Pakistan Borders Issues and

Challenges
 Borders-facts and issues
• Pakistan shares its borders with:
- Iran 909 km
- Afghanistan 2430 km (Durrand Line)
- India 2240 km (Redcliff Award 1947)
Line of Control (LOC) 740 km
- China 595 km (1963 boundary agreement)
- Coast Line 700 km
• Total surface area 800,000 sq km
 Borders Settlement & issues-Iran
• Pak-Iran border was first marked by British in 1893. It basically separated Iranian
Province of Sistan-Baluchistan from British Baluchistan
• Pakistan-Iran signed border agreement in 1957 with minor adjustment
• Pakistan paid Sultanate of Oman for the purchase of Pasni, Gwadar and Jiwani
• Iranian government does not accept British Consulate Property (now owned by
Pakistan and have largely encroached on Consulate Zahidan)
• Iran accuses that Baloch terrorists (Jaish al Adl) use Pakistani soil to launch attack
on Iran
• Iran and the World also accuse Pakistan for not doing enough for stopping drugs,
human and oil smuggling across the border
It is a problematic yet manageable border
 Borders Settlement & issues-China
• The Sino-Pakistan Agreement (also known as the Sino-Pakistan Frontier
Agreement and Sino-Pak Boundary Agreement) was signed in 1963
• It resulted in China ceding over 1,942 square kilometres (750 sq mi) to Pakistan
and Pakistan recognizing Chinese sovereignty over hundreds of square
kilometers of land in Northern Kashmir and Ladakh. Pakistan also agreed to not
contest Chinese capture of Aksai Chen in 1962 “till settlement of Kashmir issue”
• This border is geographically well balanced
• The agreement is not recognized as legal by India, which also claims
sovereignty over part of the land
• This agreement shifted the balance of the Cold War by bringing Pakistan and
China and taking Pakistan away from India and USA
 Borders & issues-Afghanistan
• The Durand Line agreement was signed between British India and Afghanistan in
1893 marking to boundary of Afghanistan and British India
• Afghanistan opposed creation of Pakistan on the basis on DL
• Afghan misinformation states a) the agreement was under duress and b) it
expired in 1993
• Historical documents signed, ratified and endorsed by successive Afghan
regimes negate the claim that validity of agreement has expired
• On 21 March 1905, Sir Louis Dane and King Habibullah signed an agreement
supporting DL
 Borders Settlement & issues-Afghanistan
• In August 1919, after Anglo-Afghan war, a peace delegation headed by Interior
Minister Ali Ahmad Khan visited Rawalpindi and signed a “peace agreement
between Great Britain and Afghanistan 1919”
• In this treaty, Great Britain recognized the independence of Afghanistan. The
validity of the DL was protected through article 5 of the treaty, which stated: 
“The Afghan Government accepts the Indo-Afghan frontier accepted by the
late Emir [Habibullah Khan]”
• First time, recognition of the Durand Line by the two states as an international
border between Afghanistan and British India was set
• Continuing misapprehensions about the DL is the core issues that complicates
dealings in the present unfriendly and mistrustful relationship between two
neighbors and especially cooperation in efforts towards war on terror
 Borders Settlement & issues-Afghanistan
• In January 1921, Sir Henry R. C. Dobbs visited Kabul as a special British envoy to Afghanistan
and signed another agreement, titled “Agreement for establishment of friendly commercial
relations between Afghanistan and Great Britain,” also called the Kabul Agreement
• The Kabul Agreement of 1921 superseded the Rawalpindi agreement of 1919, but
recognized the Durand Line as an international border of Afghanistan. It stated, in article 2: 
“Respective parties recognize Indian-Afghan border as was recognized by article 8 of
Rawalpindi agreement 1919” 
• Article 14 of the 1921 agreement rendered it liable to unilateral renunciation by either of
the parties anytime after the expiry of three years from the date of its ratification. However,
the Government of King Amanullah did not notify its annulment. Moreover, the successor
government of King Nadir Khan exchanged a diplomatic instrument with the British
government on July 6, 1930. Paragraph II of this instrument read as follows: 
“In response [to your notification], I am proud to officially confess that our position
about both the agreements [agreement of 1919 and trade agreement of June 1923] enjoy
complete validity and are enforceable with full force”.
