| While Pakistan continues to develop from a young nation to a mature one, after passing through a temultuous history having fought & survived 3 wars with a determined enemy to its east, poverty, a changing world politically/economically, soviet intervention and hostility from neighbooring Afghanistan and more recently Nuclear brinkmanship from India and the war on terror. Pakistan has proven itself to be resilient, determined and very much at the frontline of world affairs, a place which invokes passionate resolve despite the multitude of problems facing it, neighbooring countries and the region as a whole.
Many Political analysts, Afghans and Pakistani's have discussed the possibility of forming a confederation btw the two nations of Afghanitan & Pakistan.
Initially, the two nations would function under considerable autonomy, sharing only security, monetary and trade relations(already existent) and later on, as relations solidify and improve, there can be greater cohesion by unifying the polical structure of these two nations. There will no doubt be many hurdles on the way from pressure groups in both Pakistan & Afghanistan, but the idea of Afghanistan and Pakistan as united countries is not so far fetched and is a natural sequelae of the region vis-a-vis current patterns of orientation, trade links, population movement, historical/cultural/linguistic spheres and public sentiment. If one reads through history, you'll find that the modern lands of Pakistan where infact 'Afghanistan' just a few hundred years ago prior to British occupation. In fact, the modern nation state of Afghanistan created by Shah Abdali consisted of all of modern day Afghanistan, and all of modern day Pakistan(including every province in it:Balochistan, SIndh, Punjab, Kashmir). Coincidently, the current Pakistan India border used to be the ancient border with Afghanistan. I refer you to the following link from an Afghan site which shows a map during the time of Abdali---> Afghan-web.com/history.empire.html
http://www.afghan-web.com/history/empire.html
WHile Pakistan has surplus foods and is an established rising economic/regional power it suffers from a lack of natural resources and dominance of certain ethnic groups(mainly Punjabi who make up 46% of population, with the pushtuns in 2nd place @ 18%) and a minority of muslim refugees known as muhajir who came from India at the time of independence and were disproportionately represented in the countries services despite being less than 6% of the population. In AFghanistan, the country suffers from severe food shortages, is landlocked, yet does contain many natural resources. Afghanistan also suffers bitter ethnic rivalry between the Pushtuns (about 40% of the population) and Tajiks(@ 27%) an urbanized, educated and elite group with both showing varying antagonism towards other smaller groups such as the Hazaras, Turkomen etc.... Union/Confederation of Pakistan and Afghanistan would help these two former 'Afghan Domains' compliment each other, help create a healthy & equitable balance between ethnic groups in both countries and return these two countries to their original culturo/linguistic borders. Many of the inherent difficulties the two nations currenly suffer would in part be shared by the other half so to speak. Also, such a confederation would be a country of enormous potential, resources and strenght in the region bringing along with it, stability, growth and prosperity to the entire region. It would also be by defunct a nuclear power and have considerable resources at its disposal. Political analyst have always stated that such a state is and most likely will be enivatable in the near future but the issue is not of if& how this will happen but rather of when it will happen! |
