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.

India debates while Pakistan mediates

Senior RSS and military remarks in India have reopened the question of dialogue with Pakistan, exposing the limits of New Delhi’s hardline public posture. At the same time, Islamabad is trying to show that its relevance now extends beyond India, through crisis diplomacy involving Iran, the US, the Gulf, China and multilateral finance.
Editorial

پاکستان کی سفارتی کامیابی، اور بیانیہ کی جنگ

اسلام آباد کی بڑھتی سفارتی حیثیت نے اسے بیانیے کی جنگ کا ہدف بنا دیا ہے۔ نیتن یاہو کے بیانات سے لِنڈسے گراہم کی تنقید تک اور بھارتی میڈیا کے منظم بیانیہ سے پاکستان کے اندر نئے دہشتگردانہ حملوں تک ایک نئی مخالفانہ لَہر اُبھرتی دکھائی دے رہی ہے۔
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Pakistan’s diplomatic prowess has made it a target

Pakistan’s growing diplomatic relevance has triggered a sharper narrative war, with foreign criticism, hostile media framing and domestic security incidents being used to cast Islamabad as unstable just as it re-enters the centre of regional diplomacy.
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Selective outrage

From South Waziristan to Balochistan and Punjab, Pakistan continues to confront terrorist violence that targets security forces and civilians alike. Yet while the world speaks loudly for other states' victims, Pakistani suffering too often receives silence, indifference, or selective concern.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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