ISLAMABAD – Federal Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari lashed out at the US senators in reaction to a proposed bill tabled in the US Senate seeking assessment of the alleged role of Pakistan before and after the fall of Afghanistan and in the Taliban’s recent action in Panjshir valley.
Taking to Twitter, Mazari said: “Enough is enough. It is time for those powers that were present in Afghanistan to look to their own failures instead of targeting Pakistan which paid a heavy price […] for being an ally and suffering constant abuse in a war that wasn’t ours”.
She said that Pakistan will once again be made to pay a heavy price for being an ally of the US in its “War on Terror”.
“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 & Ashraf Ghani’s flight to UAE,” she wrote.
She said that twenty years of presence by economically and militarily powerful US and NATO left behind chaos with no stable governance structures.
“Pak now being scapegoated for this failure.This was never our war; we suffered 80000 casualties, a dessimated economy, over 450 drone attacks by r US ‘ally’ & disastrous fallout of these attacks on our tribal ppl & area,” Mazari added.
Enough is enough. It is time for those powers who were present in Afghanistan to look to their own failures instead of targeting Pak which paid a heavy price in lives lost, social & econ costs, refugees – all for being an ally & suffering constant abuse, in a war that wasnt ours.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) September 28, 2021
She urged the US Senate to do “serious introspection: Where did $ 2 trillion disappear? Why did the heavily-invested-in ANA simply dissolve? Who asked Pak to free TTA ldrship? Who signed Doha agreement with TTA & hosted them in DC?”
US Senators’ Bill
Twenty two US senators from Republican party tabled the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act in the Senate bill earlier this week to addressed issues related to the President Joe Biden administration’s “rushed and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
The lawmakers have sought a report on who provided assistance to the Taliban during America’s longest war in Afghanistan, helped the group to recapture Kabul in August and supported their offensive on Panjshir Valley.
The report, as per the proposed legislation, must reach the relevant committees “not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this act, and not less frequently than annually thereafter”.
It added that the first report shall include “an assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020,” including the provision save heaves, financial assistance, intelligence support, logistics and medical support, training, equipping, and tactical, operation or strategic direction.
It also demands “an assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the September 2021 offensive of the Taliban against the Panjshir Valley and the Afghan resistance”.
“We continue to see the grave implications of the Biden administration’s haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Senator Risch said in a statement issued by his office.
“We face a renewed terror threat against the United States, and the Taliban wrongly seek recognition at the United Nations, even as they suppress the rights of Afghan women and girls.”
The proposed bill also calls for imposing sanctions on the Taliban and others in Afghanistan for terrorism, drug-trafficking, and human rights abuses, as well as on those helping the group, including foreign governments.
It also calls for the safe evacuation of American citizens struck in Afghanistan and bringing back military equipment from the country.
