EDITORIAL: Mr Bhutto’s latest offer of a reconciliation with Kabul should be accepted as a godsend by Sardar Daud. This offer … is significant because it comes at a time when reports emanating from Afghanistan suggest that the political stability of the country is being threatened by a rift in the armed forces, student troubles and unrest in several sections of the population. … …[H]owever, the ruling junta in Kabul is following the path of hostility. … It is relentlessly pursuing its ill-conceived policy towards Pakistan as evidenced by its insane obsession with “Pashtunistan”. … …[T]he Afghan rulers are using the “Pashtunistan” issue as a slogan which will help unify the heterogeneous Afghan society. …

…[B]ut Kabul is playing a dangerous game which can prove self-defeating. By emphasising the Pashtun character of the country, Kabul might well encourage separatist tendencies among its other ethnic groups. … ‘Pashtunistan’ is certain to recoil as a boomerang, and far from serving as a principle of unity for the diverse ethnic communities of Afghanistan, it will in time become a highly divisive issue. Lastly, the Afghan demand amounts to a veiled irredentism.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2025