 Borders Settlement legality
• Pakistan inherited the 1893 agreement and the subsequent 1919 Treaty of
Rawalpindi after the partition from the British India in 1947
• There has never been a formal agreement or ratification between Islamabad and
Kabul to settle DL
• Pakistan believes, and international convention under uti possidetis juris
supports, the position that it should not require an agreement to set the
boundary
• Courts in several countries around the world and the Vienna Convention have
universally upheld via uti possidetis juris that (As you possess under law )under
the binding bilateral agreements are "passed down" to successor states
• Thus, a unilateral declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must
be made bilaterally
• Afghanistan has never tried third party mediation or International Court of
Justice
 Borders Settlement & issues-Afghanistan
• The DL crisis has sowed the seeds of mistrust between two Muslim
neighbors-even Taliban in their rule
• This long running issue has created proxy war, under-utilization of
trade and economic potential, miseries in bordering communities etc.
• Mutual political hatred has created space for India to utilize
Pakistan’s western borders to create new tensions
• Refugees crisis, drugs, gun culture and smuggling are issues related to
this crisis
 Borders Settlement & Issues-India

• On the Western border, the partition of Indian sub-continent was based on Redcliff Award. The conspiracy
theories surrounding it derive primarily from biased accounts, incorrect information and bad research
• Bengal had been partitioned by Lord Curzon in 1905. Proposals for partitioning Punjab had been made
starting from 1908. After the Lahore resolution (1940) of the Muslim League demanding Pakistan, B. R.
Ambedkar’s report titled Thoughts on Pakistan, wherein he discussed the boundaries of the Muslim and
non-Muslim regions of Punjab and Bengal. His calculations showed a Muslim majority in 16 western districts
of Punjab and non-Muslim majority in 13 eastern districts. In Bengal, he showed non-Muslim majority in 15
districts
• After the breakdown of the 1945 Simla Conference of Viceroy Lord Wavell, the idea of Pakistan began to be
contemplated seriously. Jinnah envisaged full provinces of Bengal and Punjab going to Pakistan with only
minor adjustments, whereas Congress was expecting almost half of these provinces to remain in India. This
essentially framed the problem of partition
• Lord Wavell was assigned to send 'actual proposals for defining genuine Muslim areas'. The proposal called
"Demarcation of Pakistan Areas", defined the western zone of Pakistan as consisting of Sindh, N.W.F.P.,
British Baluchistan and three western divisions of Punjab (Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore). This, they noted,
would leave2.2 million Sikhs in the Pakistan area and about 1.5 million in India excluding the Amritsar and
Gurdaspur districts of the Lahore Division from Pakistan would put a majority of Sikhs in India
• To compensate for the exclusion of the Gurdaspur district, they included the entire Dinajpur district in the
eastern zone of Pakistan, which similarly had a marginal Muslim majority
 Borders Settlement-Radcliff
• Radcliff never attended the Boundary Commission Meeting in July 1947. He was
unfit in India and left before announcement after destroying all record. It is
alleged that Mountbatten influenced him to readjust his award even some
crucial maps were altered under Lord Mountbatten influence
• The award of Gurdaspur, Ferouzpore and Zira Tehsil and parts of Kasur to India
was illogical and gave water control to India
• In addition to Gurdaspur's Muslim majority tehsils, Radcliffe also gave the
Muslim majority tehsils of Ajnala (Amritsar District), Zira, Ferozpur (in Ferozpur
District), Nakodar and Jullander (in Jullander District) to India instead of
Pakistan
• Also were disputes regarding the Radcliffe Line's award of the Chittagong Hill
Tracts, districts of Malda, Khulna, and Murshidabad in Bengal and the sub-
division of Karimganj of Assam
 The movement
• Almost 15 million found themselves on the wrong side of the border and
started moving. Largest human displacement in history. The Hindu and Sikhs
movements were more organized and secured but Muslim were caught
unprepared
• 500,000 to 800,000 Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were killed. More Muslims lost
their lives than Hindus and Sikhs combined
• It was the first grand-scale successful experiment after World War II in religious
cleansing
• Nisid Hajari, in “Midnight’s Furies” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), his fast-paced
new narrative history of Partition and its aftermath, writes, “Gangs of killers
set whole villages aflame, hacking to death men and children and the aged
while carrying off young women to be raped. Some British soldiers and
journalists who had witnessed the Nazi death camps claimed Partition’s
brutalities were worse: pregnant women had their breasts cut off and babies
hacked out of their bellies; infants were found literally roasted on spits.”
 Important issues out of partition
• Created serious tensions as in eagerness to leave British left serious issues that
still mars the Pak-India relationship
• India had lopsided development and parts that were owned by Pakistan were
least developed
• Muslims were less represented in bureaucracy except in army. This created
serious issues in post independence administration
• Resources that were essential for Pakistan were never transferred to it (Kabul
Embassy case)