Dominion of Pakistan – Kingdom of Afghanistan (1947–1973) relations

See also: British India – Kingdom of Afghanistan relations and Durand Line

Kingdom of Afghanistan—United Pakistan relations

Afghanistan Kingdom	PAKISTAN   (Occupied Kashmir)

Both countries established diplomatic relations on the 29th of February in 1948. The dysfunctional relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan has deep roots. In effect, the territories now making up Pakistan were all conquered by Great Britain as British INDIA, or ceded by pliant Afghan Emirs, in the nineteenth century prior to the Durand Line Agreement in 1893. Kabul’s attempts under successive leaders to disavow or reverse these arrangements are well-known. All failed. As a direct consequence, Afghanistan was the only state to oppose Pakistan’s membership in the UN in 1947 when a vote on re-joining Afghanistan was disallowed in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). In 1949, a Loya Jirga revoked all agreements with Britain, including those relating to the so-called Durand Line that in effect became the boundaries of the sovereigns. Throughout the 1950s and again in the 1970s under President Daoud Khan, Afghanistan pursued a “Pashtunistan” policy, which led to repeated diplomatic and economic crises with Pakistan. Kabul became a sanctuary for Baluch separatist leaders. As a direct result, starting in the late 1960s, Islamabad began a policy of armed interference in Afghanistan through proxies. It recruited and trained Afghan dissidents, mostly Islamists, including Rabbani, Hekmatyar, Massoud and Sayyaf. This policy accelerated in the mid-1970s.

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