SHARIF’S approach was old school diplomacy with a modern clock. On March 29 he brought the foreign ministers of Turkeye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to Islamabad and kept Beijing in the loop the same evening.

Within days, Dar, his Deputy and Foreign Minister, could tell the press that both the United States and Iran had agreed to let Pakistan host. When Iranian missiles hit bases in the Gulf a week later, most mediators would have walked away. Sharif sent fresh proposals instead.

On 11 April he was at Nur Khan Air Base to receive Vice President JD Vance and his office made sure a technical plan for Hormuz transit fees landed on the right desk in Washington before sunset. For Sharif this is not about prestige. A full war means refugees on the Quetta highway, fuel riots in Lahore and sectarian tension that no speech can calm. He has told his cabinet plainly that Pakistan’s interest begins with a ceasefire. By refusing to let the process collapse, he gave Islamabad a seat at the table it never had during the last three decades of Middle East crises.

Field Marshal Asim Munir gave that seat weight. He is the first Pakistani army chief to sit with a sitting American president in the Oval Office, a June 2025 meeting that reset a relationship that had been frozen since the Afghanistan pullout. Trump has mentioned Munir by name more than once since, calling him his favorite field marshal at a rally in Ohio last month. When the strikes began in February, that personal channel became a working one. Munir stayed on the phone with Vance while the Air Force was on the runway. Those calls bought the two week pause that started on April 8 and gave diplomats room to breathe.

Tehran listens because Pakistan is one of the few neighbors it still trades with and talks to. Washington listens because Munir runs a nuclear armed military that has every reason to keep the Gulf from exploding. He has used both facts without bluster. The Financial Times last week called him the anchor of Pakistan’s new role, and even his critics in the region admit the ceasefire would have collapsed without his backchannel. His logic is blunt. Pakistan cannot secure its borders if the Gulf is on fire. Protecting shipping to Karachi and pilgrims to Mashhad is not foreign policy. It is home defense.

The result was visible yesterday at the Serena Hotel. Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner came down one elevator. Speaker Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Araghchi came down another. They met on the mezzanine with Pakistani officials in the room. No deal was signed and no one is pretending the next steps are easy. But the shooting stopped and the talking started. Hormuz is still closed, yet there is a paper on the table about how to reopen it. Oil is down $18 from its peak. In this region, that counts as progress.

Pakistan has spent most of its history being called the frontline state, the place that pays for other people’s wars. For once the phrase does not fit. Sharif and Munir did not posture and they did not outsource. They picked up the phone, flew to Beijing when they had to, and kept the hotel booked when others cancelled. That is why Islamabad is now a venue instead of a victim. In 2026, Pakistan did not just host peace talks. It made them possible.

—The writer is former Regional Executive Inclusive Development at NBP, Mirpur AK.

© Pakistan Observer