Pakistan’s double game in Afghanistan waits on reckoning

This geopolitical fault-line has engendered perpetual tensions regarding territorial entitlements, border conflicts and the infiltration of Islamic terrorists and religious militants, such as TTP, across the border.

It is undeniable that the Durand Line’s legitimacy has always been precarious, explaining Pakistan’s strategy of playing a double game over the past decades. While aligning with the United States’ anti-terror coalition in Afghanistan to receive aid in billions of dollars, the Pakistani military played footsie with different brands of Islamist militants, utilising them for both domestic security and geopolitical objectives.

Consequently, the Taliban’s resurgence was met with great fanfare in Islamabad as a Pakistani strategic triumph. However, the Pakistan Taliban scheme soon deteriorated into a Frankenstein when the Taliban turned against their former handlers. It is not surprising that Pakistan designates the Taliban as Indian proxies.

After the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, 2021, the former chief of Pakistan’s infamous military intelligence (ISI), Faiz Hameed, hurried to Kabul on September 4, 2021, and actively participated in the formation of the Taliban leadership structure and their newly established cabinet.

Several Pakistani agents were strategically placed within the Taliban government. According to Afghan sources, the most influential proxy in Afghanistan is the mysterious anti-Western Amir of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who maintains strong connections with the ISI.

His most egregious decrees for establishing his oppressive dystopia in Afghanistan have inadvertently served Pakistan’s objectives: a weak, unstable and internationally unrecognised Afghanistan. Over the past four years, he has consistently employed religion as an all-purpose tool to tighten his unbridled control over power.

Afghan girls and women, who are denied access to education and employment, have become the tragic victims of his barbaric misogynist policies.

In the meantime, each decree he has issued has been terrifying, revealing the depth of his profound ignorance and tyrannical fixation: “All Afghans must submit to me as if they were lifeless bodies”; “A woman’s face and the sound of her voice are prohibited from being seen or heard in public”; “All books authored by women must be removed from universities,” to name but a few.

Throughout his four years of rule, he has never made a public appearance. No independent and respected Afghan has ever encountered or met him. On rare occasions when he does appear in public, he wears dark glasses and a wrap to conceal his face.

His social invisibility has perplexed both Afghans and outsiders alike. Afghans are divided over the identity of the Amir, much as Russians were over the identity of false Dmitry, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, during the sixteenth century.

In the Afghan social media landscape, interpretations of Hibatullah Akhundzada’s ghostly figure vary widely. While some contend that he may not be the original Hibatullah due to his alleged death alongside his brother in a suicide blast in Quetta before 2021, there are even speculations suggesting that he could be a covert “ISI officer”.

In contrast, the Pakistani media portrays him in a positive light. For instance, The Express Tribune, a newspaper closely aligned with the Pakistani military, reported on August 29, 2025, that “Venerated Moulvi Haibatullah [sic] Akhundzada is showing frustrations and signs of discontent and is divided on key issues like relations with Pakistan and the TTP…” The Pakistani military is keeping the Taliban Amir and his inner circle for its last gasp goal in Afghanistan.