Afghan Taliban security force rushes through traffic after explosions and gunfire were heard near a Kabul military hospital. Smoke seen rising in a distance.
Afghan Taliban security force rushes through traffic after explosions and gunfire were heard near a Kabul military hospital. Smoke seen rising in a distance.

If anyone has benefited from the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, besides the Taliban, it is Pakistan. By supporting the Taliban to take over the reign in Afghanistan, Pakistan not only managed to crawl out of the isolation in the international community but was also able to find itself an important place at the negotiation table.

Due to its decades-old foundational ties, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan lords over the radical Islamic outfit in the Central Asian country. With the international community inching closer to recognizing the Taliban, Islamabad has emerged as the sole regional source for the US and its allies to fall back on to tame the Taliban.

Due to its cultural and religious affinities, Islamabad always enjoyed a say in the affairs of the Taliban which it has used for its advantage after the US troops' withdrawal concluded earlier this year.

Afghan Taliban security force rushes through traffic after explosions and gunfire were heard near a Kabul military hospital. Smoke seen rising in a distance.

Islamabad was desperately looking to shed its pariah status, imposed by the international community three years ago, and to enter the good books of Washington once again. To the benefit of Pakistan, Afghanistan's other neighbors like India, Iran, China and Russia hesitated to bring the recalcitrant Taliban to the negotiation table.

In fact, Pakistan civilian government, military and its spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, helped mainstreaming the jungle army. They hold significant sway over the radical group and its shuras (Islamic councils).

A US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, published by the India media Nov. 12, stated that Pakistan provided "active and passive support to the Taliban."

Though not considered an official view or report of the US Congress, the CRS report further noted that the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan was a "substantive triumph for Pakistan."

Today, Russia, China and the US and its allies like Qatar and India and Afghanistan's neighbors like Uzbekistan and Iran look forward to cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan to know the nitty-gritty of an Inclusive Islamic Governance System (IIGS) which the neo-Taliban are planning to piece together in the Muslim majority landlocked country.

Since the takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15 by the Taliban, Pakistan has succeeded in convincing the US and other superpowers that the new Taliban will address some of the usual troves - return of terrorism, human rights violations, loss of democracy, and freedom of women -- when the IIGS is put in place in the country of 33.2 million people.

To make them fall in line, Islamabad has raised the bogey of Islamic terrorism that if the neo-Taliban experience internal dissent over governing the disappointed elements would likely to switch over their loyalty to the Islamic State-Khorasan -- an offshoot of the Islamic State in the region.

The threat of the Islamic State was more than enough for the US, China, India, Iran and to some extend Uzbekistan to bury the hatchet with the Taliban. In fact, all these nations are facing threats from the radical Islamic outfit.

Since the US administration under President Donald Trump canceled $1.3 billion in aid to Pakistan in November 2018 for providing Islamic militants safe heavens inside its territory, Islamabad was isolated at the regional and global level. Earlier in the same year, the Trump administration had stopped all security assistance to Pakistan.

With the Taliban coming to power, Pakistani has also succeeded in keeping India, which was the largest investor in the central Asian country during the 20-year occupation by the US, at bay. New Delhi is bitterly opposed to the Taliban due to their support for the Islamist rebellion in the disputed Kashmir state.

Pakistan is sure to come to the aid of a cash-starved Taliban with the help of China with which it enjoys cordial ties. China has already expressed to make billions of dollars of investments in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has brought back the credibility of Pakistan which it has lost due to its ties with terrorist outfits. How grateful Islamabad will be to the Islamic outfit in the neighboring nation, remains to be seen.