Pakistan's Patience With Taliban Has Exhausted, Says Former Pak Ambassador to US

Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, has said that several rounds of talks between Islamabad and the Taliban have been fruitless and Pakistan's patience with the group has now exhausted.

Lodhi said that Taliban leaders assured Pakistan about restraining Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but they did nothing in practice.

This Pakistani diplomat said that during the past few months, Pakistan's warnings to the Taliban about sheltering the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan had not been effective.

Lodhi, who previously served as Pakistan's representative to the United Nations, United Kingdom, and United States, believes that "terrorist activities in 2023 led to a significant rise in the casualties of security personnel, which hit an eight-year high”.

On Monday, in an article published by Pakistani media outlet, Dawn, she wrote that in the wake of Pakistan's disappointment with the Afghan Taliban, the country decided to deport tens of thousands of undocumented Afghan immigrants and change trade and transit regulations.

These policies led to the stoppage of thousands of containers of commercial goods.

As per the Pakistani diplomat, in response to mounting pressures, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, dispatched Mullah Sherin, the governor of Kandahar, to Pakistan in order to defuse tensions. Despite these efforts, the Pakistani side stated that the Pakistani Taliban issue holds greater significance for the country than any other concern.

Lodhi posed the question of what options Islamabad has if the Taliban persist in their unwillingness to act against the TTP. She stated, "There is no easy answer, as there are limits to the leverage Pakistan can employ in a coercive approach without risking a rupture in relations, something it would undoubtedly want to avoid”.