1. The Afghan position on Pushtunistan is complex. The basis of this position lay on the Treaty of Gandomak of 1879, which ever since has been detested among the Afghans, between the then Afghan King Yagub and the British in India. This Treaty gave a free hand to the British over Afghan territories in the border areas including the Khyber Pass. This development was followed by the so-called Durand Line Agreement of 1893 which essentially demarcated the spheres of Afghan and British influences from Chitral to Baluchistan, rather than forming a formal international border. These developments left Pushtun tribal areas on either side of the artificial line. In 1947 when Pakistan was formed, its government claimed the Durand line as the official boundary between the two countries. But in 1949, a Loya Jirgah (Grand Assembly, whose origins are traceable to a period before Alexander's invasion in 328-330 B.c.
2. cf. Dupree, Afghanistan, p. 278) organized by the Afghan government rejected all treaties with the British dealing with the tribal areas dating back to the Durand agreement of 1893. The Loya Jirgah provided the national support for the establishment of Pushtunistan that the Afghan government was seeking. The Soviet backed support for Pushtunistan in view of the recent events has lost general credibility.
3. Foreign Trade of the USSR (note 37).