'Our Policy Created Monsters,' Husain Haqqani Exposes Islamabad's Security Failures A Day After Sharif's UN Victim Card Speech

Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, launched a scathing critique of Islamabad’s strategic framework following Pakistan’s top ranking in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index (GTI).

Commenting on the index results, Haqqani highlighted that decades of official state policy—specifically distinguishing between "good" and "bad" militants—have directly engineered the country's current internal security catastrophe.

This comes a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif again raised the Kashmir issue while addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) , calling for a “just and fair solution” to the dispute.

Sharif claimed that the people of Kashmir had been waiting for the United Nations to fulfil its commitment to a “free and impartial plebiscite” under its auspices. He also mentioned the 'Indus Water Treaty' during his speech.

Haqqani Hits Out at Decades of Strategic Miscalculation

Addressing the record-high 1,139 terrorism-related fatalities reported in the index, Haqqani noted that the severe escalation in violence stems from an institutional reluctance to dismantle terror infrastructure entirely.

Key points raised in Haqqani's reaction include:

• Failure of Selective Proxies: The state's historical doctrine of patronising regional proxy groups to project power abroad has repeatedly boomeranged, creating internal monsters that now target domestic security forces.
• Ideological Blind Spots: Haqqani pointed out that mainstreaming or attempting peace talks with groups like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) only granted them time and legitimacy to rearm along the porous Durand Line.
• Denial vs Reality: He cautioned that blaming foreign hand interference without confronting internal state sponsorship and radicalisation networks will only accelerate the collapse of law and order in restive regions like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Institutional Reform or Continued Decline

Haqqani emphasized that temporary military operations will yield little long-term result unless accompanied by a complete, irreversible policy pivot.

He warned that unless Pakistan abandons extremist proxy networks as instruments of foreign policy, the nation will remain trapped in a self-inflicted cycle of economic isolation, regional instability, and mounting casualties among its security personnel and civilian population.