ISLAMABAD - For years, Pakistan has warned the international community that the Afghan Taliban regime's claim of "stability" is a mirage. Now, a recent expert brief has confirmed what Islamabad has consistently argued: Afghanistan under Taliban rule is suffering a triple failure of legitimacy, security, and welfare - with direct consequences for Pakistan and the entire region.
The evidence is clear, documented, and undeniable. The Taliban's narrative of peace and order collapses when tested against facts.
International assessments confirm what Pakistan has long asserted: militants of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) continue to operate freely from Afghan soil, launching hundreds of cross-border attacks inside Pakistan. These are not isolated incidents. They represent a systematic use of Afghan territory for terrorism against a neighboring country.
The cost to Pakistan:
Hundreds of Pakistani civilians and security personnel martyred
Border closures disrupting bilateral trade
Strained diplomatic relations
Displacement of border communities
The cost to Afghanistan:
Each attack launched from Afghan soil triggers Pakistani border closures, which directly harms Afghan citizens by choking their own economy. Trade routes are disrupted. Goods do not move. Afghan merchants lose livelihoods. Afghan workers lose wages.
The presence of TTP sanctuaries is not just a Pakistani national security concern - it is a self-inflicted wound on Afghanistan's own economy and international standing.
The Taliban's claim to governance rests on force, not consent. The regime does not seek public approval and actively suppresses internal dissent - including voices that question policies such as the ban on girls' education.
Key indicators of illegitimacy:
No elections, no representation, no accountability
Dissent crushed through detention, torture, and disappearance
Policies imposed by decree, not through any consultative process
No mechanism for citizen feedback or redress
This is not governance. It is centralized ideological control, detached from the people it claims to serve. The international community's engagement with the Taliban has not produced meaningful reform - only enabled the regime's survival while its core practices remain unchanged.
The Taliban regime touts headline GDP figures as evidence of economic recovery. But these numbers are deceptive. While aggregate economic output may show nominal increases, population pressures mean ordinary Afghans are becoming poorer.
Ground realities:
Jobs remain scarce, particularly for youth
Basic services - healthcare, education, electricity - are collapsing
Returnees from Pakistan and Iran face no absorption capacity
Drought has devastated agricultural livelihoods
International isolation has choked off formal economic activity
A rising GDP means nothing when the population is growing faster than the economy, when inflation erodes purchasing power, and when the majority of citizens cannot afford basic necessities.
The Taliban regime survives on external funding, not sustainable governance. The majority of Afghanistan's population lives in poverty, and millions rely on humanitarian assistance just to survive.
The dependency crisis:
Humanitarian aid funds basic services, not the Taliban budget
The regime cannot pay salaries without external support
Infrastructure continues to decay without investment
Food insecurity affects millions
This is not stability. This is a patient on life support, kept breathing by international donors who have no strategic alternative. A state that cannot fund its own operations is not a state - it is a ward of the international community.
The Taliban's war on women's rights is well-documented: girls banned from secondary education, women barred from most employment, restrictions on movement and dress enforced by violence.
But beyond the human rights catastrophe, this policy is an economic disaster for Afghanistan.
The economic cost of excluding women:
Half the population contributes nothing to GDP
Healthcare system lacks female doctors and nurses
Education system lacks female teachers
Small businesses cannot hire half the workforce
Household poverty deepens when women cannot work
No country can develop while systematically excluding half its population from economic participation. The Taliban is not just oppressing women - it is actively sabotaging Afghanistan's future and its ability to recover from decades of conflict.
Pakistan's concerns about Afghanistan are not based on hostility toward the Afghan people or even toward the Taliban regime as such. They are based on ground realities that affect Pakistani citizens daily:
Cross-border attacks kill Pakistanis
Terrorist sanctuaries destabilize Pakistan's western front
Economic collapse in Afghanistan spills over into Pakistan
Refugee flows strain Pakistan's resources
Trade disruption harms Pakistani businesses
Pakistan has consistently called for:
Action against TTP sanctuaries on Afghan soil
Inclusive governance that represents all Afghans
Protection of women's rights to education and employment
Economic policies that benefit ordinary Afghans, not just regime survival
Regional cooperation for shared prosperity
The expert brief confirms what Pakistan has argued for years: There is no shortcut to stability. A regime that:
Harbors terrorist groups attacking neighbors
Denies basic rights to half its population
Suppresses all internal dissent
Survives on aid rather than productive economy
Sees GDP rise while citizens grow poorer
... is not a stable partner. It is a source of regional instability that will continue to generate security, economic, and humanitarian crises for itself and its neighbors.
The international community has largely chosen engagement with the Taliban over accountability. That approach has failed.
What is needed instead:
Verification mechanisms for counterterrorism commitments
Independent monitoring of human rights, particularly women's rights
Aid conditioned on concrete reforms, not just promises
Regional coordination on border security and counterterrorism
Support for Afghan civil society, not just regime engagement
Pakistan has done its part - hosting millions of Afghan refugees for decades, facilitating US-Taliban negotiations, and repeatedly warning of the consequences of inaction. Now, the evidence is clear, and the international community must act.
The denial must end. The accountability must begin. And Afghanistan - and the region - must finally move toward genuine, sustainable peace.
