In a recent telephone call, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that the pact is “not an instrument of confrontation”. Moreover, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the cabinet that the agreement is “entirely for defence purposes”.

Tehran seems to have understood the messaging, as the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said his country had no reason to believe the pact was aimed at encircling it, and that it showed that countries of the region could not depend on the American security umbrella.

Perhaps the reason for speculation surrounding the deal was the mutual defence component, which says that an attack on one signatory is an attack on all. Considering the targeting of US military assets in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states by Iran during the active phase of hostilities with America, observers have debated whether the signatories of the deal could step in militarily. However, the clarifications regarding Iran are welcome. In fact, what is needed is a new regional security architecture that binds the Arabs, Iranians and other states together.

Achieving this would be difficult, considering the pro-America stance of the GCC states. However, the American military footprint in the Gulf and larger Middle East may eventually shrink, which means that regional states will have to eventually work out a security framework amongst themselves. The Makkah pact could provide a blueprint for such defence cooperation. The Turkish president has already said that the pact is open to other countries.

If Iran were to be brought on board, it could significantly alter the regional security landscape. For this to happen, the existing high levels of mistrust between the Arabs, particularly Saudi Arabia, and the Iranians, would need to be reduced. But states such as Pakistan and Turkiye, which maintain cordial ties with both sides, can attempt to bridge the gap. As a CBM, Iran should open up the Strait of Hormuz, as its continued closure is battering Gulf economies. The Arab states should also pledge to disallow outsiders from staging aggression against Iran from their soil.

Instead of depending on extra-regional powers, the states of the Gulf and Middle East must themselves create a new security architecture. Not only would this reduce the tensions that exist between them, it could also serve as an expanded defence pact to deter Israel from attacking regional states. Tel Aviv has attacked Iran and its allies, as well as pro-America states like Qatar, hence an effective regional defensive bloc could make Israel think twice about its violent adventurism.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026

Despite facing diverse security challenges, they are bound together by a common defence pact. While Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were already bound by a bilateral agreement signed last year, Turkiye’s entry has broadened the scope of the pact. The collective strength of these three countries has made the grouping a formidable force in the region.

Although the full text of the Makkah Joint De­­fence Agreement has not been made public, it do­­es declare that “any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an atta­­ck against them all”. It also states that the pact is not directed against any country but serv­­es as a deterrent against external aggression. It is, however, silent on the question of where the common threat lies.

This question becomes all the more pertinent as the triangular agreement has taken shape while America’s war on Iran drags on and Israel continues its expansionist war, threatening regional security. While Saudi Arabia has been directly affected by the war, Pakistan and Turkiye have remained on the fringes. The Makkah Agreement is being viewed as similar to Nato’s Article 5, but any military response would still require political decision-making. The immediate practical emphasis may be on intelligence-sharing and deterrence.

It is wrong to brand the newly formed defence bloc a Muslim alliance or, more narrowly, a Sunni one. It represents an emerging regional security architecture that reduces dependence on the US and pushes back against Israel’s expansionist agenda. Other Gulf countries — which have borne the brunt of Iran’s retaliation targeting US military bases on their soil — could also join the grouping.

The Makkah Agreement has fundamentally altered the strategic landscape of the region.

Questions have been raised about the reliability of the US as a defence guarantor for its Middle Eastern partners. Instead of ensuring security, the presence of US military bases has made these countries — many of which also have security pacts with Washington — more vulnerable. Lessening this dependence, however, does not mean severing ties with America.

All three countries maintain good relations with Washington, despite President Donald Tru­mp having destabilised the region through his unprovoked war on Iran and his continued support for Israel’s expansionist agenda. There has been a curious silence in Washington over the alliance.

Egypt was another country expected to join the grouping. The North African country has been part of a quad alongside these three allied nations, helping to find a negotiated resolution to the conflict. Cairo is believed to have reservations, however, about joining a regional security architecture that could affect its peace treaty with Israel. According to some analysts, Cairo appears to view the pact as much a political instrument as a military one. The group remains hopeful that Egypt will join the defence pact at some stage.

