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| A delegation of the US Afghanistan War Commission, led by its Co-Chairs Shamila N Chaudhary (centre) and Dr Colin F Jackson (left), calls on Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir at the General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi, on September 28, 2026. — ISPR |
Asim Munir Briefs US Afghanistan War Commission on Pakistan’s Sacrifices, Terrorism and Regional Security
By Uzair Saleem — SCN News
RAWALPINDI, Sept. 28 — Chief of Defence Forces and Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has briefed a visiting U.S. commission examining America’s two-decade war in Afghanistan on the security, economic and human costs Pakistan says it carried during the conflict, placing Islamabad’s experience directly before a body tasked with drawing lessons from one of the longest wars in U.S. history.
The delegation from the Afghanistan War Commission, led by its co-chair Colin Jackson, met Munir at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, where discussions covered the Afghan conflict, its consequences for Pakistan, current developments in Afghanistan and the wider regional security environment, according to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations. The military said Munir gave the delegation a detailed account of challenges Pakistan faced during the war and Islamabad’s contribution to counterterrorism and regional stability.
The significance of the meeting goes beyond another Pakistan-U.S. security engagement. The Afghanistan War Commission was established by the U.S. Congress to conduct an independent examination of American policy and operations in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, including the decisions that shaped the war and its eventual outcome. Pakistan was a central logistical and counterterrorism partner during much of that period but was also frequently at the centre of disputes in Washington over militant sanctuaries, the Taliban and the direction of the war.
Munir’s briefing therefore gives Islamabad an opportunity to place its own account of the conflict before the commission as it reconstructs how the war developed. According to the Pakistani military’s account, the U.S. delegation acknowledged Pakistan’s sacrifices and contribution during the Afghan conflict and discussed the importance of continued engagement on regional security.
Pakistan has long argued that its role in the post-September 11 war came at an exceptionally high domestic cost, including militant attacks, displacement, military operations and economic disruption. Successive Pakistani governments and military leaders have maintained that the consequences did not end with the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, pointing to renewed militant violence along the Afghan frontier and particularly attacks Islamabad attributes to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants operating from Afghan territory.
That unresolved security legacy gives Monday’s historical briefing an immediate contemporary dimension. Pakistan-Afghanistan relations remain strained over cross-border militancy, with Islamabad accusing the Taliban authorities of failing to prevent Afghan territory from being used by TTP fighters. Kabul has rejected allegations that it permits Afghanistan to be used for attacks against neighbouring countries. Independent assessments continue to identify cross-border militancy as one of the principal sources of tension between the two states.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has hardened its language on the issue in recent weeks. Officials say Islamabad has pursued dialogue directly with Afghanistan and through countries including Qatar, Türkiye and China but has not received the assurances it wants that attacks originating from Afghan territory will stop. The ministry says Pakistan is prepared to restore wider trade, transit and connectivity if its security concerns are addressed.
Munir reinforced that position during a visit to Peshawar Corps Headquarters on Sept. 22, where he reviewed counterterrorism operations, border-management measures and the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said Pakistan’s armed forces remained committed to defeating terrorism and restoring lasting security, according to the military.
The meeting with the U.S. commission consequently links two different phases of the Afghan conflict: Washington is examining what happened during its 20-year intervention, while Pakistan is arguing that some of the security consequences of that era remain unresolved on its side of the border. Islamabad wants its role in supporting the U.S.-led campaign assessed alongside the militant violence and instability Pakistan says the war generated domestically.
For Washington, Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan has historically been more contested. Pakistan provided crucial supply routes and intelligence cooperation to the U.S.-led campaign after 2001, but relations repeatedly deteriorated over American allegations that Taliban and Haqqani network figures found sanctuary inside Pakistan. Islamabad rejected accusations that it supported terrorism and argued that Washington frequently underestimated Pakistan’s own casualties and counterterrorism operations.
Those disagreements are relevant to the commission because its mandate is not simply to document battlefield operations. Its broader review encompasses the political and strategic decisions surrounding the U.S. intervention, including relationships with regional partners and the circumstances that eventually culminated in the withdrawal of American forces and the Taliban’s return to power.
The commission’s discussions in Pakistan could therefore provide material for a wider assessment of whether Washington and Islamabad viewed the same conflict through fundamentally different strategic lenses. The United States was principally focused on preventing Afghanistan from again becoming a base for attacks against America and defeating militant groups threatening U.S. forces. Pakistan’s security establishment simultaneously viewed Afghanistan through border security, domestic militancy and its wider regional strategic environment.
The current deterioration in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations demonstrates that those concerns did not disappear with the end of the U.S. military mission. Relations between Islamabad and Kabul have remained tense through 2026, with periods of direct cross-border confrontation adding an interstate dimension to the longstanding militant problem. A recent assessment by the Council on Foreign Relations described the relationship as strained by cross-border militancy and noted Pakistan’s accusation that TTP fighters operate from Afghan territory — an allegation rejected by the Taliban government.
Islamabad says it has nevertheless kept diplomatic channels open. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said this month that regional governments had attempted to facilitate dialogue and that Pakistan remained prepared to resolve disputes peacefully, but described stopping terrorism from Afghan territory as its principal requirement for normalising trade, transit and other relations.
The commission meeting also comes during a broader improvement in Pakistan-U.S. engagement. Munir met U.S. lawmakers Ryan Zinke and Michael James at GHQ in July for discussions covering regional stability, defence relations and economic cooperation. The visiting lawmakers acknowledged Pakistan’s role in regional stability and supported stronger economic ties, according to the Pakistani military’s account of that meeting.
Earlier this month, Munir also met representatives of U.S.-based defence and critical-infrastructure company POWERUS. That meeting focused on defence technology, procurement, production and capacity building, another indication that Pakistan-U.S. engagement is increasingly extending beyond the Afghanistan-centric relationship that dominated bilateral ties for much of the previous two decades.
Monday’s discussion is different because it deliberately returns to that history. Rather than negotiating a new defence programme or discussing investment, the Afghanistan War Commission is gathering evidence for an American reassessment of what happened between the Sept. 11 attacks and the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021.
For Pakistan, that review creates an opportunity to challenge what it has long regarded as an incomplete American narrative of the war. Islamabad’s position is that Pakistan should be judged not only through disputes over Taliban sanctuaries but also through the casualties, counterterrorism campaigns, displacement and economic consequences it experienced as a frontline state.
The commission will ultimately make its own assessment, and acknowledgment of Pakistan’s sacrifices during Monday’s meeting should not be interpreted as acceptance of every Pakistani claim about the war. Its review is expected to draw on a much broader record involving U.S. officials, military commanders, diplomats, intelligence assessments, allies and other participants in the conflict.
What gives the Munir meeting particular relevance is that the history under examination has again become an active security problem for Pakistan. More than five years after the final U.S. troops left Afghanistan, Islamabad is still confronting militant violence along the frontier, demanding action from Kabul and conducting counterterrorism operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The briefing therefore allowed Pakistan to deliver a message covering both the past and the present: the Afghan war cannot be assessed solely through the American withdrawal of 2021 because, from Islamabad’s perspective, its security consequences continued after U.S. forces went home.