The coffins of our soldiers arriving from border posts tell the story more starkly than any policy paper. Each time Afghanistan descends into chaos, Pakistan pays in blood and treasure. Since 2001, over 80,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives to terrorism, and the economy has suffered losses exceeding $150 billion, much of it tied directly to the spillover of the Afghan wars. For Pakistan, Afghanistan’s instability is not a headline. It is a wound that refuses to heal.
Today, that wound is being reopened. The re-emergence of the TTP from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan reflects Kabul’s refusal or inability to act against groups attacking Pakistan. This is unacceptable. The use of Afghan soil against Pakistan is a red line, and it must be conveyed in unmistakable terms. Without security on the western front, Pakistan’s economic revival and regional integration remain fantasies.
We have carried the burden of the Afghan wars for too long. This time, Pakistan must ensure that our sovereignty is not a casualty of Afghanistan’s turmoil.
The danger, however, is not limited to terrorism. Afghanistan has become the world’s largest producer of opium and, increasingly, methamphetamine. According to UN estimates, over 6,000 tons of opium were produced in 2022 alone, while meth labs have multiplied in the country’s south and west. These narcotics finance terror outfits and flow across Pakistan’s borders, feeding addiction and criminality at home. This is narcoterrorism, and confronting it requires investment in border control, regional intelligence-sharing, and a clear policy of zero tolerance.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan festers. Nearly 24 million Afghans – over half the population – require humanitarian assistance. Women have been denied education and work, ethnic minorities face discrimination, and a generation is being pushed into despair. Despair is the raw material of militancy, and its export will not stop at the Durand Line. Yet the global community remains largely silent, its interest waning the moment foreign troops withdrew.
India has seized on this vacuum to advance its own designs. Through propaganda and covert networks, it seeks to pin Afghan chaos on Pakistan while quietly backing anti-Pakistan elements. The hypocrisy is glaring. For decades, Pakistan absorbed millions of Afghan refugees, sheltered Kabul’s displaced, and sacrificed lives and livelihoods. Those sacrifices give us both the right and the responsibility to insist that Afghan soil not be weaponised against us.
Pakistan cannot stabilise Afghanistan alone, but nor can we sit back as instability seeps into our territory. The path forward must rest on three pillars: clear red lines to Kabul on terrorism, regional partnerships with China, Iran, and Central Asia to curb narcotics and extremism, and domestic resilience – stronger fencing, better refugee management, and a reinvigorated counterterror campaign.
We have carried the burden of the Afghan wars for too long. This time, Pakistan must ensure that our sovereignty is not a casualty of Afghanistan’s turmoil. The choice is stark: draw and enforce red lines today, or allow history to repeat itself tomorrow. The stakes are nothing less than the safety of our people and the survival of the state.
The writer is a freelance columnist.