ISLAMABAD: Incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan on Wednesday questioned the government’s logic of making an enemy out of the neighbouring Afghanistan, asking “Why are (govt) you trying to trigger a war with Muslim brothers.”
“Afghanistan is not our enemy and why are they (rulers) trying to make it our enemy?,” said Aleema Khan quoted her brother as saying while talking to the media outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.
Quoting Imran Khan to the media, she said: “Why are you trying to trigger a war with Muslim brothers?”
She noted that the PTI founder said his party would only attend a National Security Committee meeting with his permission.
Replying to a question however, Aleema said Imran pointed out that terrorism attacks had dropped by 2021 but started increasing again in 2022.
The PTI founder’s purported remarks come day after as the country’s civil and military leadership convened at an in-camera Parliamentary Committee on National Security to mull the rising incidents of terrorism, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
The meeting was attended by PM Shehbaz, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) Lieutenant General Asim Malik, chief ministers of all four provinces, and other top officials.
However, several key figures including Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, NA Opposition Leader Omar Ayub and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members skipped the high-level huddle.
The participants were briefed by the military leadership on the country’s overall security situation.
The high-level huddle comes days after last week’s harrowing attack by the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants — who were in contact with their handlers in neighbouring Afghanistan — blew up train tracks and held over 440 passengers hostage in a day-long standoff with security services in a remote mountain pass in the Bolan district.
The closed-door meeting is also to be taken in the context of alarming statistics revealed in the Global Terrorism Index 2025 report which places Pakistan as the second-most affected country by terrorism.
Apart from urging the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to prioritise action against terrorism within or originating from Afghanistan, Islamabad has signalled the possibility of cross-border operations in the neighbouring country.
“If we have to resort to hot pursuit and enter [Afghanistan] to eliminate our enemies, we will do so,” the defence czar said.