Further complicating matters is Iran’s mixed reaction to the agreement. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted a message calling on Muslim states to stand together, describing the moment as one in which they should rely only on themselves and embrace true brotherhood. The post left it unclear whether he was referring to the trilateral agreement.

Earlier, Araghchi is also reported to have said that Tehran was ready to partner with Persian Gulf states to build a new regional security architecture, arguing that recent events had demonstrated the need for regional countries to take responsibility for their own security. He said any security framework should include economic cooperation and stressed that military powers from outside the region should be excluded.

Meanwhile, Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of parliament’s national security committee, said that the “Saudis should understand that a paper agreement with Turkiye and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as decades of one-sided dependence on the Americans failed to do so”, thus reflecting the scepticism over the agreement among certain sections of the Iranian leadership. However, as reported, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said that “the pact reflected a changing regional perception of US and argued that countries in the region could no longer rely on Washington”.

Predictably, the Makkah Agreement has provoked a strong reaction from Israel’s right-wing government, which views the development as a serious threat to its security. India has concerns over the triangular agreement, of which Pakistan is a key partner. According to some reports, the pact has accelerated the India-Israel security partnership.

On Aug 7, the day the trilateral agreement was signed, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Special Strategic Partnership between their two countries in a telephone call. The two countries had formally elevated ties to a Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation & Prosperity during Modi’s state visit to Israel this year. That visit produced concrete defence and technology agreements. According to the Israeli media, both leaders recognised that they now face a shared strategic challenge: a bloc combining Saudi money, Turkish drones and a nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The Makkah Agreement has fundamentally altered the strategic landscape of the region. But there are also questions about how the partnership will actually work, given the varied security concerns of its members. While agreeing to a joint defence strategy, each country also brings its own conflicts and security problems.

That raises the question of whether the partners would be drawn into one another’s conflicts. While Pakistan’s principal security threat comes from India, Turkiye, a Nato member, has long-running territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean Sea. There is also a view that, in practice, the pact is more about Saudi Arabia’s immediate security concerns stemming from regional non-state groups than Turkiye’s or Pakistan’s. These are issues that will require a more coherent collective response. For all the questions it raises, the Makkah Agreement marks a decisive shift in how the region’s major powers conceive their own security.

The writer is an author and journalist.

zhussain100@yahoo.com

X: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026

The letter is unlikely to have any effect. The India-initiated absence of a dialogue is not just a consequence of the conflicted India-Pakistan relationship. It is a policy by itself underscoring India’s negative posture towards Islamabad that betrays no hint of a change.

Even if the dialogue did take place it might change little. Historically, whether or not India and Pakistan were talking, their relationship showed little variation, as if it had been inoculated against friendship since infancy. Yet the relationship is not doomed forever; its failure is less due to the complexity of issues than to the policy choices by the two sides, especially India.

Modi’s hard line on Pakistan is not exceptional. That has been the default position of most Indian leaders. Yet, there are aspects that are new. Traditionally, India has had a foreign policy and a Pakistan policy. Since 2014, when he became PM, Modi’s Pakistan policy has had no precedent in hostility, intransigence and intolerance.

Even if there was a dialogue, it may change little.

In many ways, the policy is a re-enactment of the pre-1947 Indian National Congress and Muslim League tensions — now injecting the RSS view of Muslims, Pakistan and Kashmir. The Kashmiri resistance and jihadist currents flowing across the region following the two Afghan wars have made their own contribution to the problems in the relationship. They have played right into the hands of the Hindu nationalist agenda that underpins Modi’s mindset and populism.

Populism thrives on grievance and fear. Populists invariably create an enemy, especially a historical one, and nourish their followers’ nostalgia for the past and yearning for some strongman to ensure justice and retribution for them.

