Maulana Rumi, a famous Urdu poet, writes – “تمہارا دل وہ جگہ ہے جہاں خدا رہتا ہے۔ اسے صاف رکھو۔” (Tumhara dil woh jagah hai jahan Khuda rehta hai. Use saaf rakho). Unfortunately this is the same language in which our neighbours are indoctrinating the chronicles of terror and fear, whereas clad in a cloak of a patron of counterterrorism. This 9/11, it becomes an inevitable topic to be questioned, scrutinised and analysed in our capacity.
Billions for “Peacemaking” Saints
Pakistan emerged as the biggest beneficiary of post-9/11 U.S. military aid, receiving nearly $5 billion through Coalition Support Funds alone – more than ten times the amount given to Poland, the second-largest recipient. Pakistan’s military aid increased by 50,000 percent, jumping from just $9 million in the three years before 9/11 to $4.7 billion in the three years after. This massive influx transformed Pakistan into the third-largest recipient of U.S. military assistance globally, trailing only longtime allies Israel and Egypt.
The most troubling aspect of this aid bonanza was the complete lack of oversight. Pentagon documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests revealed scant documentation of how these billions were actually spent. U.S. officials acknowledged that “right from the beginning it was very difficult to pin down what the costs were and how they were computed. The country dominated multiple funding streams simultaneously – becoming the top recipient of Coalition Support Funds, the Pentagon’s Section 1206 training program, and ranking third in the Regional Defense Counterterrorism Fellowship Program. However, critics noted there was “clearly no oversight” to determine whether this money yielded any genuine counterterrorism results or specific actions from the Pakistani government.
Senator Sana Baloch documented how “sophisticated helicopters bought to control the drug trade have been misused against the Baloch people” while American military hardware was deployed against Baloch nationalists rather than terrorists. The State Department’s own reports confirmed Pakistan’s poor human rights record, yet aid continued flowing without conditions.
Despite billions in counterterrorism aid, powerful sections of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) maintained their collaboration with the Taliban and other extremist groups. When the Democratic-controlled Congress finally attempted to impose oversight in 2007, requiring Pakistan to demonstrate progress in preventing Taliban operations and securing borders, the White House opposed these restrictions as “counterproductive.”
This resistance to accountability measures only reinforced critics’ assessments that the aid had become a blank check, funding Pakistan’s domestic conflicts and regional ambitions rather than serving America’s counterterrorism objectives.
The Grim History Recalled – A.Q. Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan’s network shows how Pakistan’s own scientists and officials helped spread nuclear technology to dangerous regimes and groups. After learning centrifuge designs in Europe, Khan used his role at Pakistan’s Khan Research Laboratories to steal blueprints and parts. By the 1980s, he openly marketed complete uranium-enrichment systems, with sales brochures showing mushroom-cloud images.
Despite early warnings, Pakistan’s intelligence services investigated Khan twice but never stopped him. Even after his 2001 removal from his official post, his network simply moved operations to Dubai. Pakistani engineers and middlemen continued to ship centrifuge components using fake end-user documents.
Between 1987 and the early 2000s, Khan’s network sold key nuclear materials and know-how to Iran, Libya, and North Korea – countries tied to terrorist proxies. Iran bought centrifuge designs and parts for thousands of machines in a Dubai deal. Libya received full plant schematics until international forces seized a shipment on the BBC China in 2003. North Korea gained advanced designs in exchange for missile technology.
This case highlights a double threat: well-connected non-state smuggling networks and a government that tolerated their work for strategic or financial gain. Together, they created a pipeline supplying nuclear tools to hostile regimes and proxies, making the world far more dangerous.
To give a deep dive into this, read here.
The Haqqani Network
The Haqqani Network, founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, has evolved into one of the most formidable insurgent groups in Afghanistan, operating primarily in eastern Afghanistan and across the border in northwestern Pakistan. Originating as a mujahideen faction fighting the Soviet invasion during the 1980s, the network later aligned closely with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, becoming synonymous with some of the deadliest attacks in the Afghan conflict.
