Nigah

A Self-Serving Hit Job, Timed to Hurt Pakistan Mehlaqa Samdani's piece in Foreign Policy in Focus (12 Nov 2026), a platform she uses as her own echo chamber, is not analysis. It is opportunism, timed with surgical precision. Democrats have just won the House and Senate. Samdani knows it. She knows a new Congress is looking for a stick to beat the Trump Administration with. So she offers them one: Pakistan. She urges Congress to condition F-16 sustainment, IMET training, and diplomatic cover on releasing political prisoners and ending military trials, and to investigate Trump's Pakistan links. This is not a concern for democracy. This is a career move, using Pakistan as a ladder to relevance in Washington. And it is a disservice to Pakistan of the worst kind. Samdani argues Washington's bet on Field Marshal Asim Munir is a "false promise," that Pakistan's military has failed at counterterrorism in KP and Balochistan, violated rights, endangered the $1.25 billion US investment in Reko Diq, and deepened ties with China. She ignores the obvious: Pakistan did not choose a security state. Geography imposed it. Her timing is mischievous and her effect is dangerous. By directly targeting Pakistan's counterterrorism capacity at the exact moment TTP, BLA, and IS-K are escalating attacks from Afghan sanctuaries, she is, directly or indirectly, helping the terrorists. Weaken the military, cut its spares, freeze its training, isolate its chief, and who benefits? Not Pakistani democrats. Not Baloch mothers. The men who plant IEDs in Khyber and ambush convoys in Chagai. She blames operations for militancy. The truth is the reverse. Pakistan has lost over 90,000 lives. The Afghan Taliban returned because Washington signed the Doha agreement and fled, not because Islamabad created them. Reko Diq is not proof of failure; US EXIM approved $1.25 billion because it trusts Pakistan to deliver. A Pakistani urging Washington to punish Pakistan at its most vulnerable moment is not dissent. It is a disservice to the country she claims to care about. Pakistan has an elected Parliament, a Prime Minister, and a Constitutional Court. A strong military under civilian command is not military rule. Congress should see this piece for what it is: not a warning about Pakistan's future, but the work of an opportunist trying to sell Pakistan's security for applause in Washington. @MehlaqaCAPJ