Brothers

In a press interview Col. A. S. B. Shah, Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to Kabul described Afghans just like our “real brothers.” Perhaps he had in mind the proverbial brothers of Joseph. Pakistan would certainly like to be saved from such brothers. Afghanistan is the only country in the world which opposed Pakistan’s admission to the United Nations. She has spurned this country’s repeated offers of friendship and has harboured the most hostile designs against it. Col. Shah must be hopelessly ignorant of the whole background of the Pak-Afghan relationship if he thinks, as he told the A.P.P., that the differences between the two countries have been “over-emphasized”.  Recently the Afghan Ambassador at Cairo disclosed that Afghanistan wanted to annex Pakistan territory which she has mischievously designated as Pakhtoonistan, comprising the transborder, the N.W.F. Province up to the Indus and part of Baluchistan. To call such a hostile country as “real brothers” is an absolutely unrealistic approach to the task that awaits him. This kind of diplomatic language will lead nowhere. Pakistanis certainly have fraternal feelings for Afghans, despite that Government’s hostile attitude. But all friendly advances have only fallen flat on the Kabul ruling caucus. The situation calls for more plain speaking than the kind of platitudes the Ambassador-designate has chosen to use. As things stand, few will share his optimism that Afghanistan would be “more than willing to reciprocate our goodwill”, although everyone in this country would wish him success in this noble undertaking.

(The Civil & Military Gazette, Lahore, Pakistan – Thursday, July 31, 1952)