THE seeds of mistrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan were sown even before independence in 1947. By 1946, it had become clear that British India would be partitioned. The Afghan government saw an opportunity to revise the Durand Line of 1893 and lay claim to several territories that were to become part of Pakistan. When a referendum held in the then NWFP in July 1947 ruled decisively in favour of joining Pakistan, the Afghan government started championing the cause of independence for the Pakhtuns in a separate state (‘Pashtunistan’). On Sept 30, 1947, Afghanistan’s representative cast the only negative vote for admitting Pakistan to the UN. That vote was later withdrawn but the hostility it represented cast a long shadow of mistrust between the two countries.
During the Pakistan-India war of 1965, Afghanistan chose to stay neutral though public sympathy appeared to be with Pakistan, leading many Pakistani strategists to believe that Afghanistan could ensure strategic depth for Pakistan. After the Soviet and US invasions of Afghanistan in 1979 and 2001, Afghanistan plunged into a series of crises, causing enormous hardship to its people. Pakistan opened its doors to millions of Afghan refugees and even supported Afghan militants — referred to as mujahideen — who were resisting the occupiers. That built expectations in Pakistan that a friendly Afghan government denying space to elements hostile to Pakistan could be a strategic asset. This expectation has remained largely unfulfilled, even during the past two years of a seemingly friendly government in Kabul led by the Taliban.