May Allah, the ultimate king, help you, when  you help the people of Afghanistan!

Legalization of invasion of Afghanistan by Pakistan under the term "common destiny"

The following article which was published in DAWN's August 9th, 2000 edition, seams to be an attempt by the Punjabi rulers of Pakistan to win the support of Pashtuns of both Pakistan and Afghanistan in their design to invade Afghanistan, under the term "common destiny".

Like the Sikhs and British, Punjabi governments are know to have used Pashtuns in a verity of ways, taken their resources to develop Punjab and showed little secrecy in doing so.

Even Soviets did not committed such inhuman crimes during their invasion of Afghanistan. Men were systematically removed from their houses in Bagram area, and executed.  Days later, Taliban demanded that women search for the dead bodies of their men in a close by desert.  These crimes were committed by Punjabi and Afghan Taliban.

Pashtun movements in Pakistan have always voiced these evil practices of the Punjabi rulers but ISI have always effectively suppressed all such movements either by force, or by money.

Now, under the cover of Islam and brotherhood, Punjabis are trying to fool Pashtuns and use them to fight and invade Afghanistan by force, so that they can use all of it's resources to further develop Punjab and at most give Pashtuns another Lady Reading Hospital, or Edwards College.  Big deal?

Then Pashtuns will be titled the heroes and sent to the front lines during the next inevitable India-Pakistan war to die in the name of Islam.  At the end if Pakistan survives, Punjabis will continue to rule over Pashtuns and continue to use them.

Afghanistan have always been a multi cultural nation consisting of Pashtuns, Hazaras, Tajeks, Uzbeks, Turkmens, and other minorities, but not Punjabis.  

Punjabis and oppressed Pashtuns of both Pakistan and Afghanistan must use logic and realize that Afghanistan does not need to be part of a troubled stated already in the edge of a nuclear war with its neighbor India.  Afghanistan needs self determination,  national unity, peace and democracy.  This will ensure stability in the region, as Afghanistan's resources are not used for strengthening the Punjabi war machine against it's rival India.

This article published by Dawn is completely out of line and a clear evidence of the Punjabi intensions, and their on going interference in Afghanistan.

If the Kuwaiti invasion by Iraq was not acceptable to George Bush, how can the world silently watch the invasion of Afghanistan by Pakistan?  How come Washington is  not playing the "world police" in this case.  Could they be corrupt cops just like the Pakistani police?

I appeal to all the people of Afghanistan to cleverly analyze these developments, and join hands to give the "Black Army" a taste what "Red Army" will never forget.

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Pakistan and Afghanistan: Can they build a common destiny?
10 August 2000 Thursday 09 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1421
By A. Abdulla and K. Hasan

THE nature of relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a very delicate one. Leaving aside the recent realities (past 20 years) of the close brotherly relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan during the jehad against the Soviets/Communists, and now the dominance of the Afghan Taliban, prior to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan many Afghans were uneasy towards the region now forming Pakistan.

What had embittered the feelings of the Afghans was the taking away of Pashtun inhabited territories by the Sikhs who perpetrated brutal atrocities on their Muslim subjects and made their existence miserable.

Similarly, their successors, the British, were no less antagonistic towards the Pashtuns and waged constant war against them, causing great hardships and miseries to the inhabitants of the entire area. The Pashtuns of what is called today the NWFP/Sarhad and the Tribal Areas of Pakistan had to make tremendous sacrifices for about 130 years both under the Sikhs and the British (1818-1947). It was this misfortune of the Pashtuns of this belt that was partly responsible for the attempts made by the Kabul rulers to get it back.

But from August 14, 1947 things have taken a different turn and the entire perspective has changed. The Pashtuns of neither the settled regions nor of the Tribal Areas are subjected to any discrimination nor any expeditions sent against them or armies deployed to suppress them. They are citizens of a free state where they enjoy the same rights as people of other provinces. Pashtuns hold positions of the highest responsibility in civil as well as military services of Pakistan.

Since the day Mahmud Ghaznavi entered this subcontinent, Pashtuns have been a constant factor in political, social and military life of the Muslims of this subcontinent. In terms of time from 1000 AD onwards for about a thousand years, and in terms of space from Chitral to Chittagong and from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, the ubiquitous Pashtun has always been there. There is no city or town in this subcontinent with Muslim population without Pashtun 'mohallas' or neighbourhoods and there is hardly a Muslim family which has not entered into matrimonial relations with the Pashtuns.

As far as Afghanistan is concerned we can very well understand the feelings of Amir Dost Mohammed, Sher Ali, Abdur Rehman Khan and King Amanullah towards fellow Pashtuns east of the Durand Line living under non-Muslim rule during their time. But today they are not living under non-Muslim rule.

No decision on any issue can be taken by the government of Pakistan without the consent of the Pashtuns living in Pakistan. Further, since they are spread over the NWFP and Quetta division of Balochistan, they will wield power in the governments of both provinces in any constitutional set-up.

A few words about the fusion of the two brotherly countries. The idea of Afghanistan forming an autonomous province of Pakistan is not an unfamiliar or impracticable one. The letter 'alif' in the Urdu (or 'A' in English) word 'Pakistan' stands for Afghans. Both Jamaluddin Afghani and Allama Iqbal cherished the concept of North-West British India and Afghanistan together forming a single Muslim state.

