A group of high-profile US senators—including former presidential nominee Mitt Romney—have moved a bill in the US senate seeking imposition of sanctions on the Afghan Taliban with a possibility for ramifications for Pakistan. While the bill titled, the ‘Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act’, is unlikely to pass, the fact that it has been introduced is concerning as it points towards the trends that are taking root against Pakistan in the US.
The proposed legislation—introduced by 22 Republican senators—seeks to review and suspend assistance to and potentially impose sanctions on any foreign government the US believes was or is supporting the Taliban. It singles out Pakistan by name in the section that calls for a report on “entities providing support for the Taliban”. Upon closer reading of Section 202 where Pakistan has been named, it is quite evident that a lot of it has been influenced by misinformation and propaganda campaigns that have been directed towards scapegoating Pakistan over the past year or so.
It is also important to discuss Section 102 which focuses on governments working and assisting the new government in Afghanistan. The wording of the section paints a picture of how myopic the worldview is of a lot of policymakers in DC, who cannot look beyond politics and are oblivious to a humanitarian crisis that is brewing in Afghanistan.
Regardless of the headway this bill makes in the Senate, for Islamabad it is crucial to shore up diplomatic support with regional partners who understand the actual dire situation on the ground and are focused on stabilising the worsening situation in Afghanistan. The US’ bid to scapegoat Pakistan following its failure in Afghanistan should be roundly opposed on all available forums.
Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari has rightly reacted to the legislation by stating that twenty years of presence by economically and militarily powerful US and NATO left behind chaos with no stable governance structures. The US Senate should first look into why the Afghan National Army collapsed despite heavy funding from the US? Who asked Pakistan to release Afghan Taliban membersand who signed the Doha agreement with them? The US took all the above decisions on its own accord without Islamabad having any say. Therefore, it is time for the US to introspect its own failures instead of targeting Pakistan, which has paid a heavy price during the so-called ‘War on Terror’.
Source: Published in The Nation