Marketing-savvy and skilled in the use of digital tools, Modi has knitted together real-life issues like terrorism and security and magnified their impact on the public mind by linking them to Indians’ historical memories of communal mistrust and animosity. The way Modi has played terrorist attacks since Pathankot in 2016 has triggered an enormous emotional response from Indian citizens, hardening existing public attitudes towards Pakistan. He derives his political mileage from it.

Not talking to it is also consistent with India’s unsuccessful attempts to project a malign image abroad of Pakistan. In some ways, it is derivative of India’s traditional policy of treating its South Asian neighbours as ‘satellite’ states not worthy of an equitable share in any agreement with India. It wants to impose its hegemony but cannot, at least not on Pakistan. By refusing to talk, India can keep up an illusion of hegemony.

It is embarrassing to be an unconvincing regional power to whom Pakistan had the so-called pretensions to speak as an ‘equal’. India is unable to impose its will on a smaller neighbour not only diplomatically but, as proven by Operation Sindoor, militarily as well. How can it stand up to China? The absence of dialogue masks this inconvenient truth and keeps the West’s bets on it alive.

The absence of dialogue sidelines Pakistan and helps Modi create new ground realities in occupied Kashmir, something he is doing on the water issue too. India is using the Indus Waters Treaty not just as a leverage on other points of conflict between the two countries but also as a cover to possibly violate the IWT and create new facts on the ground. It also gives India’s leadership and diplomats an opportunity to make baseless allegations as evident in a recent Newsweek op-ed by India’s ambassador to the US, in which he blamed Pakistan for India’s suspension of the treaty.

Finally, the relationship operates in a tense regional security environment whose parameters now extend to the Middle East, especially after the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement and burgeoning India-Israel relations. And it beats to the rhythm of a competitive geopolitics focused on the rivalry between the US and China that loom large on the foreign policy canvas of both India and Pakistan. This enlarges the scope of the India-Pakistan conflict, and in the broader context of a rising world disorder makes the issues of war and peace between the two still harder to resolve.

Much more needs to change on both sides for a dialogue to succeed — especially on India’s part as it was the latter country that cut off dialogue. Without such a change, it would be a dialogue to nowhere, yet again.

The writer, a former ambassador, is adjunct professor, Georgetown University.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026

WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Tuesday urged the international community to persuade Israel to halt new Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, warning that the situation was approaching a “dangerous tipping point”, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres said all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank had no legal validity and constituted a “flagrant violation” of international law.

Britain urged Israel to do more to prevent and prosecute settler violence, while Russia warned that the West Bank was approaching a “point of no return” and risked profound regional destabilisation, as the UN Security Council debated escalating attacks on Palestinians and settlement expansion.

“The situation is approaching a dangerous tipping point. Unless this trajectory is reversed, the consequences for the two-state solution — and for peace and stability across the region — could be catastrophic,” Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told the Council.

He told the Security Council that settlement expansion, settler violence, land seizures and the extension of Israeli authority over Palestinian land were part of a broader effort to entrench the occupation and undermine the prospects of a Palestinian state.

He said these measures were fragmenting Palestinian territory and, together with settler violence, had produced the largest displacement crisis in occupied West Bank since 1967.

Pakistan also expressed alarm over escalating provocations at Al Aqsa Mosque, calling on Israel to respect the historical and legal status quo at the holy sites and halt provocative actions.

Ahmad called for international protection for Palestinians and accountability for those responsible for settler violence. He also urged Israel to immediately release Palestinian tax revenues it was withholding, saying the money belonged to the Palestinian people and that its continued withholding was severely undermining Palestinian institutions.

British Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh condemned escalating violence across the occupied West Bank, describing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages and communities, sometimes alongside Israeli Defence Forces, as “appalling”.

She said children were being exposed to repeated violence, displacement and disruption, citing the August 4 demolition by Israeli forces of three donor-funded classrooms at Shaab al-Butum school.

MacIntosh said Israeli settlers had acted with impunity for too long. “Much more must be done to prevent and prosecute acts of violence,” she said.

