The blame game is not new. Our homeland of peace lovers has always been under intrigues and repeatedly assessed as a terror producing state. Pakistan is truly paying the price for more than a decade, to be part of war on terror which was inflicted upon her. Unfortunately, after losing much through human casualties and destroyed infrastructure, Pakistan is still held responsible for instability in the region. War against terror was waged to end terrorism but history articulates that this wrong decision twisted terror more than eliminating it. Often this “war against terrorism” is referred to as “war for terrorism” by some critics. USA and its allies never realised the implications in the long run. Understanding it as a wrong decision after almost one and a half decade and still believing that they have given peace to region is a wrong assumption.

Western media particularly never understood the security dynamics of Pakistan. For them Pakistan is a country which breeds extremism.

Time and again, the foreign media is found active in propagating against Pakistan their agenda to destabilise an exemplary country fighting successfully against extremism. Recently, Carlotta Gall, a British journalist in her article titled ‘Pakistan’s Hand in the Rise of International Jihad’ published in the New York Times accused Pakistan of supporting Afghan Taliban and causing instability in Afghanistan. According to her Pakistan likes to intervene in other’s conflict and today Pakistan is responsible for chaos in the region. Sadly but then realistically speaking, if so is the case then a state which is sponsoring terrorism should be wise enough to not let others intervene in its security matters, nor join hands in curbing this menace of extremism. Turning the pages of history one finds that Pakistan has never nurtured any faction for acts of militancy nor has it supported any such thoughts. Pakistan never realised in time that this war by West in the region will be so costly for it and would shatter its internal security. When today Pakistan is rising and shining through all challenges, with an improved security situation and economic investments coming in, opponents are busy again in tarnishing its image as a peaceful country.
Ironically, this malicious statement has come up, when in the region everyone is looking forward to ongoing struggle for regional peace.

This article appeared on the same day as the results of the third quadrilateral dialogue and meeting process hit the headlines. Holding Pakistan responsible by saying that ‘till the results of peace dialogue are achieved Afghanistan may not survive’ is ridiculous. Afghanistan itself needs to look at its policies to ensure stability. Pakistan equally suffered with Afghanistan and now when they have their own political government and other supporting units it should show the world how they can restore peace within the country and in region. Providing safe havens to terrorists and later making baseless accusations against Pakistan must end, when Pakistan itself supports all efforts for exterminating belligerence. Proofs of various militant acts in Pakistan have shown the other side of the story suggesting that terrorism is floated through Afghanistan where certain other forces have vested interests to subvert Pakistan. The involvement of Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies is public now and concrete evidence has shown how they support and give monetary aid to terrorist organizations for achieving malevolent aims. Facts are found that India is actively involved for this menace of terrorism in Pakistan particularly Baluchistan and supports the TTP. Pakistan even provided these evidences to UN and recently to Afghanistan again after Bacha Khan University attack in Charsadda.

Carlotta Gall in her article has underlined Pakistan’s role in the rise of ISIS, violence in Afghanistan and Chinese province Xinjiang at the same time. However, Pakistan repeatedly has declared that it has nothing to do with ISIS nor any traces of this new terror hype have been found in country. It is well aware of upcoming threat of IS to region and the problem is actually it’s more a concern for Afghanistan where Daesh is getting the support of Taliban in some Afghan provinces. India has always tried to carve out ways for its regional hegemony by any means and its involvement in many terrorist activities in China and Pakistan has been ascertained. China also has verifications and they too were provided to Afghanistan for unrest in China’s Muslim province Xinjiang. So such baseless claims hold no authenticity and Afghanistan needs to take care of its own house where after so many years’ breeding grounds and appropriate environment for rise of violence is yet available. The number of foreign militant groups like IMU, ETIM, Ihrar-ul-Hind, Al-Qaeda and factions of TTP operating in Afghanistan with the help foreign hands must not be ignored for regional peace as whatever happens in Pakistan or Afghanistan affects both states. Belief that these militants are product of madrassas in Pakistan also holds no strong ground today when confronted with the ideology of Al-Qaeda and IS fighters. Pakistan by virtue of its geographic proximity, religious and ethnic affinities with Afghanistan could not escape the fallout, and what was someone else’s war has been gradually made ours in the Afghan war. For Pakistan’s stability it was necessary to launch an all-out operation against them and communicate to international community that it can stand out against all odds.

Thereby, before propagating against Pakistan international media and key players in region must remember that Pakistan knows well how to shield its existence.