Views from The Thursday Times' editorial desk.
From Haripur to Lahore, the ballot box has rebuked anti-state theatrics and KP misgovernance, tightening PML-N’s grip on a weary electorate, as PTI’s agitation and foreign-amplified campaigns collide with reality and by-election voters turn to order over unrest.
Devolution that stops at the provincial secretariat is not devolution; it is merely colonialism with a different accent. A Mirpuri airport, a Multani university and a Gwadar harbour are not vanity projects; they are stress tests of whether the new map actually serves the periphery.
A state which refuses to distinguish between the vulnerable and the weaponised is not compassionate: it is careless with its own survival. Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, wagered the nation's security on charisma and sentiment, where leverage, verification, and distance were required. In pursuit of his own love affair with the Taliban, he was blind to all three.
Pakistan came with one demand and departed with verification, guarantors and a timetable; Kabul kept its face, Islamabad kept the substance. A new regional normal now bears Pakistan’s imprint.
Critics insist that Pakistan’s sympathy for Gaza is performative. They are wrong. It is historical, ethical, and intensely practical. War does not stop at borders. It migrates into prices, into power cuts, into classrooms, into the psychology of a young man who has seen too many funerals and too few pay cheques.
India cannot claim the title Pharmacy of the World while children die from poisoned cough syrup. Pride means nothing without transparent regulation, lot-by-lot testing, and accountability from factory floor to cabinet table.
For fifty years Pakistan sheltered millions of Afghans while richer capitals sermonised from afar. If promises are paused in the West, do not scold the neighbour for enforcing its borders; honour your pledges and share the burden.
The Nobel Peace Prize risks turning from conscience into stagecraft when nominees with alleged militant proximities are amplified by friendly institutions, eroding the firewall of secrecy and trust.
Anchored by the Hafiz effect, Pakistan has shown that deterrence with restraint, tighter borders, cleaner markets, and a geo-economic push via the SIFC have recast the state as reliable, ensuring that routines, not miracles, move the country forward.
Israel's attack tried to shrink Qatar, and Pakistan answered with presence, not bluster, drawing a hard line for sovereignty. In Doha, mediation became infrastructure: solidarity turned from pose to policy.
