Will Pakistan Break Up? - Carnegie Endowment for International ...

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especially implementation of the 1973 Constitution leading to a meaningful devolution of
power to the provinces.
Now, turning to the Pashtuns, it is necessary to bear in mind that the 41 million
Pashtuns on both sides of the border have a long history of unity.
Prior to the British Raj, the Pashtuns had been politically unified since 1747 under
the banner of an Afghan empire that stretched eastward into the Punjabi heartland up to the
Indus River. It was traumatic for them when the British seized 40,000 square miles of
ancestral Pashtun territory between the Indus and the Khyber Pass, embracing half the
Pashtun population, and then imposed the Durand Line, formalizing their conquest. The
British subsequently handed over this territory to the new government of Pakistan in 1947
after a controversial 1947 referendum in the Northwest Frontier Province. The referendum
was administered under the control of British colonial authorities who openly favored the
accession of the province to Pakistan. Out of 572,799 eligible voters, only 292,118 voted.
This was because the referendum was boycotted by many Pashtuns. The Pashtun parties
that had overwhelmingly won the 1946 provincial elections wanted the referendum to
include the option of an independent “Pashtunistan” in addition to a choice between India
and Pakistan. The leaders of these parties were imprisoned prior to the referendum and
their newspapers banned after their “Bannu Declaration” calling for “Pashtunistan” on June
22, 1947. Out of those Pashtuns who did vote in tribal gatherings convened by the British
authorities, all but 2,894 voted for Pakistan. Thus the issue was decided by 50.5 percent of
the eligible electorate amid charges of blatant rigging that still resonate today.
After the creation of Pakistan, Zahir Shah’s monarchy, Mohammed Daud’s republic
and the short-lived Communist regime in Kabul have all challenged Pakistan’s right to rule
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