EditorialThe TT Take

“For the 21st-century globalist”: Founded in 2020, The Thursday Times has set out to reimagine journalism with fresh, well-researched perspectives that resonate globally. Each day, our editorial board crafts insights that reflect today’s dynamic world, engaging readers who seek clarity, diversity, and depth in coverage across both local and global landscapes.

After Kabul’s fall, the West outsourced its shame to Pakistan

As Pete Hegseth promises a historic review into the Fall of Kabul, the real accounting must extend beyond the airport chaos to the Afghan families left stranded in Pakistan by Western failure, delay and broken promises.
Editorial

The world capital of diplomacy awaits its Gladiators

Will there be a second Islamabad Talks? Undoubtedly. The notion of an Islamabad Talks 2 have not materialised on cue, but that doesn't mean the process is dead. It means Pakistan holds the only channel both the U.S. and Iran can still use.
Editorial

The tragedy would be to celebrate Iqbal and ignore him

On the 88th death anniversary of Allama Iqbal, it is worth asking not only what he meant to the making of Pakistan, but what his ideas demand of the country now. As Islamabad tries to keep open channels between Iran and the United States, Iqbal’s poetry feels less like memory and more like instruction.
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Moving beyond survival

After years of being defined by debt scares, bailouts and economic uncertainty, Pakistan is showing signs of a broader recovery marked by renewed market access, stronger investor confidence, diplomatic relevance and momentum that isn't stopping anytime soon.
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When rivals need a bridge, they still call Islamabad

Pakistan’s emergence as the setting for U.S.-Iran diplomacy in 2026 was not a sudden stroke of luck but the return of an older strategic role; long before officials sat across from one another in Islamabad, Pakistan was already the back channel by which messages, assurances and ceasefires were carried.
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As Pakistan builds bridges, India builds fantasies

While New Delhi continues to sell Pakistan internally as a terrorist state, Islamabad is increasingly positioning itself as a mediator, a bridge-builder and a country whose real strategic mission is peace.
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The Power to Dar

At a moment when Asia has been pulled towards confrontation and uncertainty, Ishaq Dar has helped place Pakistan at the centre of the diplomatic effort for peace. In the past month, his steady, coalition-building approach has turned Islamabad into a credible channel for dialogue, resulting in the Islamabad Accords.
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Absolute cinema

Pakistan is no longer just reacting to events. It is increasingly being seen as a country around which events may be organised. Islamabad is emerging as a possible venue, Pakistani channels as useful, and names such as Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and JD Vance suggest that the diplomatic centre of gravity may, however tentatively, be shifting toward Pakistan.
Editorial

Manipur’s slow break

Separatism rarely begins with a declaration. It begins with a sentence that sounds almost reasonable in a frightened place: we cannot live under them. We, as Pakistanis, know this better than anyone.
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Independent Republic of Manipur?

Manipur has stopped behaving like a state and started behaving like a border. When a cabinet changes land like a provocation and a confidence vote inside the Assembly cannot calm the street outside, the idea of “Republic of Manipur” stops being metaphor and starts sounding like a warning.
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The BLA’s poseurs receive the death they deserve

While the BLA's violence seeks to manufacture inevitability in Balochistan, the answers it receives from Pakistan collapse distance and deny it spectacle it craves so dearly—time and time again.
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We can finally be proud

Davos was not a redemption arc but a stress test. Pakistan did not arrive seeking applause or indulgence, but to demonstrate whether discipline could finally replace denial. What mattered was constraint—and the recognition that the old escape routes no longer exist.
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On the offensive

There is a certain discipline in Ahmed Sharif’s choice of words as of late. Melodrama is avoided, but denial is not indulged either. If Pakistan is to argue its case internationally, he suggests that it must first lay out its qualms.
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The death cell fairytale

Imran Khan's sons' claims are cinematic, emotive, and tailor-made for headlines. They are also, on the evidence presented, not proven — and that distinction is the difference between responsible commentary and propaganda laundering.
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