As per the spokesman of the Afghan ministry of foreign affairs, interior minister Ali Jalali of Afghanistan's visit to Pakistan and talks with Pakistani government authorities have done little to ensure normalcy along the two countries' borders. The situation remain a hot spot of concern to the local residents of the area who witness the digging in of Pakistani military and their unlawful excursions into Afghan soil, a situation that has been denied by Pakistani authorities, but confirmed by observers and newsmen.

This column has explained in good detail the background, history and intentions behind the concept and drawing of the Durand Line by the British agent Sir M.Durand, late in the 19th century when there was no Pakistan.

The column has further explained the recent efforts by the Pakistani military government to influence, in one way or another, the governments in Afghanistan so that they will recognize the now defunct and outdated Durand Line whose efficacy, if any, legally terminated in 1993.

Pakistan was hopeful that the Mujahideen government in Afghanistan would agree to a renewal of the defunct treaty that was never ratified by any Afghan legislature in more than one hundred years. Failing to do that, it nourished the movement of Taleban and helped it take power in Afghanistan. This time, with their full support extended to the antique methods of the Taleban even defending their wild national and international conduct, the government of Pakistan was certain, it would get an official agreement on the renewal of the Durand Line. Its interior minister Haider even called for the "renewal of the sanctity of the Line," during his many visits to Kabul during the Taleban rule.

But the Pakistani wish of having control over the Afghan government did not come true and now that following the historic Bonn meeting and the Emergency Loya Jirga, the people of Afghanistan have decided to go for a fully democratic government, Pakistani authorities are using another tactic in getting the Afghans to consider accepting the Durand Line as the official border.

International media observers and those who know the region as well as the long history of the area and the composition of its inhabitants, for the most part Afghan Pushtun tribes are witnesses to the fact that the Line is imaginary, unrealistic and divisive of families, hamlets, villages, clans and tribes. Demarcation of a border between same families and tribes is too sensitive, too important and too delicate to be decided by border incursions to which the Pakistani military has embarked at present. To find excuses for their incursions, the Pakistani military cite its commitment to fight terrorists. If this were the real case, then Pakistan had better target Pakistani Taleban from within their training institutions inside the country to prevent their entry into Afghanistan for terrorist activities. Pakistani tactic to include US interests in Pakistan's objectives in the Pak-Afghan border need to be checked by international authorities.

What is important today more than any time is a need for friendship and cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan especially regarding the great task of fighting terrorism. Pakistan, on the other hand does not need to get entangled along both its eastern borders with India and western borders with Afghanistan.

Pakistan should also remember that Afghans are fiercely independent and love their land more than their own lives. It is certain that the Afghans would fight resolutely to defend their land and that Pakistan in its effort to militarize the issue would have to rely on its Punjabi troops, as the Pushtuns would hesitate to fight their Pushtun and Afghan brothers. Punjabi troops in an area dominated on both sides of the imaginary line by Pushtuns would have no chance to further their designs. Atomic power would not give any edge to the Pakistani military in any conflict with its Afghan neighbor. It is to no ones advantage therefore, to create hot spots of military clashes along a border which should otherwise be a border of renewed peace, security and friendship. Not only the two nations, but also the two governments need each other if they are to strive for a region of peace and security ready to undertake great economic projects for the prosperity of their people. 07/27/03