Despite officially being part of the Taliban, the Haqqanis have maintained a semi-autonomous status, operating distinctively with significant operational freedom. Their stronghold in Pakistan’s tribal areas, especially North Waziristan, has allowed them to harbor militants from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Uighurs and Uzbeks, while also cultivating financial networks through both illicit and legitimate means like extortion, smuggling, and taxation of local enterprises.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been repeatedly accused of supporting and sheltering the Haqqani Network, viewing the group as a strategic proxy to exert influence in Afghanistan and counterbalance India’s regional presence. The ISI’s backing has provided the network with safe havens, intelligence, and logistics, enabling the Haqqanis to orchestrate complex attacks against U.S., NATO, Afghan, and Indian targets, including the 2008 Kabul Indian embassy bombing and the 2011 U.S. Embassy assaults.
This relationship has been described by U.S. military officials as the Haqqani Network acting as a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani ISI. Despite Pakistan officially banning the network in 2015, evidence from U.S. intelligence and Afghan sources suggests ongoing support, highlighting the Haqqanis as a potent instrument of Pakistan’s regional strategy, waging proxy terrorism to advance Islamabad’s geopolitical aims under a veil of plausible deniability.
Read here for more insights into the villainous proceedings of the network in due course of time.
No Worry Terrorists, You Are Safe!
Pakistan hosts and supports numerous terrorist organizations with broad operational reach and diverse sectarian ideologies. These include Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) among others. These groups largely operate under Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith schools of thought, and their main objectives include Islamist transformation of Pakistan, the merger of Kashmir with Pakistan, and support to Afghan Taliban insurgency.
Pakistan’s policy has been to use jihadist groups as instruments of statecraft to project strategic depth against India by fostering militancy in Kashmir and securing influence in Afghanistan. Afghan Mujahideen trained and armed during the Soviet-Afghan war were redeployed to Kashmir to ignite insurgency, turning a political movement into a religious jihad. Kashmir-centric jihadi groups are heavily financed, trained, and managed by ISI elements to wage asymmetric warfare against Indian security forces. The United Jihad Council (UJC), an umbrella group of multiple jihadi outfits, coordinates militant activities explicitly to destabilize Indian-administered Kashmir and promote Pakistani claims.
Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and parts of Pakistan Administered Jammu and Kashmir serve as lawless sanctuaries for terrorist groups providing training camps, recruitment, and indoctrination centers for jihadis operating in South Asia and beyond. ISI maintains operational control and oversight over more than 100 militant training camps in these areas, facilitating cross-border attacks against Afghanistan, India, and internal security forces.
Pakistan’s support for sectarian Sunni extremist groups, including those targeting Shia and Ahmadi minorities, reflects the dangerous intertwining of religious fundamentalism and militancy. Groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have initiated attacks leading to thousands of civilian deaths. These internal conflicts and extremism not only destabilize Pakistan domestically but also fuel a broader regional crisis, with extremist ideologies exported under the guise of proxy warfare.
Not Grey, but Red
Pakistan has been loosely dealt with in regard to the financial stringency of the funds supplied and mostly so, driven by ulterior motives of the west, to fund the South-East Asian insurgencies. Financial Action Task Force is a body which deals with such jurisdictions that don’t abide by the AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and CFT (Countering the Financing for Terrorism) , by classifying them into two lists – called as black list and grey list.
While black list is directly underlining the Republic of North Korea, Iran and Myanmar – which are highly valid, the lower grey list also features 24 jurisdictions (Amendment of 13 June 2025) but does not include peace-loving Pakistan. Listed first on 28 February 2008, lasted 848 days; the second, from 16 February 2012, ran for 1106 days; and the third, beginning 28 June 2018, dragged on for 1576 days, until 22nd October 2022. As if it will be heard by the obedient state, FATF said Pakistan will continue to work with the APG to further improve its AML/CFT system. Yet this never aged well.
Conclusion
Even though Pakistan may protest the abrogation of laws that hinder their hidden ambitions of annexation, and call out India to be inhumane for baseless reasons, Pakistan has taken the responsibility of violating any human rights law or financial obligation right away, while being carefully protected by influences from the west. A country infamous for its fund misuse and indirect or direct terrorism practices, a breeding ground of brainwashed humanoid propaganda machines has not changed a bit for good since 9/11. The positive change is least expected, for many more 11th of September to come.
