Daily Times
Pakistan has rightly rejected former US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s allegations that Islamabad is recruiting Afghan nationals to fight the Taliban. In a strongly worded response on Saturday, the information ministry challenged his assertions, which were circulated on social media without offering an iota of supporting evidence. For a diplomat who helped negotiate the agreement that paved the way for the Taliban’s return to power, Khalilzad appears remarkably willing to overlook the consequences of that arrangement while finding fault with Pakistan’s attempts to defend itself.
There is considerable irony here. As Washington’s chief negotiator, Khalilzad brokered the February 2020 Doha agreement, which secured American withdrawal commitments in exchange for Taliban counterterrorism assurances. The Afghan republic was excluded from those negotiations. The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction subsequently identified that exclusion as an important factor in undermining the republic’s confidence and survival. That is quite a record for someone now offering unsolicited judgments on Pakistan’s security predicament.
Five years after the Taliban’s return, Pakistan is still paying a heavy price. The UN’s latest monitoring report found that the Afghan authorities continued supporting the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, contributing to increasingly deadly attacks across the border. It also identified links involving Al-Qaeda and other militant organisations.
Would Mr Khalilzad also turn a blind eye to the figures compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies? The country suffered 699 terrorist attacks in 2025, claiming 1,034 lives and leaving 1,366 injured. Security and law-enforcement personnel accounted for 437 of those killed. September’s assault on Kohat Police Lines, which killed at least 23 people, including 17 policemen according to KP authorities, offered another painful example of the dangers confronting those defending the country. Soldiers, policemen and civilians have borne the brunt of a militant resurgence that shows little sign of running out of steam.
Against this backdrop, attempts to dismiss Pakistan’s security concerns as propaganda are difficult to stomach. Kabul cannot indefinitely wash its hands of militant organisations operating from Afghan territory. A regime capable of enforcing sweeping restrictions on its own population, including the exclusion of girls from education, should explain why restraining armed groups remains such an insurmountable task. Pakistan’s demand that Afghan territory should not be used for attacks against its citizens is hardly unreasonable.
The country’s armed forces and law-enforcement agencies have fought a long and costly campaign against terrorism. Their sacrifices deserve due acknowledgement rather than insinuations from a former diplomat whose own negotiating record invites serious scrutiny. The European Union’s counterterrorism dialogue with Pakistan on Thursday also recognised Islamabad’s efforts and expressed concern over the security implications of developments in Afghanistan. These are hardly matters invented by Pakistani officials. Islamabad has kept the door open to dialogue, while insisting on a verifiable mechanism to stop terrorism emanating from Afghan soil. Pakistan has no interest in perpetual hostility with its western neighbour, whose ordinary citizens have suffered enough from decades of conflict. Yet diplomatic engagement cannot become another exercise in taking Kabul’s promises at face value. *