CNN-News18 reported that Pakistan’s military media division has instructed the country’s news outlets to take action against narratives presented by the Qatari government and Al Jazeera regarding Afghanistan.
According to the report, Pakistan’s military has instructed the country’s media outlets not to portray the Taliban regime as a “complete or stabilizing force” and to push back against what it calls Qatar’s “questionable diplomatic neutrality” regarding Afghanistan.
The guidelines ask Pakistani media to scrutinize Qatar’s diplomatic role more closely and adopt a more assertive stance against narratives that could undermine Islamabad’s position.
The directive notes that over the past year, Qatar’s Al Jazeera network has consistently depicted Pakistan as “politically unstable, prone to violence, and ineffective in Afghan-related peace efforts.”
CNN-News18 reported that Pakistan’s military media division views this coverage as “part of a broader narrative campaign serving Qatar’s foreign policy interests rather than independent journalism.”
The directive also claims that Al Jazeera does not operate independently of Qatar’s diplomatic objectives, and that repeated editorial trends reflecting government policy raise questions about the network’s impartiality and credibility.
Pakistani media have been encouraged to highlight these connections and question whether Doha’s approach truly reflects neutral mediation or amounts to “strategic branding.”
According to leaked documents cited by CNN-News18, Pakistan’s military media has also requested that Qatari diplomatic channels and media outlets halt “negative reporting” about Pakistan on the Afghanistan-Taliban issue, arguing that such coverage undermines Islamabad’s regional peace efforts.
Qatar hosted the first round of talks between the Taliban and Pakistan, which resulted in agreements to maintain a ceasefire and hold follow-up meetings.
Doha has repeatedly been accused of showing a pro-Taliban bias, though it presents itself as a neutral mediator.
Al Jazeera, a state-funded network established by the Qatari government in 1996, is now recognized as a leading global media outlet and covers key developments in Afghanistan.
