Afghanistan Times
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By Farhad Naibkhel-KABUL: The Former President Hamid Karzai on Saturday said that Afghanistan had never accepted the Durand Line as an official border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and would never accept.
Addressing official inauguration of Afghanistan Naween Research and Study Organization (ANRSO), the ex-president said that the Line was an imposed one as the result of British colonialism, where Afghan nation and dwellers of both sides of the line have suffered enough from its consequences.
“Afghanistan has never accepted this border line since the beginning (1893), and will never accept it in future,” Karzai stated.
He said that was correct that Pakistan was the successor of British imperialism, and the line was imposed on Afghanistan by Britain while Pakistan was not in existence. “Thus, we don’t have grievance from Pakistan”.
“As Pakistan is the successor of British rule, we want Islamabad to understand and recognize that Afghanistan has not accepted the line as border since the beginning,” said the former leader.
Not accepting durned line by Afghanistan won’t mean an enmity pose or unrecognizing of Pakistan, we recognize Pakistan as a neighbor country, which helped Afghans a lot during Jihad, he stated.
He added that Kabul expects Pakistan to understand that Durand Line was imposed forcedly on Afghans through British colonialism and separated people region.
Pointing to climate changes, Karzai said that Afghanistan suffered enough from climate changes, and it requires the ANRSO to study and conduct researches of underground waters beside investigation over surface waters and Afghanistan borders.
“Wasting and lavishing of waters must be prevented in the country,” he emphasized.
Hinting to Afghanistan waters flowing to neighboring country, the former president said that Afghanistan wills to have a good relation with neighboring countries and if they have the right of access to water, get it.
He said that naturally we will provide neighboring countries water very happily, if we have enough water, but if our own country face challenges and need to water then we have the right to use it for our own country development.
Afghan people also have the right to live like other nation and use their water by making dames, water streams to develop the country, thus we hope the neighboring country understand and cooperate in the aspect he mentioned.
Head of the ANRSO, Abdullah Hadewal, said that only 76 kilometers of Afghanistan border was marked by the government of Afghanistan, the rest all was drawn by Britain and the Soviet Union.
He said the Durand Line was imposed on Afghans 123 years ago, but currently, there is no clear document.
The ANRSO will start working to study and research about borders and water resources of Afghanistan, he claimed.
There is some report that Afghanistan has 76 billion cubic meters water annually, but it is not exactly studied, he added.
Except 26 cubic meter water flow to Pakistan per second, there is no any agreement with any country over Afghanistan water flow to abroad, he claimed.
He said that 19 billion cubic meter Afghanistan’s water flow to Pakistan annually freely without any agreement, which cost $38 billion.
Similar 34 cubic meter Afghanistan’s water flow to Iran without any agreement annually, he asserted.
He highlighted that even Iran sales Afghanistan water to other country.
Both Pakistan and Iran use Afghanistan’s water enough freely without any agreement and instead behave very cruelty with Afghan refugees, he noted.
Patients over, when Iran did not give fuel and Pakistan did not provide gas to Afghanistan, Afghans also don’t want their water flow freely to Pakistan, he said.
He urged all political figure, Nations and government to defend from their rights and prevent wasting of Afghanistan water.
He asked government to propound Afghanistan’s water and border issues in different international conference and seek outgoingways.
It is pertained to mention that ANRSO is an independent, Afghanistan-based research NGO. Its purpose is to inform and influence policy and practice through conducting high-quality research, to actively disseminate the results, and to promote a culture of research and learning. ANRSO engages with policy makers, civil society, researchers and students to promote their use of research, to strengthen their research capacity, and to create opportunities for analysis, reflection and debate in different political, social cultural and economic fields at the light of national interest.
