History
Following independence, the North-West Frontier Province voted to join Pakistan in a referendum on July 2, 1947 by a very small majority (50.1%). Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars chose to boycott the polls along with other nationalistic and pro-India Pashtuns. Some have argued that a segment of the population was barred from voting.
Afghanistan claims Pashtun-dominated western areas of the territory as its own. After Pakistan's independence, Afghanistan was the only country to vote against Pakistan’s accession to the United Nations because of Kabul’s claim on the Pashtun territories located on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line.
The population of this region as per 1901 Census of the North West Frontier Province was 2,125,480, out of which Muslims were 1,957,777, Hindus were 134,252 and Sikhs were 28,091.
Read more about this topic: Pakhtunkhwa
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