Pashtunistan - The Native People

The Native People

The native or indigenous people of Pashtunistan are the Pashtuns (also known as Pakhtuns, Pathans or ethnic Afghans). They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second largest in Pakistan. The Pashtuns are concentrated mainly in the south and east of Afghanistan but also exist in northern and western parts of the country as a minority group. In Pakistan they are concentrated in the west and northwest, inhabiting mainly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), as well as parts of Balochistan, Gilgit–Baltistan, Kashmir as well as Mianwali and Attock districts of Punjab. They are also found in large numbers in the Pakistani city of Karachi, and with sizable numbers in Rawalpindi–Islamabad, Lahore, Sialkot, and Hyderabad. The main language spoken in the delineated Pashtunistan region is Pashto, followed by others such as Balochi, Hindko, and Urdu.

Pashtuns practice Pashtunwali, the indigenous culture of the Pashtuns, and this pre-Islamic identity remains significant for many Pashtuns and is one of the factors that have kept the Pashtunistan issue alive. Although the Pashtuns are politically separated by the Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan, many Pashtun tribes from the FATA area and the adjacent regions of Afghanistan, tend to ignore the border and cross back and forth with relative ease to attend weddings, family functions and take part in the joint tribal councils known as jirgas.

Depending on the source, the ethnic Pashtuns constitute 42-60% of the population of Afghanistan. In neighboring Pakistan they constitute 15.42 percent of the 170 million population. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, Pashto speakers constitute above 73 percent of the population as of 1998.