The latest round of peace talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan has ended with little to show, but two explosive revelations from behind closed doors have cast a harsh light on Islamabad’s deepening crisis of credibility. According to Taliban officials, the United States has been using Pakistani airspace to carry out drone strikes inside Afghanistan, with Pakistan admitting its inability to stop them. Equally damaging is the claim that Pakistan’s powerful army, under Field Marshal Asim Munir, has been bypassing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s civilian government to deliberately stoke tensions with Kabul.
The talks in Qatar and later in Turkey were meant to end weeks of hostilities that had left over 250 people dead, including women and children. Earlier this month, Pakistan carried out airstrikes deep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, targeting sites near Kabul’s eastern outskirts and Paktika province. The attacks triggered days of cross-border shelling before both sides agreed to de-escalate.
Yet, instead of easing tensions, the discussions exposed Pakistan’s long-standing fault line: the military’s dominance over civilian leadership, especially in shaping foreign and security policy.
Pakistan’s military calling the shots
As the Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told TOLO News, “American drones are entering Afghan airspace by passing through Pakistani territory.” Mujahid added that “a particular military faction in Pakistan may be supported by global powers with the intent of escalating tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.”
In another interview with Khyber TV, Mujahid went further, accusing the Pakistan Army of sabotaging efforts by Sharif’s civilian government to mend ties. “Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Sadiq Khan, was in Kabul and had positive talks with Afghan officials, but during the same period, Pakistan carried out attacks on Afghan soil. The civilian government seeks to build relations, but the military damages them,” he said.
Mujahid also noted that relations between Kabul and Islamabad were far better during former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tenure. “The ties were strong and most initiatives were running smoothly,” he remarked.
Imran Khan, who led a civilian government from 2018 to 2022, was ousted in a no-confidence vote and later imprisoned in 2023, in what he and his supporters described as a military-backed political vendetta. His removal, seen as orchestrated by Pakistan’s establishment, marked a return to the country’s entrenched pattern of civilian governments being undermined by the army.
US drones return to Afghan skies, with Pakistan’s help
As Pakistan and Afghanistan struggle to find common ground, the Taliban’s claim about US drones adds a new layer of tension. Mujahid revealed that American drones “routinely crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistani territory,” despite repeated objections from Kabul. Afghan officials, he said, had been told by Islamabad that it was “helpless” to prevent the overflights due to an existing “agreement with a foreign nation.”
The revelation comes at a sensitive time. US President Donald Trump has reportedly sought operational control over the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, a move seen as an attempt to reassert American military presence in the region.
Interestingly, Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir has accompanied Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to meetings with President Trump in Washington, raising eyebrows over why a military leader was present during diplomatic discussions between two heads of state.
Civil-military divide exposed once again
The Taliban’s remarks expose, yet again, the reality of Pakistan’s dual power structure. While Sharif’s government engages in talks and public diplomacy, the army pursues its own strategic agenda—one that often fuels instability along the Afghan border.
Islamabad’s foreign policy has long been shaped by its generals rather than its elected leaders. From backing the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s to sheltering the Taliban after 9/11, the military has treated Afghanistan as its backyard. The result has been decades of mistrust, border clashes, and cycles of violence that neither side seems able to escape.
Today, Pakistan blames Afghanistan for harbouring Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants responsible for attacks inside its borders. Kabul, in turn, accuses Islamabad of launching unprovoked airstrikes and deporting 1.7 million Afghan refugees. Each new crisis feeds into the next, and the pattern remains the same: civilian leaders make promises of peace while the army keeps the conflict alive.
The Taliban’s latest statements have once again laid bare the truth that many in Pakistan already know: the real power lies not in Islamabad’s parliament, but in Rawalpindi’s GHQ. And as long as Pakistan’s military continues to act as an independent force, peace with Afghanistan will remain little more than an illusion.
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