Kabul sought Pakistan-Afghanistan merger in 1954

ISLAMABAD: In 1954, the Afghanistan government had approached the United States seeking the merger of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The recently-declassified CIA documents reveal that Pakistan was approached over Kabul’s urge for Pakistan-Afghanistan merger but it was suspicious of this plan.

A document dated 14 October 1954 reads as: “Afghanistan Foreign Minister requests US aid to bring about Afghanistan-Pakistan merger. He claims this is only way to keep Afghanistan out of increasing Soviet economic envelopment and matter of life and death for his country.

“However, Pakistan Prime Minister, Mohammad Ali, who has already been approached, was reportedly suspicious of this plan,” the document says. The CIA report hinted that there had been some talk in Afghan and Pakistani official circles of some sort of confederation but said that responsible Karachi and Kabul authorities were unlikely to agree on merger because of basic international complications and Soviet and Indian opposition.