Pakistan’s Hypocrisy on the Taliban: A State Built on Contradictions

Pakistan’s hypocrisy on the Taliban is not new, it is the continuation of a dangerous pattern that dates back to its very creation in 1947. Born on the shoulders of an exclusivist, extremist interpretation of Islam, Pakistan has continuously pushed a double-standard religious agenda to serve its geopolitical ambitions.

For decades, Pakistan has used Islam not as a faith but as a weapon—against India, against Afghanistan, against its own minorities, and even against the very West that poured billions into its coffers. The Taliban are not an anomaly for Pakistan; they are its logical byproduct.

Pakistan the Preacher

For two decades during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, Pakistan posed as the “wise elder” of the region. From the podiums of Islamabad and the corridors of Rawalpindi’s GHQ, Pakistani officials and generals repeated the same sermon: “You cannot defeat the Taliban militarily. You must talk to them.”

And eventually, Washington listened. Doha was convened. The Taliban were legitimized. Kabul fell back into their hands. And Pakistan applauded itself for being “proven right.”

But now, when its own creation—the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—is spilling blood inside its borders, Pakistan suddenly abandons its doctrine of dialogue.

When the Monster Comes Home

Since 2021, the TTP has unleashed a wave of insurgency inside Pakistan,ambushing convoys, bombing bazaars, and terrorizing civilians across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Each coffin draped in green and white is a grim reminder that Pakistan’s decades of exporting jihad have circled back home.

And how does Islamabad respond? Ultimatums to Kabul. Airstrikes across the border. Brutal military operations at home. All while accusing the Afghan Taliban of harboring the TTP,a charge Kabul flatly denies.

When Pakistan issued these threats, former U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad delivered a piercing reminder: Wasn’t it Pakistan that told the Americans they could never win by force? Why, then, does Pakistan believe it can crush its own Taliban by force?

A History of Double Standards

• 1947: Pakistan was carved out of India through religious separatism, promising a homeland “for Muslims,” while denying equal space for minorities.
• Cold War & 1980s: Pakistan became the staging ground for U.S.-Saudi-funded jihad against the Soviets, nurturing militancy as state policy.
• 1990s–2000s: Islamabad sheltered and supported the Taliban, all while presenting itself as an ally in the “War on Terror.”
• 2001–2021: Pakistan lectured the U.S. that the Taliban were a political reality and that negotiations—not war—were the only solution.
• 2021–2025: Faced with its own Taliban problem, Pakistan abandons that logic, insisting that force alone will prevail.

This duplicity is not only embarrassing; it is destructive.

History’s Clear Lessons

The world has already learned what Pakistan refuses to admit:

• The IRA in Northern Ireland laid down arms through the Good Friday Agreement.
• Colombia’s FARC ended its 50-year war through negotiation.
• Nepal’s Maoists traded insurgency for parliamentary seats.

Even America’s 20-year campaign in Afghanistan proved the same point: insurgencies do not die on battlefields—they end at the negotiating table.

The Mirror Pakistan Cannot Escape

Pakistan’s generals, ISI handlers, and civilian leaders cannot keep playing both sides of history. They cannot demand dialogue abroad while waging endless war at home. They cannot create monsters in the name of Islam and then feign shock when those monsters come for them.

Every blast in Peshawar, every ambush in Waziristan, every soldier buried is proof that denial is no longer an option.

The truth is stark: Pakistan was born on religious extremism, nurtured extremism as statecraft, and now drowns in the extremism it once exported. Khalilzad’s warning is not advice,it is a mirror. And in that mirror, Pakistan sees the reflection of its own hypocrisy, carved deep into its national DNA.

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