To An International Border’,
RFE/RL Afghanistan Report - 7 August 2003, Volume 2, Number 28,
2. Durand Line Agreement, November 12, 1893, www.marwat.net
3. ‘Time To Settle the Durand’, RFE/RL Afghanistan Report - September 2003,
4. The Nation : Opinion, Wednesday, January 17, 2001
5. Afghan Politics, An Overview, www.afghan-web.com
6. Face-off: Crossing the (Durand) Line, India Times, 24 July 2003

* Student, M.A (Previous) Department of International Relations, University of Karachi.

All content (C) Department of International Relations, Karachi University

Website designed and maintained by Techdorado Web Technologies Inc.
Disclaimer Email Webmaster, KUIRD.org