Pakistan has always tried to influence the internal situation in Afghanistan to suit its strategic objectives. Islamabad’s security-centric approach has dented Afghanistan’s political system and inhibited its political growth.

After several months of tensions, the Pakistan–Afghanistan standoff seems far from abating. In the latest round of hostilities at the end of June 2026, Pakistan conducted airstrikes on the Samkhani district of the south-eastern province of Paktia. Dozens were killed and hundreds injured in these airstrikes, along with considerable damage to infrastructure.[1] Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani visited the families of the deceased and paid condolences.[2] The recent strikes are part of Pakistan’s series of operations that started around the time of the Afghan Foreign Minister’s trip to New Delhi (October 2025). They peaked at the time of the US–Israel attack on Iran towards the end of February 2026 and have continued intermittently since then. Pak–Taliban contentions stem from the former’s discontent over the Taliban government’s reticence in containing the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

At the heart of the present Afghanistan–Pakistan hostilities has been the TTP, Pakistan’s biggest albatross on the internal security front. Post-9/11, the Taliban fighters took refuge in Pakistan’s then FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) region. Later, as the US war effort began to stretch, especially after the opening of another war in Iraq in 2003, the Taliban started to return to Afghanistan to build resistance against the US-NATO forces. Those who remained in Pakistan formed the TTP. The residual Taliban pursued Pakistan to implement Sharia law in the country, and they did so by using violence against Pakistan’s security apparatus. Since the return of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistan has remained hopeful that they will stop providing material and moral support to the Pakistani Taliban, their sibling faction.

Given the US–Iran hostilities, the renewed Pakistan–Afghanistan tensions have remained overshadowed. As the rest of the world, particularly the West, looks the other way, New Delhi has issued consistent condemnations of Pakistan’s indiscriminate strikes against Afghanistan. The escalation of fighting has caused loss of lives and livelihoods, targeting women, children, and mostly hapless civilians. The worst collateral impact has been the forceful deportation of Afghan refugees, which Pakistan has used as a punitive measure to deter and punish the Taliban government in Kabul. Apart from airstrikes, Pakistan has unleashed a string of pressure tactics, including a trade and transit blockade, which has only worsened the situation concerning the forceful expulsion of Afghan refugees across the Durand Line and, at the same time, led to financial losses of up to US$ 850 million.[3]

In this backdrop, this brief attempts to place in perspective Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan, a neighbour which straddles 44 per cent of its land borders. Given the two have been referred to as ‘brothers’ in past by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, what is it that Pakistan brings to Afghanistan’s table? The two countries that became neighbours in 1947 share much in common—religion, ethnicities, culture and language too. However, despite their commonalities, Pakistan–Afghanistan relations have been marked by trust deficits and a perennial sense of strategic rivalry.

Not long ago, the Pakistani establishment seemed to be in cahoots with the Taliban and celebrated their return to power in August 2021. The ‘friends to foes’ shift has been a defining regional event which few could foresee, given Pakistan stood by the Taliban when no one did. It was one of the three nations that recognised the Taliban 1.0 rule during 1996–2001 before the US war (with Pakistan in a frontline status) dislodged it. Not only did Pakistan facilitate the US–Taliban negotiations before the Doha peace accord, leading to the US-NATO........

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