In the two months since Kabul’s fall, the world has engaged the Taliban for a better Afghanistan even without formal recognition.

The senior Taliban leaders have hosted diplomats from the global powers including the United States and the United Kingdom as well as regional giants Russia and China. Organisations such as the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organisation (WHO), too, have engaged the militant group over the economic crisis impeding development in the aid-dependent country.

This is in stark contrast with how the world had dealt with the Taliban two decades ago. During their previous term, the Taliban were international pariahs with only the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan recognising the Taliban government.

Despite the global favour, however, the Taliban are struggling to govern. Reports have emerged of low-rank Taliban harassing Afghan citizens and steering vengeful violence across the country.

It didn’t help that the leadership announced the kind of cabinet that they did and that they stopped girls and women from attending schools, losing favour with the locals who had chosen to give the Taliban the benefit of the doubt.

“The ‘inclusive’ government is disappointing,” said independent researcher Riccard Valle. “But seeing things from their perspective, they might give ‘inclusive’ the meaning they want simply to listen to the needs of local tribal elders, religious minorities and ethnicities.”

The aid-dependent country also faces an economic crisis threatening to push the majority of the population into poverty. The Taliban may have strolled into Kabul without facing much resistance but sustaining the throne may not be their cup of tea.

Their last term too had been chaotic with sporadic intra-Afghan wars. They were condemned internationally for massacres against Afghan civilians, ethnic genocides, stopping UN food aid, burning fertile land and banning girls and women from attending schools and working jobs.

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan post-9/11 attacks, the Taliban had fled into the mountains. They regrouped to fight the Western alliance. After two decades of war, they triumphed against the world’s most advanced militaries.

This wasn’t surprising as the Afghans are known to be fighters – and combat is all Taliban have known. Most among the young Taliban have only known conflict. Governance may be an alien concept.

An apt depiction of Afghanistan’s predicament is the image of a young Talib dispersing crowd with a loaded gun to their face rather than the use of, perhaps, smoke cans or other non-lethal deterrents.

According to Valle, the biggest challenge ahead for the Afghan Taliban is transition from military to governance. “I think that for now they are doing a modest job in certain fields but terrible in others,” he said, hinting at security and education matters.

In his bid to redefine Afghan Taliban as “Pashtun nationalists”, Prime Minister Imran Khan misidentified the Haqqani network as a tribe as he congratulated the Afghans for “breaking the shackles of slavery.” In reality, the Afghan population’s is now heading towards poverty.

“The economy is not their fault but other issues are,” said Valle. “Politically, we are yet to see some members of the cabinet including Siraj Haqqani and Emir Haibatullah Akhund.”

Terming Mullah Yaqoob’s public appearance “a good step”, he said: “Some say the Afghan Taliban are mirroring Iran’s model of governance but I’m sceptical of them adopting elections.”

He reasoned that while some may be open to the idea, others might not be. “But, they could accept a form of electoral representation from districts, provinces and ethnicities.”

Then there is the matter of a constitution. “If I’m not mistaken, the temporary constitution has articles dedicated to elections - which the Taliban may not enact as it is against the Hanafi fiqh.”

Even though US President Joe Biden accused the Afghan leaders and allies of corruption and malfeasance and blamed the Trump administration for negotiating an “inadequate withdrawal agreement”, he insists that nation building was never in America’s top agenda - shrugging off responsibility for a country they invaded 20 years ago.

Without a constitution, elections and representation, the Afghan Taliban may not be able to rebrand themselves despite the international community putting their best foot forward to support a transition government in the war-torn country.

The writer is a freelance journalist and a former editor