PESHAWAR, Oct 15: Politicians on Wednesday termed the Durand Line as an administrative need of the then British rulers, which had divided the Pukhtuns into four different units and was not a sacred deal between the then Afghan king and the English rulers of the subcontinent.

Speaking at a two-day conference on the Durand Line, organized by the Pukhtunkhawa Qaumi Party here at the Peshawar Press  Club, the  Pukhtun, Sindhi and Seraiki leaders from  Sindh, Balochistan, Multan, Germany and Afghanistan underlined the unity of Pukhtuns for their well-being as a collective ethnic unit.

A delegation of the Pukhtuns Social Democratic Party, headed by Makhan Shinwari from Germany also attended the conference. Jalal  Mahmood Shah, a former Sindh speaker, M. A. Bhutta,  senior vice-president of Seraiki National Party and Shahsul Huda Shams of the  Afghan Millat Party categorically termed the Durand Line as  a legacy of the colonial rule, which needed to be removed.

Awami National Party leaders, Ajmal Khan Khattak, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Fareed Toofan, Zahira Afrasiab, PPP leaders Rahimdad Khan, Yawar Naseer, Shazia Tehmas Khan, NAPP leader Abdul Latif Afridi, Malik Amanullah Khan (Quetta), Shamim Qaiser Khan and some   Pukhtun poets and writers were also present on the occasion.

Earlier, opening the maiden session of the conference, the PQP chief Mohammad Afzal Khan explained the importance of the conference. He said this was an administrative  need of the British rulers which could not be recognized as a permanent boundary line.

Makhan Shinwari of the SDP was of the view that this  division had caused irreparable losses to the Pukhtuns on both sides  of the border. In Afghanistan, Pukhtuns were living with Tajiks and Uzbeks and in Pakistan they were residing along with Sindhis, Balochs and Punjabis. But, they themselves were divided into four parts, which resulted into their backwardness and abject poverty, Mr Shinwari added.

Prof Fazal-i-Rahim Khan Marwat, a teacher of Pakistan Studies at  University of Peshawar, read out paper on the ‘Importance  of the Durand Line’ and said this ethnic division had multiplied the miseries of Pukhtuns in Balochistan, NWFP, Fata and  provincially administered tribal area (Pata).

Mr Afzal Khamosh of the Mazdoor Kisan Party said either  Pukhtuns would have to establish a greater Afghanistan or they would  have to  defend Pakistan. He said Pukhtuns could not be united in  the two separate countries.

Ms Shamim Qaiser, a district councillor from Peshawar, said  that even  the NWFP was being run by, at a time, an  elected  chief minister and a governor nominated by Islamabad. The governor, she said, was running the tribal belt.

Mr M. A. Bhutta of the SNP said before the imposition of One Unit, the Seraiki  people had their own Bahawalpur assembly, but after the dismemberment  of the  One Unit, the then military rulers had merged Bahawalpur with  Punjab. The Bahawalpur state had signed an accord  with  the governor-general of Pakistan and joined Pakistan after 1947,  but the Seraikis were being treated as subjects of Punjab, he added.

Mr Jalal Shah of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz said Pakistan’s rulers should first  recognize the separate identity of the Sindhis,  Punjabis, Balochs  and Pukhtuns and grant them their national  rights.  The nationalism was a political reality of this century, he added.