Daily Times Editorials 27th August 2026

Fast-Closing Window

Washington’s assertion that no negotiations with Tehran are taking place was meant to draw a hard public line. It also explains why a reported push for a fresh 60-day window matters. The original timetable under the Islamabad MoU has expired, the public language from both capitals is bitter, and the war’s political terms have narrowed into sanctions, navigation and competing claims of sovereignty. Yet the one framework to which the parties and every new mediator still return bears Pakistan’s name.

The Foreign Office was similarly right to reject claims that Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Tehran as an envoy of the United States. Islamabad has acquired its standing precisely because it has kept its own voice, its own interests and its own judgement inside the process. FM Munir’s meetings with the Iranian leadership were held under Pakistan’s diplomatic mandate, focused on de-escalation and a negotiated settlement. That independent role gives Pakistan access which an openly partisan emissary could not command. Would similar connotations be attached to Qatar’s Tehran mission designed to further the mediation process?

Serious peacemaking needs several doors. The Qatari discussion of a temporary navigational corridor and mine clearance points to the kind of practical work that can rescue a larger process from rhetoric. It should be folded into, rather than detached from, the Islamabad framework. A safe and limited maritime arrangement can provide an early demonstration of reciprocal intent. While it will not settle the broader conflict (nor should it be advertised as one), its true purpose lies in proving that carefully calibrated concessions can be made without either Washington or Tehran appearing to have surrendered its central position.Download Interactive Maps

Pakistan has carried an unusually heavy part of its burden with patience and strategic poise. Its interest is direct: peace in the Gulf affects its economic recovery, its regional partnerships and its own security. Yet its achievement extends further. At a time when military power and public threats dominate the headlines, the only resilient part of the settlement still carries the name of Islamabad. Pakistan should protect that diplomatic property carefully and insist that every serious effort to end the conflict strengthens, rather than bypasses, the process it created. *

14 Murders

Every family that brought a child to PIMS’s critical-care nursery had entrusted the hospital with a life too new and fragile to be cared for anywhere else. These were newborns who needed oxygen, incubators and watchful hands in their first hours or days of life. Their parents had entrusted them to the largest public hospital in the federal capital.

By Wednesday morning, 14 of those children were dead. One relative was left giving a DNA sample for a baby born three days earlier.

As of now, the cause remains unsettled. The first official account spoke of a spark near an air-conditioning unit, followed by a fire intensified by an oxygen supply. A parliamentary health committee, after visiting the site, says the source has yet to be established. In the meantime, families are left waiting for the most basic answers.

Yet several truths have already emerged from the smoke. Rescuers reached the ward through broken windows after concrete grilles had to be breached. Women recovering from childbirth fled through smoke and down stairs. PIMS says its emergency exits were open and that doctors, nurses and security staff responded, but according to witnesses, these doors were locked or blocked. Only an impartial inquiry can determine whose account is borne out by the evidence. But even that cannot escape the larger question of how a nursery became so difficult to enter when every second mattered.

Hospital officials have explained that access to the ward was controlled because of fears of infant theft. That explanation should disturb rather than reassure. A public hospital must protect babies from criminals. It must also ensure that nurses, mothers and rescuers can reach them during an emergency. That PIMS could point to 35 fire extinguishers after the deaths should trouble the inquiry as much as it reassures no one.

It goes without saying that the harrowing questions reach beyond one hospital. In January, the Capital Development Authority surveyed 6,500 buildings in Islamabad, including 300 government facilities, and found that most lacked approved fire-safety plans or completion and fire-safety certificates. The capital has had fire-prevention and life-safety regulations since 2010. Furthermore, the CDA also ordered annual inspections, fire-safety certificates and regular drills. Where did PIMS stand in that survey?

Pakistan had already buried 11 newborns after the 2024 fire at Sahiwal Teaching Hospital. The inquiry there found expired firefighting equipment and staff without training. Warning followed warning, while those who depended most completely on public care remained exposed to the same old hazards.Regional News Updates

The suspension of the health secretary and the formation of inquiry committees acknowledge the gravity of Wednesday’s loss. Their work will be judged by what becomes public and what changes thereafter. The report should identify every official, contractor and department responsible for inspection, maintenance, approval and emergency preparation.

Standing outside the hospital gate, one mother asked for her child back. No inquiry can answer that plea. *