In the congressional hearing in the US, in the aftermath of Taliban regaining control of the country, instead of acknowledging the stellar role that Pakistan played in the war on terror as an ally, it was blamed for the American loss in Afghanistan. This blatant attempt by the US of scapegoating Pakistan rightly disappointed Prime Minister Imran Khan, who did well to write an article in The Washington Post in which he dwelt on the history of conflict in Afghanistan and proved beyond an iota of doubt that the US itself was to be blamed for whatever happened in Afghanistan. He was right on the money to tell the Americans not to blame Pakistan for the outcome of the war in Afghanistan.
One could hardly take an issue with his contention, that in the wake of 9/11, Musharraf, who desperately needed global relevance and domestic legitimacy, agreed to every American demand for military support, which has cost Pakistan and the United States. Actually, it was a similar situation to when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and Zia became an ally of the US in the fight against the former to gain longevity and legitimacy for his government. After Musharraf, successive governments also acquiesced to let the US execute drone attacks on Pakistani soil without bothering about the collateral damage to civilians.
The outcome of the Afghan war has proved Imran Khan right, that the solution to the Afghan conflict could not be found through military might as it defied historic realities. The Afghan government also lacked legitimacy in the eyes of the average Afghan. This was the underlying reason for why a well-trained and equipped Afghan Army, comprising 300,000 personnel, saw no reason to fight the Taliban and surrendered, paving the way for the latter to re-establish their government in Afghanistan.
In fact, as pointed out by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the US abandoned Afghanistan once the Soviets were defeated, leaving behind over 4 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and a bloody civil war in Afghanistan. The security vacuum led to the emergence of the Taliban, many born and educated in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan.
Pakistan has been making sincere efforts all along to promote the peace process in Afghanistan while bearing the brunt of terrorism on its soil. The Afghan government, instead of stopping the use of its soil by terrorist entities against Pakistan, looked the other way and kept a hostile posture towards Pakistan, notwithstanding latter’s role in facilitating the peace deal between the US and the Taliban and commencement of the intra-Afghan dialogue, which remained inconclusive due to the turn of events.