She also called for a halt to settlement expansion, saying the settlements were illegal under international law and undermined the viability of a two-state solution.

Russian Ambassador Vassily A. Nebenzia said the West Bank was “approaching a point of no return”, warning of the risk of profound regional destabilisation.

He blamed Israel for its “creeping” settlement expansion, escalating violence and an “unprecedented” tightening of movement restrictions on Palestinians.

Nebenzia said Israel continued its “illegal policy of building new settlements”, pointing to a government tender issued last week for more than 600 housing units in Ramallah al-Bireh.

The UN relief agency OCHA reported that 1,122 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank between Oct 7, 2023, when the Gaza conflict began, and July 24, 2026. The toll included 76 Palestinians killed this year.

OCHA said Israeli forces or settlers injured at least 37 Palestinians between July 28 and August 3, while 35 settler attacks were documented during the same period.

The UN human rights office said last month that settler violence had reached an “all-time high” as new settlements were approved. It said Israeli settlers and Israeli security forces had “often” acted together in attacks on Palestinian communities.

Pakistan said the cumulative effect of settlement expansion, settler violence, land seizures and other measures was intimidation, dispossession and forced displacement.

“The path to peace lies in ending the Israeli occupation and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination,” Ahmad said, calling for an independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous Pale­stinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026

Chairing a meeting of the committee on Tuesday, Ms Rehman said the government should reconsider the institutional structure of PCCA, particularly at a time when the ministry of climate change was facing declining budgetary resources.

She pointed out that the ministry’s allocation under the Public Sector Development Programme had fallen to Rs2.478 billion from Rs3.5bn, while Rs2.7bn had been allocated in the previous fiscal year. Against this backdrop, she questioned the rationale for establishing a separate authority and sanctioning 24 posts when its core responsibilities appeared to duplicate those already assigned to the ministry.

“The question is what additional value is this authority creating when the functions listed under its mandate, are already the responsibility of the ministry?” she asked.

Sherry says climate change ministry doing same work as PCCA; sees no reason for a separate authority with 24 sanctioned posts

The senator also questioned the deputation of ministry officials to the authority and the transfer of technical personnel between the two institutions. She said her concerns were not directed at individual officers but at institutional duplication and repeated shifting of the same expertise from one government structure to another.

The committee was informed that the PCCA had initially been conceived as a mechanism for providing enhanced technical support.

Ms Rehman questioned whether the required capacity could instead have been developed within the ministry itself rather than through another institutional structure.

She also challenged the authority’s role in coordinating with provincial governments, noting that the ministry already had a mandate for such coordination.

The committee further sought details about the PCCA’s ability to mobilise international climate finance, including resources from the Green Climate Fund.

The chairperson directed the climate secretary to appear before the committee at its next meeting with a comprehensive explanation of the authority’s institutional justification, staffing and deputation arrangements, financial implications, technical value, international linkages and climate-finance mobilisation capacity.

The meeting observed that PCCA should be abolished if it failed to demonstrate a distinct and measurable institutional value.

The committee also reviewed the growing threat posed by Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (Glofs) and accelerated melting of the country’s glaciers. A UNDP official informed the meeting that Pakistan had more than 30,000 glaciers and that climate change was accelerating glacial melting. The committee was also told that 108 disaster events had been dealt with through early warning systems, including two Glof incidents.

Members expressed dissatisfaction with the briefing, saying substantially similar information had been presented to the committee the previous year without adequately showing what had changed on the ground.

Ms Rehman called for a stronger assessment of glacial melt, vulnerable communities and future risks, and urged closer coordination among the National Disaster Management Authority, Pakistan Meteorological Department and climate authorities.

The committee also examined implementation of the Islamabad Capital Territory (Prohibition of Plastic Book Covers) Act, 2026. She criticised weak enforcement and the continued widespread use of plastic in the capital, saying plastic waste was contributing to blocked drains and environmental pollution.

