Page "Durand Line" Paragraph 20

At the time of independence, the indigenous Pashtun people ( including members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement ) living on the border with Afghanistan were given only the choice of becoming a part either of India or Pakistan.

Recent legal debate on the Durand Line issue has focused on the original nature of the contract between Afghanistan and British India.

Some scholars have suggested that the Durand Line was never intended to be a boundary demarcating sovereignty, but rather a line of control beyond which either side agreed not to interfere unless there were an expedient need to do so.

Memoranda from British officials at the time of the Durand Agreement incline towards this view.

Scholars suggest that the frontier agreement was not of the form of an " executed clause " which usually caters for sovereign boundary demarcation and which cannot be unilaterally repudiated.

Rather, they conjecture that it is of the form of an " executory clause " similar to those which pertain to trade agreements, which are ongoing and can be repudiated by either party at any time.

This is, however, a matter of ongoing debate.

Other legal questions currently being considered are those of state practice, i. e. whether the relevant states de facto treat the frontier as an international boundary, and whether the de jure independence of the Tribal Territories at the moment of Indian Independence undermine the validity of Durand Agreement and subsequent treaties.