RAWALPINDI: The [DG ISI], Lt-Gen. Ghulam Jilani, submitted before the Supreme Court today [July 10] that Mr Abdul Wali Khan wanted to carve out an independent State comprising NWFP and Baluchistan. He was asked … as to what was the concept of … Wali Khan about “Pakhtoonistan”. … …[T]he witness said it could be inferred from the statements and speeches of … Wali Khan. He said … Wali Khan wanted the … frontiers of Pakistan to be shifted from Torkham to Margalla Hills … and from Chamman to Jacobabad, and this conformed to the boundary of the map of “Pakhtoonistan” published in Afghanistan.

Amicus curiae Zafar Mahmud asked the witness whether … Wali Khan wanted merely to change the name of the Frontier Province as “Pakhtoonistan”. He said the NAP Government was in power in that Province for about a year, and if it wanted to change the name … it could … do so, or pass a resolution in the Provincial Assembly. The witness said “Pakhtoonistan” was a bigger move in which … Baluchistan was also proposed to be included. Asked whether … Wali Khan merely used “Pakhtoonistan” as a slogan or a political lever, Gen. Jilani said … Wali Khan was serious about it.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2025