She also questioned claims that certain products were biodegradable or recyclable without adequate standards and verification.

While stressing the need for enforcing the ban, she said affordable alternatives must be made available, particularly to low-income consumers who are dependent on plastic packaging for everyday goods.

The committee emphasised that effective plastic regulation required both enforcement and practical alternatives to enable consumers and businesses to shift away from harmful materials.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026

The association warned that if the government failed to meet its demands within 72 hours, petrol pumps across the country would shut down indefinitely from 6am on Saturday (August 15) and would not reopen until those demands were met.

PPDA Chairman Malik Khuda Bakhsh, along with senior office-bearers, told a press conference that petroleum dealers would be unable to continue their businesses if the government failed to accept their demands.

Mr Malik said that, following a meeting of dealers from across the country, it had been jointly decided to demand an 8pc margin on petrol. Dealers’ patience had run out, and more than 14,000 members were putting pressure on the association to take action.

Threaten indefinite nationwide shutdown from Aug 15

On Aug 7, the PPDA chairman informed the Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik that he had been receiving significant concerns from petroleum dealers and association members regarding the unresolved issues facing the petroleum retail sector.

He recalled that when the association was considering a nationwide strike previously, the minister had requested the PPDA to defer the proposed action and assured us that the issues would be reviewed and reconciled within two weeks.

The daily price mechanism system had created serious operational and financial challenges for the petroleum dealers, resulting in inventory losses, erosion of working capital and substantial financial strain on the retail sector, he informed the federal minister.

The existing commission was insufficient to cover rising inflation, electricity and gas expenses, employees’ salaries and other operational costs, he said.

Earlier, the PPDA Executive Committee meeting had also strongly criticised the “Company Allocation Policy,” describing it as discriminatory and contrary to the business interests of dealers. The association demanded that the policy be reviewed immediately and made transparent and fair.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehre­ek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday staged a protest outside the Supreme Court over the health of incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan and delays in his pending cases, but it called off the demonstration after the court registrar assured party leaders that the cases would be fixed for hearing next week.

The party approached the Supreme Court registrar seeking early hearings of Imran’s cases and access for his family members and personal doctors.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, who joined the protest outside the apex court, expressed serious concern over reports regarding Imran’s health, saying the nation had grave reservations about his wellbeing.

“We neither politicise Imran Khan’s health, nor has Imran Khan ever raised the issue of his health with the objective of seeking any form of relief,” the chief minister said.

“It is therefore imperative that his health is treated with the seriousness it warrants and that, with the necessary moral courage, the demand for his treatment under the supervision of his personal physicians, in the presence of his family, is accepted,” he added.

Speaking to the media, Afridi said that during his tenure as prime minister, Imran had permitted Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad for medical treatment despite questions having been raised about the authenticity of medical certificates submitted in his case.

“Imran Khan was aware of those concerns, yet he acted in accordance with the principles of humanity and compassion and allowed Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad for medical treatment,” he said.

“Today, Imran Khan himself is being denied fundamental human rights and access to justice. This is deeply concerning and completely unacceptable,” Afridi added.

He claimed that Imran had been imprisoned in fabricated cases, while his political opponents were themselves involved in corruption and misuse of public resources.

“They engaged in corruption, acquired properties and assets abroad, and looted the wealth of the country and its people,” he alleged.

The chief minister said those responsible for what he termed injustice should remember that “no one can escape justice” and everyone would ultimately have to answer for their actions. He said the country’s justice system was facing a severe test of its institutional integrity.

“If even one judge takes a principled stand for justice, it will give other judges the courage and confidence to do the same,” he said.

“The people are looking to the judiciary with hope. If judges do not deliver justice, and do not perform the very duties for which they draw their salaries, then where will the people turn in their pursuit of justice?” he asked.

Afridi said he was witnessing “a spark of revolution” in the eyes of the country’s youth which, if allowed to intensify, would become increasingly difficult to contain.

