Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif used the floor of the United Nations to declare that his country once harboured terrorists but had since brought them under control — a claim that credible ground reports, historical patterns, and recent photographic evidence flatly contradict. The statement follows an admission earlier this year by Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif that successive Pakistani governments had supported terrorist outfits for 30 years — remarks that came days after the Pahalgam massacre in Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April 2025, in which 26 civilians were killed.

A Pattern of Admissions Without Accountability

In the same interview in which he acknowledged three decades of state-backed terror support, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif attempted to distance Pakistan from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), saying, 'Lashkar is a name from the past. It does not exist' — this even as the Resistance Front, widely regarded as an LeT offshoot, had claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack. The dissonance between the admission and the denial, within the same breath, captures the central contradiction at the heart of Pakistan's counter-terror posture.

Barely four months ago, photographs emerged showing Senator Rana Sanaullah Khan — the Prime Minister's Advisor on Political Affairs and Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination — interacting with Hafiz Talha Saeed, son of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, who is a globally designated terrorist. The images drew sharp international attention and remain unaddressed by Islamabad.

Designated Terrorists Operating Openly

Hafiz Saeed, the architect of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people including foreign nationals, is a United Nations-designated terrorist. Despite this, he has continued to appear at public rallies inside Pakistan and reportedly retains influence over extremist networks. According to recent reports, Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI has placed him under enhanced security — not custody — in a fortified safe house in Lahore, following multiple assassination attempts.

Similarly, Masood Azhar, founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) — the group behind the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing — reportedly remains sheltered within Pakistan despite sustained international pressure for his prosecution.

Notably, LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin are also reported to operate freely, addressing gatherings and continuing to mobilise support.

The Army's Shadow Over Civilian Authority

A structural explanation for the civilian government's limitations lies in the well-documented dominance of the Pakistani Army — headquartered in the garrison city of Rawalpindi — over the elected administration in Islamabad. Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir has visibly led on international affairs and domestic security matters that ordinarily fall within civilian jurisdiction. Prime Minister Sharif's government is widely seen as constrained in its ability to act independently of military preferences.

Defence scholar Owen L. Sirrs, author of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate: Covert Action and Internal Operations, has written that the ISI is 'owned by the Army Chief (and) not the Prime Minister' — framing the intelligence apparatus as an instrument of military, not civilian, authority.

A Long Trail of Global Terror Links

The record extends well beyond South Asia. The 2005 London bombings were linked to individuals who had received training in Pakistan. The 2010 Times Square bombing attempt was traced to networks operating from Pakistani territory. The 2003 capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — the operational planner of the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people — took place in Rawalpindi, tying the country directly to al-Qaeda's core leadership. Most damning, perhaps, was the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011, living in close proximity to Pakistan's premier military academy.

The 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, while he was investigating links between Pakistani extremists and international terror networks, remains among the starkest illustrations of the operational freedom enjoyed by militant groups on Pakistani soil. His captors were members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and militants linked to al-Qaeda.

Terror Leaders at Public Events

As recently as June 2026, leaders associated with designated terror organisations were photographed at the funeral of the brother of former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar. Among those identified in images that circulated widely were Saifullah Kasuri, the LeT deputy chief and the alleged mastermind of the April 2025 Pahalgam attack, and Inam-ur-Rehman Kamboh, president of the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) — widely described as LeT's political front. Their public presence at a high-profile social event underscores the degree to which designated militant figures remain embedded in Pakistani public life.

Against this backdrop, assurances from Islamabad about turning a corner on terrorism will continue to face credibility deficits — domestically and on the world stage — for as long as UN-designated terror figures remain free on Pakistani soil.