Tensions between Pak & Af had reached the international stage before Pakistan could barely walk.
“From almost Hie first day of Pakistan’s existence as an independent country, relations between the two states were strained” . Afghanistan showed its frustration over the referendum when it voted against Pakistan’s entry into the United Nations in September 1947 stating that Pakistan shouldn’t join the “brotherhood” of peaceful nations in the UN until it satisfactorily solved the Pashtunistan issue.
The Afghan representative, Hosayn Aziz, is quoted to have said, “We cannot recognise the North-West Frontier as part of Pakistan so long as the people of the North-West Frontier have not been given an opportunity, free from any kind of influence, to determine for themselves whether they wish to be independent or to become part of Pakistan ”
Pakistan took the initiative in December 1947 to discuss the issue with Afghanistan in Karachi. The afghan representative, Najibullah Khan wanted the Durand Line to be seen as null and void and also wanted Pakistan to allow the establishment of Pashtunistan. Zafarullah Khan, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, tried to reassure Afghanistan that the Pashtuns of the frontier “would enjoy equal and autonomous status within Pakistan”
The Afghan government convening a ‘Loya Jirga’ or National Assembly in Kabul on 26 July 1949 to officially declare that they no longer recognised the 1893 Durand Line Agreement, the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1905, the Treaty of Rawalpindi of 1919 and the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1921. A “Pashtunistan Day” is officially celebrated each year in August to reaffirm this declaration.