Mazari rebukes US for introducing bill targeting Pakistan for Afghan failure
Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari. PHOTO: FILE
Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari has warned that Pakistan will be made to “pay heavy price” for being an ally of the United States in its ‘war on terror’ as a bill has been introduced in the US Senate seeking sanctions against the Taliban after chaotic Western forces withdrawal from Afghanistan last month.
“So again Pak will be made to pay heavy price 4 being an ally of US in its "War on Terror" as a Bill (see pp 25-26) is introduced in US Senate in aftermath of the US's chaotic Afghan withdrawal followed by collapse of ANA [Afghan National Army] & Ashraf Ghani's flight to UAE,” she said in a series of tweets on her official handle on Tuesday.
Mazari said that Pakistan is being scapegoated for the US and its allies’ failures in Afghanistan who she said during 20 years of presence failed to establish any stable governance structure.
“This was never our war; we suffered 80000 casualties, a decimated economy, over 450 drone attacks by our US ally."
The minister went on to say that it is time for those powers who were present in Afghanistan to look to their own failures instead of targeting Pakistan which has already paid a heavy price for supporting the US-led forces war in Afghanistan.
Earlier in the day, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress that the Afghan army's sudden collapse caught the Pentagon off-guard as he acknowledged miscalculations in America's longest war including corruption and damaged morale in Afghan ranks.
"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away – in many cases without firing a shot – took us all by surprise," Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"It would be dishonest to claim otherwise."
Austin was speaking at the start of two days of what are expected to be some of the most contentious hearings in memory over the chaotic end to the war in Afghanistan, which cost the lives of US troops and civilians and left the Taliban back in power.
(With input from Reuters)