Daily Times Editorials 13th September 2026

The Yemen Test

The map of the Middle East is becoming more dangerous by the day. Houthi forces have pushed south along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and, according to the Yemeni government, reached the mouth of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Across the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia temporarily shut its vital East-West oil pipeline after drone attacks originating from Iraq. With the Strait of Hormuz already severely constricted by the wider US-Iran conflict, pressure is now building around a second artery through which the world’s energy and trade must pass.

Bab al-Mandab carries around seven per cent of global petroleum flows, while disruption there forces shipping away from the Suez route and around Africa at considerable additional cost. The Saudi pipeline itself has recently been moving between four and five million barrels per day precisely because Hormuz can no longer be relied upon. Freight rates are already surging, and Brent settled above $104 on Friday.

Pakistanis are feeling that instability at home. Petrol has risen to Rs375.82 a litre and high-speed diesel to Rs403.32, while the government has been forced into daily fuel pricing because of international volatility.

This is the strategic environment in which the month-old Makkah Joint Defence Agreement faces its first serious test.

Pakistan has been correct to leave no ambiguity about Saudi security. Houthi attacks on civilian and economic targets in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran were condemned in unequivocal terms by the Foreign Office, which reaffirmed Islamabad’s complete solidarity with Riyadh and its right under international law to defend its territory, citizens and national assets. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad carried the same message to the UN Security Council while simultaneously calling for de-escalation and a political settlement in Yemen.Balochistan News Feed

Therein lies the sensible course. The Makkah accord declares that aggression against one member will be regarded as aggression against all. It was conceived, however, as an instrument of collective deterrence and regional stability. Islamabad therefore need not prove the seriousness of its commitment by rushing into Yemen. Defending Saudi territory, strengthening air and missile defence, sharing intelligence and protecting vital infrastructure are entirely compatible with resisting an open-ended military commitment inside a fractured Yemen.

There is room for diplomacy precisely because even states under pressure are exercising some restraint. Riyadh has so far held off retaliation after the pipeline attack at Baghdad’s request, while Washington has reportedly declined Saudi requests for direct strikes on the Houthis, offering intelligence support instead. Pakistan has another advantage. It can speak to Riyadh and Ankara as an ally while retaining channels with Tehran. Those relationships should now be used relentlessly. The Houthis must stop attacks on Saudi territory and commercial shipping; Saudi sovereignty must be respected; and every available diplomatic lever should be used to prevent Yemen from becoming another front in the wider regional war. *

Unsafe, Unheard

Four men arrested for allegedly gang-raping two women in Peshawar are dead before a court could determine their guilt. Police say unidentified gunmen attacked the party taking them to the crime scene on Friday. The men had been arrested after two women told police that armed intruders entered their rented home in Garhi Mosa Khan, tied up family members and sexually assaulted them at gunpoint.

The circumstances of Friday’s shooting will require investigation. The more immediate consequence is that another serious sexual-violence case has been pushed outside the normal course of justice before it could reach trial.

There was much about the initial police response in Peshawar that deserved notice. Four investigation teams were formed, the suspects arrested, weapons and mobile phones recovered and forensic samples sent for examination. Female police officers remained in contact with the complainants, while psychologists and psychiatrists were brought in for counselling. Senior police officers said the family’s decision to report the alleged assault suggested greater confidence in the police.

Only a day earlier, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights were in Abbottabad reviewing the investigation into the rape and murder of four-year-old Ayat Noor in Haripur.

Noor disappeared from outside her home last month and was later found dead in an unused well. The case prompted Chief Minister Sohail Afridi to promise tougher child-protection provisions and a Rs2bn Safe City project for Haripur. Yet another child was soon dead in Swat. In Madyan, women marched through the bazaar after a nine-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted and shot dead. Punjab has provided another warning. Lahore recorded six alleged rapes and three cases involving sexual harassment of girls within a few days earlier this month. One victim was a 15-year-old girl with a mental disability. In another case, a woman alleged that two men gang-raped her, filmed the assault and later used the recording to blackmail her into repeated abuse.

Lahore matters because lack of administrative reach cannot easily be offered as an explanation there. The provincial capital has specialised police units, forensic facilities and a government that has repeatedly described violence against women as a red line. Yet the complaints show how much depends on what happens below the level of a chief minister’s declaration.

Sahil’s monitoring recorded 3,172 reported cases of gender-based violence during the first six months of 2026, including 644 murders, 280 rapes and 132 so-called honour killings.

Pakistan does not merely need more arrests or tougher statements after each outrage. It needs investigations that survive scrutiny, forensic evidence that reaches court, prosecutors who can carry cases through trial and mechanisms that track what happens after an FIR is registered.

The Peshawar suspects will never stand trial. What must not disappear with them is the original case, the women who reported it, or the question Parliament is finally beginning to ask: why do so many serious cases weaken somewhere between complaint and conviction? *