Pashtunistan pres

Pashtunistan, Paktunistan

What is Pashtunistan?

• Historical region inhabited by native Pashtun people since 1000 BC

• Politically divided in 1893 by Durand Line

• Since 1940s some Pashtun nationalists proposed Pashtunistan as future sovereign state

Where is Pashtunistan?

Population size:• 12 Million

Afghanistan 60% total pop.

• 27 Million Pakistan

• Maps of Pashtunistan often incorporate Balochistan though Balochs and Pashtuns differ

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Including Balochistanallows landlocked Afghani territories access to Indian Ocean

Balochs oppose beingIncluded in Pashtunistan

Pashtun People

Many tribes, most are nomadic United by Pashto languageand Pashtunwali - Majority are Sunni Muslim• Melmastia (hospitality)• Nanawatai (asylum)• Badal (justice)• Sabat (loyality)• Imandari (righteousness)• Istequamat• Ghayrat (self honor)• Namus (Honor of women)



Pashtun People



Pashtun People

• Hamid Karzai (President of Afghanistan)

• Afghan royal family• In Pakistan ethnic Pashtuns

attained Presidency• Primary ethnic group that

comprises Taliban



Grievances• British colonialism robbed Pashtuns of their ethnic

homeland• Empire once stretched as far east as the Indus River• Pakistan has quashed efforts to establish an

independent Pashtunistan• Desire to escape domination by Islamabad

– Refusal to build infrastructure– Do not teach Pashtu language in schools

• Taliban extremism has helped reinvigorate Pashtunistan movement - general radicalization

Goals

• Create an independent nation state (Islamic caliphate) governed Sharia law.– Caliphate - political/religious state that unifies Muslim

people under the rule of a caliph (head of state)– Sharia law - sacred law of Islam

• Qur’an • Prophet Muhammed• Secular law - crime, politics, economics, etc.• Personal matters - sexuality, hygeine, diet, prayer, etc. • Some claim Pashtuns practice an extreme interpretation of

Sharia law

Pashtunistan and the “War on Terror”• Taliban militants have gained an

advantage from the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan by ignoring it.

• Americans have been hindered because they must respect the border.

• Pakistan and Afghanistan are concerned about their sovereign rights on either side of the line, but the Pashtuns themselves have never paid the boundary much regard.





News & Politics

Pashtunistan pres