A fusion of the two would be pregnant with immense possibilities not only for the people of the two countries but for the entire Muslim world. There is nothing wrong or repugnant in this idea. The combined strength of the Pashtuns from the Indus to the Oxus and from Dir to Herat would ensure their internal autonomy as well as a strong voice and a powerful say in the government of Pakistan.Furthermore, such confederation will be a diluting factor for the predominant groups of Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Punjabis in Pakistan, thus creating a better balance among all groups. World trends are towards greater integration and larger pooling of resources. Let the Afghans give the idea a calm and cool consideration in the larger interests of Muslim unity. There is plenty of commonality between Pakistan and Afghanistan in respect of their religion, culture, race, history, geography, etc.

Here I would like to quote a paragraph relevant to this aspect from W.K. Frazer Tytler's book "Afghanistan: A Study of Political Developments in Central and Southern Asia". He writes: "It is indeed a strange feature of this complicated situation that there exists, like a cancer in the body politic of northern South Asia, this collection of 'independent' tribes, well armed, intractable and formidable, who may at anytime disturb relations and disrupt the economy of either of the states in whose midst they dwell. It is an anachronism and a danger to the stability of northern South Asia and the peace of Central Asia. The remedy is the fusion of the two states of Afghanistan and Pakistan in some way or other. It may be argued that, given the differences in mental and political outlook of the two states, such fusion is impossible. This may be so; I am in no position to argue the matter. But history suggests that fusion will take place, if not peacefully, then by force." This is the view of an eminent western author.

The above study brings out two alternatives for the solution of Pak-Afghan problems. Either the Durand Line remains, enabling the people of the Pashtun race to play a leading role in both Afghanistan and Pakistan which should lead to the shelving of 'Pakhtunistan' issue forever and the establishment of amicable relations between the two, or, since one of the objectives of setting up an independent state (Pakistan) in the north-western parts of British India was to include in its fold Muslims living up to the Hindu Kush or the Oxus which have been the traditional boundaries of all the Muslim and pre-Muslim dynasties of this area, a fusion of Afghanistan and Pakistan is highly desirable.

Such a development would be natural, normal and highly rewarding. It will benefit both, strengthen both, and open up new vistas for both. As the present boundaries of Afghanistan skip the Hindu Kush and lie along the Oxus, the possibilities are considerably broader and potentialities exceedingly brighter.

The whole issue needs to be studied in a historical, cultural and religious perspective and not in terms of modern, recently nurtured ideas of parochial western nationalism. We have to break the linguistic and racial barriers sometime and somewhere and demonstrate to the world that Muslim nationalism does not brook petty ideas and does not believe in tenuous bonds. The best place to demonstrate the superiority of Islamic principles of nationalism is between the Sutlej and the Oxus and the best time is the 21st century.

Common rule over Pakistan and Afghanistan is not a new or novel idea in the context of history. The Sakas, Parthians, Graeco-Bactrians, Kushans, Ghaznavids, Abdalis and many others were rulers of both the countries with their capital either at Peshawar, Taxila, Ghazna or Qandahar.

Then, the territories now forming Afghanistan have great political significance for the Muslims of South Asia. From its bosom have originated movements and monarchs who established Muslim rule in areas of today's Pakistan, and later in the entire subcontinent.

Mahmud Ghaznavi, though a Turk, was born and brought up in Ghazna in Afghanistan and it was with the help of Afghan soldiers that he conquered several cities in northern India and introduced Muslim rule in the areas now known as Pakistan (11th century AD). Mohammad Ghori, though of Turko-Persian origin, was born and nurtured at Ghor in Afghanistan. It was again with the help of Afghan soldiers that he extended Muslim sway over the whole of northern India (12th-13th century AD). It was again an Afghan, Alauddin Khilji, who extended Muslim rule for the first time to southern India up to Cape Comorin (end of 13th and early 14th century AD).

Zahiruddin Baber, though a Barlas Turk, conquered parts of Afghanistan and stayed in Kabul for twenty years, making it a base for the conquest of the subcontinent where he finally established Mughal rule.

It were the Afghan dynasties of Lodhis and Suris that strengthened the base of Muslim rule in India by introducing land reforms, by bringing the rulers (Muslims) and the ruled (Hindus) closer to each other and by encouraging cultural and literary activities.

It will be noticed that almost all the Muslim dynasties that ruled over this subcontinent sprang from the territories now constituting the state of Afghanistan - Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Lodhis, Suris and Mughals, not to speak of the various Afghan dynasties that ruled over the provinces.

And finally when the Mughals were facing extinction of the hands of the Marathas and the Sikhs, it was again an Afghan, Ahmed Shah Abdali, who came to their rescue (middle of 18th century) and allowed them a brief respite. But since the Mughals were a spent force and unable to rise again, the support and succour provided by Abdali proved of no avail.

However, Abdali being a shrewd and sensible leader, aware of the huge anti-Muslim forces raising their head, and conscious of the limitations of his own power, established his hold, as a first step, in the north-western corner naming it Afghanistan (1747 AD). Pakistan is merely an extension of Abdali's kingdom. In fact, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Kashmir formed part of it during reigns of Abdali, his son Taimur Shah and during a short period of the latter's sons Shah Zaman and Shah Shuja. In view of this historical background, Pakistan and Afghanistan cannot remain separate from each other for long, especially when the same forces that Abdali had faced and crushed in the 18th century are again, in a different garb (India), posing a threat to the independence of this entire region.

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