ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office has said the group in power in Kabul does not enjoy any constitutional legitimacy, distancing Islamabad from the Taliban’s self-declared status as an interim government.

Addressing the weekly media briefing on Friday, the spokesperson said: “There is no constitution. There is no legal framework but we are working with it. We have an ambassador there. But at the same time, we hope that there will be progress in terms of proper constitutional system of government taking root, truly representative of the Afghan people, taking root in Kabul.”

The remarks mark a shift in how Pakistan viewed Afghanistan, as foreign office uses regime instead of interim government to refer to the Taliban.

The spokesperson said Pakistan continues to maintain diplomatic engagement with Kabul and that Afghanistan’s political future must ultimately be decided by its own people.

He said Islamabad seeks stability through dialogue and non-interference, but a legitimate, representative system must emerge in Afghanistan.

At the same briefing, the Foreign Office warned about what it called the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. “Belying fast the expectations and hopes of the regional countries, [Afghanistan] has become a central breeding ground for global terrorism.”

Referring to Pakistan’s defensive actions along the border, the spokesperson said the country could not afford to “wait for a big disaster happening at the global scale before we take remedial action.”

He added that Pakistan had long been drawing attention to the “gradual sinking in of Afghanistan” — both in terms of its failure to meet counterterrorism commitments and the growing toll such instability was taking on Pakistan’s own security.

“But this fire will spread,” the spokesperson cautioned. “This has to be stopped.”

The comments came amid heightened tensions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where Islamabad said it carried out “targeted and precise defensive responses” following what it described as unprovoked cross-border assaults by Taliban forces and affiliated militant groups.

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Pakistan says Taliban government lacks constitutional legitimacy