Pakhtunistan
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Pashtunistan پښتونستان |
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| Region | ||
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 Pashto-speaking regions in Afghanistan and Pakistan |
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| Countries |
 Afghanistan Pakistan
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| Population (2012) | ||
| • Total | c. 42–50 million | |
| Demographics | ||
| • Ethnic groups | Pashtuns | |
| • Languages | Pashto | |
| Time zone | UTC+04:30 and UTC+05:00 | |
| Largest cities |
Jalalabad Kabul Kandahar Mardan Mingora Peshawar Quetta |
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Pashtūnistān (Pashto: پښتونستان, transliteration Pashtūnistān or Pakhtūnistān, meaning "homeland of the Pashtuns") is the geographic region inhabited by the indigenous Pashtun people of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Alternative names historically used for the region included "Afghānistān" and "Pashtūnkhwā", since at least the 3rd century CE onward. Pashtunistan borders Punjab to the east, Persian and Turkic speaking regions to the west and north, Kashmir to the northeast, and Balochistan to the south.
For administrative division in 1893, Mortimer Durand drew the Durand Line, fixing the limits of the spheres of influence between King Abdur Rahman Khan and British India. This porous line that runs through the centre of the Pashtun region forms the modern border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Roughly, the Pashtun homeland stretches from areas south of the Amu River in Afghanistan to west of the Indus River in Pakistan, mainly consisting of southwestern, eastern and some northern districts of Afghanistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and northern Balochistan in Pakistan.
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