English

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.