One day, Pakistan stepped into the shoes of a peacemaker in West Asia. The next, a bureaucratic decision by the World Bank placed it within the MENAAP (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan) grouping for FY2026, ending decades of its classification within the Indian subcontinent, or “South Asia” economic bloc, alongside India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives. This move, likely coincidental, escaped the hawkish cycles of media attention and coincided with a far more consequential development: Pakistan’s mediation in the West Asia conflict.
And the sheer volume of news that has arrived across our inboxes, notifications, and television screens about the war, this Paigham is an attempt to pace out that information fatigue. Using a visual, interactive tracker to organise developments, put together with assistance from Claude, this project briefly traces Pakistan’s path to this moment. It is crucial to remember that Pakistan’s role in the Iran-US/Israel conflict did not begin in February 2026, but in the summer of 2025.
This product is dedicated to map Pakistan’s timeline in this conflict -- the ascendancy of Asim Munir to diplomatic centrality, its domestic fault lines, and quantification of Trump’s affection for his “favourite field marshal.”
To follow the conflict more closely, the trackers — Weapons & Attacks, Impact on India, and Iran’s Aerial Strikes, can be accessed on the West Asia Dossier, alongside Takshashila’s research and commentary. For a deeper reading of events, you can also subscribe to the weekly.
NDTV | Pakistan’s Ever-Running Saudi ‘Lifeline’ Has Its Limits by Aishwaria Sonavane
All Things Policy | The Iran Brief: Pakistan’s Moment in West Asia with Aishwaria Sonavane and Anand Arni
NDTV | Trump’s Favourite Field Marshal: How Munir Became The President’s Best Man by Brig (Retd) Anil Raman
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