Pakistan’s government and military generally favored a Taliban victory in Afghanistan. But maintaining support for the Taliban is risky, so why Pakistan is supporting them. This is one of the most asked questions of today's world. This question may not have an absolute answer, but some of the sources gave some theories on why Pakistan supports the Taliban.
In this article, some of your doubts get cleared. So could you read it carefully?
The first reason is to counter the influence of India.
The Pakistan government has repeatedly denied that it provides any military support to the Taliban in its diplomacy regarding its extensive operations in Afghanistan. In 1997, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the Soviet Union was a major ally of India. Pakistan was afraid that India's influence would remain in Afghanistan. That's why Pakistan started to support Talibani ideology .nitially; they started with supporting the Mujahideen.
A United States Institute of peace report stated that when there was a Taliban control government in Afghanistan, they had supported and trained Pakistani Militants who had then conducted operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
Later in the 2000s, when a citizen government formed in Afghanistan, the president of Afghanistan then, like Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, were all pro-India.
The second and more complex reason is related to Pashtun Nationalism
Today the Taliban is trying its best to gain legitimacy from the world. You are seen in the news how the Taliban is talking about women's rights, freedom of media. In fact, even protection of minorities. The Hindu and Sikh minorities in Afghanistan. Taleban is promising to keep them safe and secure.
The question is, "why Taliban is doing this?"
Basically, so that the Taliban can seem like. Legitimate government to the other government or the world. So the other government stop seeing the Taliban as a
terrorist group, instead, see them as tha new government of Afghanistan.
And to do this, the more countries would support them, the better.
Pakistani support for Taliban
Pakistani support is quite essential for the Taliban. So no Taliban wouldn't prefer to do anything that would go against Pakistan. Pakistani government thinks that if the Taliban remains in their favor, then the separatist ideology of Pashtun Nationalism Cropping in the Pashtun area of Pakistan can be suppressed as Pakistan wouldn't support it.
Another thing that you may have noticed is that when Pakistan shows its support to the Taliban, it's only in the form of Islamic ideology and the national identity of Afghanistan. It doesn't talk about Pashtun's ethnic identity.
----------------------Conclusion
Ideology is only a means for them to influence people and invite them to favor their side, which helps them maintain their power. All the political leaders are greedy for power above all.
For them, ideology is secondary, with which they influence people into joining their side. Getting them to fight someone else, and in the end, the common people suffer.
Similarly, Talibani's victory may be good news for Pakistan's military and ISI, but this may not be good for the common people/citizen of Pakistan.
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