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‘US to look at Pakistan’s role in last 20 years’, Blinken says bilateral ties under review

By LALIT K JHA

US lawmakers Monday asked the Biden administration to reassess Pakistan's status as a non-NATO ally given its longtime support for the Taliban and harboring the group's leaders.

The US will look at the role Pakistan played in the last 20 years, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told angry lawmakers who expressed outrage over Pakistan’s “duplicitous” part in Afghanistan post 9/11 and demanded that Washington reassess its relationship with Islamabad.

The US lawmakers also urged the Biden administration to reassess Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally.

Blinken faced angry lawmakers on Monday who questioned the administration’s response to the quick collapse of the Afghan government and the State Department’s actions to evacuate Americans and others.Congressman Joaquin Castro, the Democrat from Texas, asked Blinken that given Pakistan’s longtime support for the Taliban and harbouring the group’s leaders over the years, is it time for the US to reassess its relationship with Pakistan and reassess Islamabad’s status as a major non-NATO ally.For the reasons you cited as well as others, this is one of the things we will be looking at in the day and weeks ahead, the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years and the role we would want to see it play in the coming years, Blinken responded to Castro, Chair of the Subcommittee on International Development, International Organisations and Global Corporate Social Impact.

Responding to a question on if he knew former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was planning to leave, the Secretary of State said he had spoken to Ghani on the night of August 14 who had stated fight to the death and was not aware of Ghani’s plan to leave Afghanistan.

Ghani left war-torn Afghanistan on August 15 as the Taliban entered the capital Kabul and said they were seeking complete power. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal.Observing that the relation with Pakistan bothers him, Congressman Bill Keating, Chair House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment and House Armed Services Committee, said Islamabad has played by all accounts a negative role in Afghan affairs for decades.They created, named, and helped the Taliban regroup in 2010 in Pakistan and the ISI has strong ties with the Haqqani Network which is responsible for the death of US soldiers, Keating said. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan celebrated the Taliban takeover of Kabul, describing it as breaking the shackles of slavery, he added.

Congress has been told that relations with Pakistan are complicated, I say it is duplicitous, Keating said, adding that the United States needs to reassess its relations with Pakistan.

Over the past several months, the Indian embassy here led by ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu has been making an intensive outreach to eminent US Congressmen and senators.Congressman Scott Perry said Pakistan supports the Haqqani Network and the Taliban with the US taxpayers’ money, asserting the US must no longer pay Pakistan and revoke its non-NATO ally status.With the open support given by the ISI to the Taliban and Haqqani Network, it is time to consider stronger relations with India, said Republican Congressman Mark Green, Ranking Member of the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, Migration and International Economic Policy.- PTI

https://theprint.in/world/us-to-look-at-pakistans-role-in-last-20-years-blinken-says-bilateral-ties-under-review/733000/

Pakistan should worry about consequences of Taliban’s success in Afghanistan, former ambassador says

Saheli Roy Choudhury

Pakistan was one of the first countries to welcome the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last month, following the collapse of the U.S.-backed civilian government.Now, Islamabad has to worry about some of the consequences of the Taliban’s success next door, former diplomats and political analysts said.

The main issue that experts point to is the security risk posed by the domestic terror group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban.“The Pakistani Taliban would like to replicate what happened in Afghanistan in at least the Pashtun areas of Pakistan — so, that’s one problem,” said Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistan ambassador to the U.S.

Pakistan was one of the first countries to welcome the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last month, following the collapse of the U.S.-backed civilian government. Now, Islamabad has to worry about some of the consequences of the Taliban’s success next door, former diplomats and political analysts said.

“It may not be as easy for Pakistan as its leaders may have thought,” Husain Haqqani, who was Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. between 2008 and 2011, told CNBC in a recent interview.

Prime Minister Imran Khan reportedly said that Afghans had “broken the shackles of slavery.” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Pakistan’s national security advisor Moeed Yusuf publicly urged the international community to engage with Afghanistan — which, in essence, now means the Taliban.

Pakistan, despite being an U.S. ally, had long been accused of covertly aiding the Taliban during their 20-year insurgency in Afghanistan — a charge that Islamabad denies.

What are the issues?

The main issue that Haqqani and others point to is the security risk posed by the domestic terror group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban — the group is separate from the Afghan Taliban. Last week, the TTP reportedly claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Pakistan that killed at least three people and left 20 wounded.

The group will “definitely be encouraged by the success of their brethren in Afghanistan,” Haqqani said. “The Pakistani Taliban would like to replicate what happened in Afghanistan in at least the Pashtun areas of Pakistan — so, that’s one problem.”

It would be very difficult for Pakistan not to recognize the Taliban. Husain Haqqani FORMER PAKISTAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.

Pashtuns are an ethnic group native to Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. The contested colonial-era Durand Line, which forms the international land border between the countries, separates Pakistani Pashtun-dominated territories from Afghanistan. The latter claims those territories as part of a traditional Pashtun homeland.According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Islamabad believes that the Afghan Taliban’s ideology emphasizes Islam over Pashtun identity. Both the Afghan Taliban and the TTP are predominantly Pashtun.“Given the Afghan Taliban’s links with the Pakistani Taliban — both operational and ideological — Pakistan really has to worry about the risks a resurgent TTP poses to Pakistan,” Madiha Afzal, a David M. Rubenstein fellow in the foreign policy program at Brookings Institution, told CNBC.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/afghanistan-pakistans-strategy-in-kabul-and-what-happens-next.html

The selected government’s attempt to suppress and gag every dissenting voice aims to weaken democracy – Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

 Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has termed democracy as an unquestionable guarantee of security and progress of the country adding that two Pakistans, instead of one, will continue to exist unless the Constitution is not followed as per its spirit besides maintaining the supremacy of Parliament.

In a statement issued from Media Cell Bilawal House on the occasion of International Day of Democracy, PPP chairman said that in a multicultural society like Pakistan, federal democracy is the only system of governance that upholds civil and political rights and nurtures a balanced society. “There are no two opinions that a strong democracy and a strong Pakistan are inseparable”, he maintained.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Pakistan Peoples Party has made a long and historic struggle for democracy in Pakistan, and its governments have taken revolutionary steps to strengthen democracy. PPP’s founding chairman Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gifted the nation a consensus constitution based on democracy, adding that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto fought against the two dictators for the restoration of democracy in the country, strengthened democratic institutions and opened avenues for the oppressed classes of the society to represent themselves in the corridors of the power. “Mard-e-Hur President Asif Ali Zardari restored the constitution to its original shape, surrendered his presidential powers to the Parliament, and formed an inclusive government through adopting the reconciliation policy.”

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the third generation of the PPP leadership is standing on the struggle-ground holding the banner of, “Taqat Ka Sarchashma Awam Hy” (people are the source of power).
He pledged that the PPP would neither allow the illegitimate and failed PTI-government to rob the public of their rights nor to encroach upon any pillar of the state. “Attempting to suppress and gag every dissenting voice by the selected government are aimed at to weaken democracy as the puppets have bifurcated Pakistanis into two groups in a Pakistan, which was established as a singular country by its founders.”

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25495/