Daily Times Editorials 5th August 2026

Incomplete Peace Plan

On Monday, the US-led Board of Peace supplied the crucial clarification that Israel had sought after raising objections to the Gaza disarmament roadmap: Israeli forces will withdraw beyond the Yellow Line only after Hamas has completely surrendered its weapons, military infrastructure and tunnels. While this may calm a deeply sceptical Israeli cabinet, this reassurance significantly changes the balance of the proposed arrangement in Gaza.

The original arrangement had envisaged a phased process–an end to military operations, decommissioning of armed groups, Palestinian civilian administration, an international stabilisation force and Israeli withdrawal. However, the emphasis on Hamas’ disarmament gives Israel, already controlling nearly 70 per cent of Gaza, the occupying power, a powerful, perhaps open-ended, veto over the very process meant to end its occupation.

The hard diplomatic work lies precisely there. A credible demilitarisation process needs independent verification, a functioning Palestinian civilian authority and security guarantees that neither Israel nor Hamas can unilaterally rewrite. It cannot be policed exclusively by the side whose army holds the land.

The human cost of leaving that question unresolved was on display in Gaza City this week. One hundred and twelve bodies were buried after civil-defence teams recovered them from the rubble of a neighbourhood bombed in November 2023. At least 157 people remain missing beneath the same site. Gaza health authorities say more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, including at least 1,250 since the October ceasefire.

Before Gaza can be governed, its people must be able
to retrieve their dead, reopen hospitals, restore water and move without wondering whether the next strike will erase another family.

This is the setting in which Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar heads to Jordan for the emergency ministerial meeting on occupied Jerusalem. Isn’t it ironic to see Gaza’s future get negotiated through security arrangements while Israel’s facts on the ground continue to press upon Jerusalem. On July 23, more than 2,000 Israeli religious-right activists, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, entered Al Aqsa compound and performed prayers and rituals in violation of its established status quo.

The compound’s 144 dunams fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Jordanian-appointed Jerusalem Waqf. Jordanian custodianship is among the last institutional safeguards against unilateral alteration of Jerusalem’s religious and political character. The July incursion was a practical test of whether that prevailing order still commands restraint on the ground.

Pakistan’s task in Amman is therefore more exacting than joining another declaration. FM Dar should press for a published, mutually accepted Gaza implementation text, which focuses on parallel and independently monitored obligations for a halt in Israeli attacks in addition to the unrestricted entry of fuel and medical supplies and protection for Al Aqsa’s legal and historical status. A Gaza agreement that freezes Israeli control while waiting for an undefined moment of complete disarmament will not bring peace. It will only serve to administer the ruins. *

Lahore police were already struggling with the fallout from the alleged abduction, extortion and sexual assault of two foreign women when another case exposed an even darker institutional failure. According to the latest allegation emerging from Ghaziabad, an assistant sub-inspector stands accused of raping a mentally impaired young woman inside the police station, prompting the suspension of more than 70 officers and other personnel.

The case has been registered under the rape provision of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 155-C of the Police Order, which deals with misconduct by police officers. The location of the alleged offence, nevertheless, gives the case an institutional dimension that cannot be contained within the conduct of one accused officer. After all, a police station is not an unmonitored alley. It has gates, duty officers, cameras and a chain of command. The question is not merely how a woman was allegedly assaulted there, but how she was taken through the station, brought upstairs and left alone with a male officer without anyone demanding an explanation. Lahore’s DIG Operations has asked why no one questioned the ASI for bringing a woman into the station when no female police personnel were present. That is the right starting point, but it cannot be the end of the inquiry.

Mass suspension was a defensible first step yet not a verdict. Ergo, individual responsibility must now be established through CCTV footage and witness statements.

The case lands in a country near the bottom of every measure of women’s security and inclusion. Pakistan was ranked 169th among 181 countries in the 2025-26 Women, Peace and Security Index, and only 41 per cent of women surveyed said they felt safe walking alone at night. The World Economic Forum similarly placed Pakistan last among 148 economies in its 2025 gender-gap ranking.

Public institutions also determine whether participation is possible. A police station that cannot guarantee a woman’s safety does not merely fail her as a complainant. Rather, it also narrows the space available to all women as citizens.

The recorded scale of violence is already overwhelming. Sustainable Social Development Organisation documented 32,617 reported gender-based violence cases in 2024, including 5,339 rape cases. The reported national conviction rate for rape was just 0.5 per cent.

Punjab’s answer has included the Virtual Women Police Station, which reportedly receives an average of 2,200 calls a day and has increased the number of complaints progressing to FIRs. Its popularity may be evidence of innovation, but it is also evidence of fear.

Maps

Punjab has invested heavily in surveillance systems, specialist units, digital platforms and model stations. The most important test of policing, however, remains stubbornly basic: whether a vulnerable citizen is safer after entering a police building than she was outside it. *