The Nation Editorials 13th August 2026

Talking to Tehran

The ink on the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement is barely dry, and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has already made Tehran his destination. It is undoubtedly the correct foreign policy move. Pakistan has increasingly positioned itself as the pivot between two important regional power blocs, and it is Islamabad that must keep pushing the diplomatic door open.

Naqvi's meetings with President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are therefore significant. Rather than waiting for Iranian officials to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan has taken the initiative at a moment when the diplomatic environment appears increasingly favourable to another push for peace.

Governor Kundi receives Sindh govt’s relief consignment for flood-hit Chitral people
The MJDA itself may strengthen Islamabad's hand. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye now possess a more formalised strategic framework, while Pakistan continues to maintain strong channels with Tehran. That combination gives Islamabad greater diplomatic weight and potentially allows the alliance to approach the Islamabad MoU from a radically different geopolitical position than when it was originally concluded.

There are encouraging signs. Tehran's initial response to the MJDA has been positive, while Iranian officials continue to regard the Islamabad MoU as the legitimate framework for resolving the wider confrontation.

Storm flattens farming structures, damages crops in Mohmand
Striking while the iron is hot is wisdom. The Oman-Iran dialogue over the Strait of Hormuz may resolve some immediate technical questions, but the larger conflict requires a political settlement. Pakistan should therefore use every channel available to revive the Islamabad process and bring the parties back towards its original framework.

There is still a long road ahead. Agreements remain vulnerable, mistrust is deep, and, as always, Israeli treachery can complicate any movement towards regional stability. But none of that is an argument for diplomatic hesitation. Pakistan has carved out a rare position from which it can speak to all sides. It must keep using it, persistently and without allowing the opportunity for peace to close.

Job Market Pivot

At the International Youth Day conference, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif rightly highlighted and expanded several programmes aimed at improving education, technical training and direct skills among Pakistan’s next generation. From the laptop scheme to newer initiatives in artificial intelligence, technology and vocational development, the push towards digital skills has been a recurring feature of his political career.

Those efforts are now beginning to bear fruit. Pakistan is producing a larger class of educated, digitally capable and increasingly specialised young workers.

Governor Kundi receives Sindh govt’s relief consignment for flood-hit Chitral people
But this success creates its own challenge.

Perhaps it is now time to shift gears towards the next stage: creating a job market capable of absorbing the young people being trained. Education and skills programmes can only achieve their full purpose when there are businesses ready to hire, industries ready to expand and entrepreneurs able to build companies without being suffocated by unnecessary costs, uncertainty or bureaucracy.

The National Youth Employment Policy and the startup quota announced by the prime minister are useful steps in this direction. They should now form part of a much broader push towards an incentive-laden business and entrepreneurship environment. Tax relief for young firms, easier access to finance, simpler regulation, support for technology exports and stronger links between universities and industry can help translate skills into productive employment.

Storm flattens farming structures, damages crops in Mohmand
The real danger is no longer merely an uneducated youth population. It is the possibility of creating an educated and ambitious generation that finds too few avenues in which to apply its abilities. That breeds frustration, encourages emigration and turns public investment in human capital into a subsidy for foreign labour markets.

Pakistan has spent years trying to equip its youth with tools. The next task is to give them somewhere to use them. A skilled generation is an enormous national asset, but only if the economy is prepared to receive it.

Taming the Beast

Artificial intelligence, and especially generative AI, remains the Wild West of modern regulation. Rules are being discussed and gradually written, but technological development continues to move light years ahead of those trying to govern it. Each month brings new applications, new risks and often new forms of exploitation disguised under unfamiliar terminology.

AI-powered prediction markets, dynamic pricing systems, synthetic media and automated decision-making are only some examples of fresh technological horrors the sector is churning up from the depths.

How this frontier is brought into the civilised regulatory world is therefore one of the defining policy questions of our time. There will not be a single solution. Governments will need laws, courts will establish precedents, technology companies will require standards, and international organisations will eventually have to develop common principles across borders.

Governor Kundi receives Sindh govt’s relief consignment for flood-hit Chitral people
But every regulatory journey requires a first practical step.

A watermarking system for AI-generated text and images, however limited, represents one such experiment. It does not solve misinformation, intellectual property disputes or questions of authorship. Nor can it prevent every determined actor from manipulating or concealing synthetic content. What it can begin to establish is a principle: that AI-generated material should carry some trace of its origin and that technological convenience should not eliminate accountability.

That principle matters. The internet became transformative partly because innovation was allowed to flourish, but the costs of years of regulatory neglect are now obvious. AI should not be permitted to repeat that history on an even larger scale. The world will therefore watch watermarking closely. Its effects on productivity, creativity, journalism, art and commercial innovation must all be studied carefully.