ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army chief urged a US commission reviewing the Afghanistan war to include Islamabad’s account of the conflict, the military said Monday, as the country fights the Taliban government it welcomed to power five years ago.

The bipartisan Afghanistan War Commission is examining US decisions during the 20-year war, which ended with the American withdrawal and the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Its final report is due in August 2027. 

Pakistan became a key US counterterrorism partner after the Sept. 11 attacks, helping pursue Al-Qaeda and providing supply routes for American-led forces in Afghanistan. But Washington also accused it of allowing Afghan Taliban leaders and the allied Haqqani network to operate from Pakistani territory. Pakistan’s cooperation and the limits of that cooperation are among the questions the commission is examining. 

Its 2025 interim report said Pakistan’s support helped weaken Al-Qaeda, while its unwillingness to deny the Taliban sanctuary enabled the insurgency “in meaningful ways.”

“He underscored the importance of incorporating the regional perspective and Pakistan’s experience in assessing the strategic, diplomatic and operational dimensions of the conflict,” Pakistan’s military said after Field Marshal Asim Munir met commission co-chairs Shamila Chaudhary and Colin Jackson in Rawalpindi.

The army said Munir described challenges Pakistan faced during the US-led war and discussed the region’s current security situation. It did not specify what evidence or accounts he presented. The commission interviewed former Pakistani officials during an earlier visit. 

Pakistan initially welcomed the Afghan Taliban’s return to power. Then Prime Minister Imran Khan said in August 2021 that Afghans had broken the “shackles of slavery.” But relations deteriorated as attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, increased. The TTP is a separate organization that fought alongside the Afghan Taliban during the US-led war and has been waging an insurgency against the Pakistani state since 2007.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing TTP fighters and other militants to plan attacks from its territory. Kabul denies sheltering them. A UN monitoring team has reported that the Afghan Taliban provided the TTP with logistical and operational space, although the two governments dispute responsibility for the violence. 

Deadly border clashes and Pakistani airstrikes in October 2025 led to a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Türkiye. Fighting escalated again in February, with strikes reaching major Afghan cities. A temporary pause in March and talks hosted by China in April failed to settle the dispute. 

Monday's meeting came days after Pakistan struck targets in Afghanistan it said militants used to store and launch drones. Afghanistan’s Taliban government said four civilians were killed in the Sept. 24 strikes.