ABSTRACT
Marking the notional boundary between Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier and acting as the gateway to southern Waziristan, the Gomal Pass was populated by the Wazir and Mahsud tribes. Although the Sandeman debate had engendered a sort of conceptual paralysis in terms of the philosophy of rule, events had forced the British hand somewhat in interim and the government's presence had begun to seep into certain of the Pashtun tribal areas to the north, albeit to a far more limited extent than was happening in Baluchistan. But while this miniaturized forward policy would provide a welcome indication of the government's preparedness to tackle the problems of the North-West Frontier with methods rather more elevated than an endless series of punitive military expeditions. Lansdowne's policy was not built from scratch. There were certain foundations to capitalize upon and one of these was to be found in Khyber, which bore witness to British administration well before other parts of the North-West Frontier.
