International relations and strategic affairs expert in ternational affairs expert
JK News Today Analysis
Until a week ago , Pakistan was strutting on the world stage as a peacemaker. Now it is facing international embarrassment over its current series of internal turbulences .It was credited with bringing the US and Iran to the negotiating table to end their 47-year-old diplomatic standoff and resolve the conflict in Middle East
.Today, it finds itself out of that discourse . Its internal troubles have overtaken whatever little it had achieved in international diplomacy . At the same time , its mediation has fallen apart : the US and Iran are back on the battlefield in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
It claimed that it had facilitated talks between the two nations that had been engaged in an all-out war for several weeks beginning February 28, 2026. Today, Pakistan has been reduced to a non-entity from the high pedestal it occupied during its facilitation of talks to end the conflict in Middle East – a conflict that shook the world economy and created one of the severest energy crises in many countries.
The smiles Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had advertised at the time of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran on June 17, 2026, have vanished . Now, glum faces are more visible . Its high diplomatic pedestal has collapsed. Political commentators in Pakistan have questioned the wisdom of its leadership , asking why they were trying to invest energy into settling resolving international disputes while their own home was in flames.
Some analysts , particularly Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US and permanent representative to the UN , observed that Pakistan is faced with a three-front war. First, as was expected , she termed India as the number one enemy.” Afghanistan was named as the number two enemy. But even she could not , and did not , make an attempt to hide the fact that the internal situation in Pakistan was alarming . She advised the Pakistani establishment to look at what was happening within the country, instead of trying to build alliances outside the country’s boundaries.
Maleeha Lodhi is a highly regarded diplomat in Pakistan because of her knowledge and understanding of international relations . Not long ago , she lauded the Pakistani government’s role in making efforts to settle the conflict in the Middle East . She had stated that her country alone could have performed and accomplished the highly challenging diplomatic feat . She reasoned that Pakistan’s strategic location and good terms with the US, Iran, and the Gulf States made it a fit candidate to play the role of a mediator to end the wide-ranging conflict in the regions.
Now, she has reversed her opinion after seeing what is happening inside the country. She even questions where the Government leaders are. She taunted that “ Our government leaders are seen in foreign countries.” Her taunt was reserved for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif , Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, and interior minister Mohsin Naqvi . All of them have been spending more time in the US, Turkiye, , Gulf States and China . . She advised them to stay home and look at what’s happening inside , furthering her thesis that diplomatic outreach would not end the problems within the country.
The internal troubles in Pakistan range from Balochistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan -occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which Islamabad calls ‘Azad’ or Free Kashmir. The seasoned diplomat said that the situation in two of major provinces – Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – is extremely worrying .
The KP province was increasingly witnessing the violence initiated by Tehreek-e- Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, an extremist group that wants to establish fundamentalist Islamic rule in Pakistan : Balochistan is virtually out of Pakistan’s hands. With rebels taking control of the region , it is now being said that Pakistan’s days are numbered .
Questions are also being raised about how the TTP has been able to gain ground in KP and Balochistan when it was claimed that their camps and hideouts had been bombed . These questions are a direct challenge to the Pakistan Army’s claims that they have knocked out all terrorist outfits from their soil . That makes it clear that the Pakistan Army- against which no questions could have ever been raised – is now vulnerable to severe criticism.
Islamabad is rattled by mounting unrest in PoJK, where the initial demands for subsidized wheat flour, , genuine electricity bills and native resources rights have been sidelined . The wave of protests and shutdowns has now escalated into a full-fledged rebellion against the Pakistani establishment .
The leaders of Joint Awami Action Committee ,or JAAC , spearheading the agitation were declared a terrorist organization by the PoJK government . Charges of sedition have been lodged against its leadership . That resulted in clashes , and to date more than 40 people have been killed, scores wounded , and hundreds arrested in a crackdown by Pakistani forces. Many more have gone missing.
Pakistan’s fantasy that its part of Jammu and Kashmir was “ free” has blown up in its face.. The protestors in the region have made it clear to the Pakistani rulers and army that they do not belong to Pakistan.
Pakistan is an aggressor and an oppressor . The narrative that Kashmir is a disputed territory has also been challenged . Islamabad has been told that it has nothing to do with the people and land of the region .
Enraged by the blockage of essential supplies to the region , the PoJK leaders have accused Pakistan of starving the local population , including women and children. However , they acknowledged that turning to India , across the Line of Control ( LoC), remains a viable and genuine option for help.
Pakistan is losing more than the territory under its illegal occupation ; its decades-long narrative on Jammu and Kashmir on the Indian side of the LoC at international level that “ India was not allowing the people to exercise the UN granted right to self-determination “ is gone forever . Pakistani commentators have pointed out that Pakistan is left with no moral and political ground to repeat this, as it has lost hearts and minds of the people of ‘Azad Kashmir ( in reality occupied Kashmir).
