ABSTRACT
In September 1947 the question of Pakistan's admission to the United Nations was raised before the General Assembly. This chapter explores Pashtunistan, both as a spatial and conceptual construct, within the context of decolonization and the global Cold War. Pashtunistan, or Pashtunistan, depending on the dialect, literally translates to land of the Pakhtun people living in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The 'Pashtunistan Movement' in the first decade after Pakistan's creation has been broadly understood as a unified separatist movement centered in the settled districts of the North West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and the Tribal Areas, and supported by Kabul. The use of Pashtunistan as a political construct can be linked to the politics of partition in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Faqir of Ipi's agitation against Pakistan was deeply rooted in legacies of colonial governance in the space designated as the 'Tribal Areas', and the ambiguity in its political status as a result of decolonization.