He warned that if what he described as oppression and injustice continued and public resentment deepened, circumstances could reach a point where even an appeal from Imran might no longer be sufficient to restore goodwill among the people.

“The rulers and decision-makers must understand the gravity of the situation, open their eyes before Sept 27 and steer the country towards justice, constitutional supremacy and the rule of law. Otherwise, the situation could become increasingly difficult to manage,” he cautioned.

Hearings assured

PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said the party had approached the Supreme Court registrar seeking early hearings of cases involving Imran and permission for his sisters and personal doctors to meet him.

Speaking to the media after meeting the registrar, Raja said the party had requested that Imran’s pending cases be fixed for hearing without delay.

“We have been assured that all the cases will be fixed for hearing next week and the cause list will be issued,” he said.

Raja said the party would raise the matter before the court next week and expressed hope that relief would be granted to Imran and his wife, Bushra Bibi.

Following the meeting with the registrar, Raja announced an end to the protest outside the Supreme Court. He said the party would return to the streets on Thursday (tomorrow) for “true freedom” and appealed to the public to join the protest.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026

KARACHI: As the probe into the murder of a young businessman inches forward, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has assured the family of a fair investigation, promising that they will be kept informed at every stage of the process.

Talking to the media at the Arts Council Karachi after attending a conference held in connection with National Minorities Day on Tuesday evening, the CM said action would be taken against police and medico-legal authorities over any lapses once the case was resolved.

Commenting on the provincial government’s plan to form a judicial commission, the CM clarified that the commission was not intended to investigate the case, as that was the responsibility of the police.

“The judicial commission was being formed to identify lapses on the part of the police and medico-legal authorities,” he said.

Mr Shah said he had sent the home minister and the Karachi mayor to meet Mir Raza’s parents before the announcement about the commission, and the family had agreed to its formation. “However, when the family later said they did not want a judicial commission, we respected their opinion,” he added.

‘Traces of acid found on deceased’s shirt’

Investigators probing the murder case received the chemical analysis report from the first post-mortem examination that confirmed traces of acid on the shirt of the deceased.

Informed sources told Dawn that the report also confirmed the presence of “gunshot residue on the back of the perforation of the shirt,” which was the entry wound.

The sources said that several samples were collected during the second post-mortem examination following the exhumation of the body and so far, only the report of a DNA test had been received that confirmed that the body was of Mir Raza.

Meanwhile, the sources said that the investigators also decided to conduct geofencing of different parts of the area surrounding the crime scene in Gulistan-i-Jauhar to detect the possible movements people during a particular time.

Besides this, the call data records of the victim’s cell phone would also be obtained.

The sources said that, at the request of family’s lawyer Jibran Nasir, two new members — DSP Siraj Lashari and Inspector Mohammed Ali —had been included in the investigation team headed by DIG Amir Farooqui.

Mir Raza, an IBA graduate and owner of the eatery Wafflix, had gone missing on July 28, and his body was found a day later in bushes near Shahi Qila Ground in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

NCCIA summons four on Sharjeel’s plea

The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has summoned four citizens on a complaint filed by Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon over “false and malicious content on social media against him and his son” in connection with the Mir Raza Ali murder case.

The NCCIA issued notices to Syed Abdullah, Amin Qureshi, Bilal Warsi and Obaid Qureshi, asking them to appear in person at the agency’s Karachi office on Aug 13 at 11:30am.

They were informed that the NCCIA was conducting an inquiry initiated on the basis of a complaint submitted by Naqvi Law Associates on behalf of Sharjeel Inam Memon pertaining to alleged dissemination of defamatory and fabricated content through digital platforms.

The development comes a day after Mr Memon had approached the NCCIA against a defamatory campaign that he owned the guest house in Gulistan-i-Jauhar where Mir Raza Ali was allegedly tortured and murdered, and that his son had left for London immediately after the incident and had since been moving around with a bodyguard.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026