Views from The Thursday Times' editorial desk.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
