The divide between Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns was bridged during the Soviet invasion and subsequent civil war in Afghanistan as millions of Afghan refugees moved to Pakistan’s border region. This served to re-establish cultural ties; in fact, many Afghans settled and married into the population of Pakistan. Ironically, as time passed the initial whole-hearted welcome changed into antagonism amongst the majority of the Pakistani Pashtuns, who began to look upon the Afghans as exploitative and competing for the same resources, jobs and lucrative business trade existing throughout Pakistan.
Pashtunwali, the indigenous culture of the Pashtuns, and their pre-Islamic identity remains significant for many Pashtuns and is one of the factors that have kept the Pashtunistan issue alive. Although the Pashtuns are separated by the Durand Line, many Pashtuns, especially tribesmen from the FATA area, tend to ignore the border and cross back and forth with relative disregard. The rivalries of various ethnic groups, whose territorial boundaries do not coincide with the artificially created international border, is a major issue. The enduring conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan has its roots in this division of the Pashtun population – a deliberate British strategy of “divide and conquer” to weaken the fiercely independent Pashtuns and maintain Pashtun territory as a buffer zone. Pakistan has inherited and continued the British strategic policy of the buffer zone, which continues today as it cannot relinquish control of the restive tribal areas contiguous to the border without threatening its own territorial integrity.
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Pakistan’s security issues along its border with Afghanistan partially explain its support for insurgents in Afghanistan today. However, the militant camps established in western Pakistan also pose a threat to Pakistan itself, by abetting “the Talibanisation” of the NWFP.
Afghanistan makes its core claim on the Pashtun areas on the grounds that Afghanistan is the original home of all Pashtuns. According to some estimates there are 30 million Pashtuns in Pakistan while 12.5 million in Afghanistan. Over 60 percent of all Pushtuns live in Pakistan, this includes Pakistani Pashtuns and about three to four million Pashtun refugees from Afghanistan.7 Pashtuns in Pakistan have also migrated heavily to other provinces within Pakistan with the city of Karachi in the province of Sindh now having the largest urban population of Pashtuns in the world (estimated at four million).
The Pakistani Government has little interest in the promotion of Pashtun culture. The widespread usage of Urdu and its use as the only national language of Pakistan has caused considerable resentment.
There are also sizeable Pashtun populations in Lahore (one to two million) and in Islamabad/Rawalpindi. Pashtuns virtually dominate the transport industry in Pakistan and are actively involved in business and trade throughout the country but particularly in areas outside of the traditional Pukhtunkwa areas.
The Pashtun ideal of equality is based on the tribal system. The idea is that all Pashtuns are born equal, and are children of one common ancestor; social and economic inequality, which of course exists, is not given by nature or birth but is achieved individually, and is threatened and open to change at any time. Pashtuns use their tribal order to mark lines of conflict and solidarity. If I see two men fighting I am supposed to side with the one who is “closer” to me, i.e. the one with whom I share the nearest common patrilineal ancestor.8 The Pashtun tribal system is one which is bound by a network of primordial obligations on the solid basis of well structured genealogical ties. Such notions are linked to pride and honour, not to inferiority. Whereas the tribal order discourages social hierarchy, it defines social nearness and distance.
The Pakistani Government has little interest in the promotion of Pashtun culture. The widespread usage of Urdu and its use as the only national language of Pakistan has caused considerable resentment. This resentment is shared by most of Pakistan’s provinces including a sizeable number of Punjabis who also do not have official patronage of their language. With the exception of Urdu (Language of the Mohajir) and Sindhi (which was introduced as a provincial language in the 1970’s after much protests and ethnic tension against mohajirs), no other indigenous ethnic group of Pakistan has official patronage of their maternal tongues.
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