Durand Line

And a lot of people are ignoring this.

Now, do you see any kind of international focus on the northern borders? to do with Afghanistan? Because like I said, everybody talks Durand Line, Pakistan, but I don't hear anyone in the West really discussing that piece where the Taliban is pushing kind of their mindset more north.

The Istans are very unfortunate, Sarah.

They've never come to the international attention.

It's an open war with Afghanistan.

Every day you hear of something or the other happening on the Durand Line.

As late as day before yesterday, there was a clash between Pakistan and the Taliban, Pakistan-Afghan army, they are all the same.

So Pakistan is today heavily invested in its western borders.

What do you think Pakistan could possibly get out of its military clash with the Taliban right now?

Look, what Pakistan is doing is it's not entering Afghanistan.

If it enters Afghanistan, it's a shallow entry and they get back to their side of the Durand Line.

Pakistan knows it's a graveyard of empires and Pakistan was part of that.

Now, Pashtuns themselves are many tribes, many different tribes with very strong tribal loyalties and interconnections, and very strong kinship and filial relationships, and also a, a tribal code of ethics or code of life called Pashtunwali.

The same tribes also exist on the other side of the Durand Line on the Afghanistan side, and that causes a lot of complications for Pakistan because these tribes then don't recognize the borderline because they move freely on both sides.

If I just read out to you the names of prominent tribes, you will be familiar with many because many of those are names of prominent Pakistani cricketers or Pakistani journalists, writers and also leaders.

So the tribes are Yusufzai, Mehsud or Wazir, Afridi.

Or they might point to Henry Durand as a reason for why Afghanistan is such a mess.

Durand was a British diplomat who gave his name in 1893 to the Durand Line, which divided the Pashtun tribal heartlands in two and marks Afghanistan's still contested border with Pakistan to this day.

But that worldview isn't only wrong, it's totally anachronistic.

It saddens me to say this, but Britain is no longer a world power in any meaningful sense.