Land of the Pure?

"I am not going to resign," says Dominic Raab. When you have to say it.

"Keep a close eye" on Afghanistan? Or else what, exactly? In any case, neither the treatment of women, nor human rights abuses in general, had anything to do with why we invaded Afghanistan. We do not invade Saudi Arabia, or treat it as a pariah. Quite the reverse, in fact. Yet every criticism of Afghanistan is also applicable to Saudi Arabia, which, moreover, really was behind the 9/11 attacks.

In Afghanistan, we installed and maintained a regime that was so bad that, by its lack of resistance, the population has effectively chosen the Taliban instead. And the Taliban regime is certainly not going to be treated as a pariah on the other side of the Durand Line.

The P is Punjab, the a is Afghania, the k is Kashmir, the i was added for ease of pronunciation, the s is Sindh, and the tan is Balochistan. But of those, only Sindh is wholly in Pakistan, or ever has been. Part of Bolchistan is in Afghanistan. As is most of the area, although not of the population, of Afghania, which is the Pashtun homeland.

Add to that the fact that Imran Khan is a Pashtun, who is as convinced as his fellow Pashtuns who are now reinstalled in Kabul that the whole of Afghania ought to be in the same country. He believes that Amritsar, Srinagar and Zahedan are naturally and rightfully Pakistani cities. But he feels it in his bones about Kandahar.

To get the whole of Afghania, then Khan and his supporters would take the whole of Afghanistan. And to get the whole of Afghania, then the Taliban would take the whole of the country where they were ṭālibān, Pakistan. There is a deal to be done here.