WASHINGTON: The chairperson of a US congressional panel on Tuesday urged the Trump administration to monitor alleged human rights violations in Pakistan, as witnesses spoke of widespread abuses across the country.

“Extraordinary ordinary situation! Not only Congress but the executive branch should also sit up and take notes,” said Rep Christopher H. Smith, the Republican co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He made this remark soon after Zulfi Bukhari, an aide to Imran Khan, claimed before the panel that the former prime minister and his wife had been wrongfully implicated in almost 200 cases, all of which were politically motivated.

Smith also emphasised that the US could not stand by while civilian rule was subverted by military influence. In his remarks, Mr Bukhari claimed that the basic human rights of Pakistani citizens had been curtailed, the media silenced, and those who dared to speak were either sacked or forced to leave the country. He also alleged that courts had been prevented from holding fair trials through coercion and parliamentary amendments.

Sadiq Amini, founder of the Afghanistan Impact Network, drew attention to what he called Pakistan’s “duplicity” in its relationship with the US.

He also claimed that former PM Imran Khan was “used” to mislead US President Donald Trump during his first term in office.

He said that Mr Khan had taken a message of peace from the Taliban to Washington, which was, in fact, a “deception, carefully crafted by his Russian counterparts”.

“He convinced President Trump to pursue a peace deal with these terrorists, which only empowered the Taliban.” The peace process inevitably failed, leading to the US withdrawal and the establishment of a “gender apartheid regime” in Kabul, he said.

Mr Amini also said that as PM, Imran Khan had virtually acted as a spokesperson for the Taliban, going around the world indicating that they were an indigenous group serving the interests of the people of Afghanistan.

“Pakistani leaders, both military and civilian, complain about the Taliban threat. But even now, according to them, the Taliban is good for Afghanistan but bad for Pakistan,” he said, calling it a blatant display of duplicity.

Others scheduled to testify before the panel included Ben Linden, Advocacy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International; and, Jared Genser, Managing Director of Perseus Strategies.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2025