The Nation Editorials 5th August 2026

Partnership Delayed

Whatever the eventual outcome of the conflict in the Middle East, Pakistan must use its improved diplomatic standing in Tehran to secure a deeper and more durable economic partnership with Iran.

For decades, the two neighbouring countries have represented one of the region’s great unrealised economic opportunities. Pakistan possesses a large and diverse consumer market, a sizeable agricultural base and access to major ports. Iran, meanwhile, has vast hydrocarbon resources, industrial capacity and a strategic position linking South Asia with Central Asia and the Middle East. On paper, the partnership is a natural one. In practice, geopolitics, sanctions, weak infrastructure and hesitant policymaking have kept bilateral trade far below its potential.

A lesson from 1979
The latest session of the Pak-Iran Joint Trade Committee has again produced an ambitious target of $10 billion in bilateral trade. Both sides have discussed a free trade agreement, improved customs procedures, new transit routes, border markets, railway links and greater use of Karachi and Gwadar ports. These are all encouraging steps, but Pakistan and Iran have made similar declarations before. The gains of this conference must now be formalised through clear agreements, firm deadlines and effective implementation.

The regional environment may also be creating new opportunities. India appears to have taken a back seat in Tehran’s strategic considerations, while a broader Western retreat from the region seems increasingly likely. Pakistan must move quickly to ensure that it is not once again left watching while other states secure Iran’s markets, energy resources and transport corridors.

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Energy cooperation should remain central. Pakistan urgently needs affordable electricity, gas and petroleum products, while Iran requires reliable markets and access to regional ports. Agriculture, pharmaceuticals, transport, mining and border commerce can provide additional areas of growth.

Yet economic cooperation cannot depend on changing political moods alone. The time has come to turn a historic friendship into a functioning commercial partnership.

Welcome Exemption

Whether through good fortune or quiet diplomatic effort, Pakistan appears to have escaped the broad sweep of the United States’ new visa bond policy. The programme, which took effect on August 1, allows US consular officers to demand refundable deposits of between $10,000 and $20,000 from selected business and tourist visa applicants belonging to 50 listed countries.

Pakistan is not among them.

This exclusion comes as a considerable relief. Pakistan has a large and influential diaspora in the United States, while thousands of families, professionals, students and businesspeople regularly travel between the two countries. A bond running into thousands of dollars would have placed US travel beyond the reach of many ordinary Pakistanis, even if the amount were eventually refundable.

A lesson from 1979
Such a requirement would not merely have inconvenienced individual travellers. It could have slowed commercial engagement, discouraged tourism, disrupted family connections and weakened the cultural and economic exchanges that sustain relations between the two countries. At a time when Pakistan needs greater investment, remittances and international mobility, any additional barrier would have been damaging.

Other South Asian countries have not been as fortunate. Bangladesh and Nepal are included in the programme, while India, like Pakistan, has been excluded. The disparity should remind Islamabad that visa regimes are increasingly being used as instruments of immigration control and diplomatic pressure.

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Pakistan must therefore not treat its present exemption as permanent or guaranteed. The United States has justified the bond programme on the basis of visa overstay rates and compliance with immigration rules. Pakistani authorities must cooperate closely with Washington, improve documentation standards and discourage abuse of visitor visas.

At the same time, Islamabad should use the diplomatic goodwill generated by its recent outreach to the Trump administration. Pakistan’s overtures have created valuable space in Washington, but goodwill matters only when it is converted into practical gains.

Widening Rift

For a brief period, it appeared that relations between India and Bangladesh were finally moving towards repair. The revolutionary upheaval that removed Sheikh Hasina had given way to a more conventional political arrangement, while the realities of geography, trade and regional security encouraged both governments to adopt a forward-looking approach.

That progress now appears to be in danger.

The decision to allow Hasina to deliver a virtual address from New Delhi on the anniversary of the uprising that overthrew her government will inevitably be viewed in Dhaka as a hostile political act. Although the event is not being organised by the Indian government, New Delhi cannot pretend that political activities conducted from its territory by Bangladesh’s deposed leader carry no diplomatic consequences.

A lesson from 1979
Hasina is not merely another exiled politician. She faces serious charges in Bangladesh, has been convicted over the deadly crackdown of 2024 and remains the subject of a formal extradition request. India’s continued protection of her has become the central obstacle to a genuine improvement in bilateral relations.

The consequences of mishandling the matter will extend beyond bilateral tensions. Bangladesh is already strengthening its engagement with China, while its historically difficult relationship with Pakistan has also begun to show signs of improvement. Every perceived act of Indian interference will encourage Dhaka to move further in both directions.

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India may believe that sheltering Hasina gives it leverage over Bangladesh’s political future. In reality, it risks producing the opposite result by intensifying anti-Indian sentiment and pushing Dhaka closer to Beijing and Islamabad.

Regional relationships cannot be rebuilt through contradictory signals. If New Delhi genuinely wants a fresh beginning with Bangladesh, it must prevent its territory from becoming a platform for political activity aimed at destabilising or embarrassing the government in Dhaka.