For all Pakistan’s frenetic diplomatic efforts and loud expressions of outrage over the conflict between Hamas and Israel, the fragile ceasefire was secured not by Islamabad’s bluster but through Egypt’s quiet diplomacy and mediation. While Cairo played a constructive role behind the scenes, Pakistan indulged in diplomatic showmanship—indeed, one-upmanship—aimed largely at domestic audiences and imagined dividends from strident advocacy of “Islamic” causes. In truth, Pakistan has badly miscalculated and overplayed its hand, both at home and abroad.
Domestic Politics: Empty Gestures and Growing Resentment
At home, Prime Minister Imran Khan has gained little political mileage from his theatrics over Palestine. With nothing substantive to show domestically, he has clung to “Islamic causes”—blasphemy, Palestine, and Kashmir—in a bid to shore up support. In doing so, however, he has undermined the Army’s tentative efforts to normalise ties with India. His stridency on blasphemy has further isolated Pakistan, with the European Union adopting an almost unanimous resolution condemning the persecution of minorities and the abuse of blasphemy laws. The EU is now weighing the withdrawal of GSP+ concessions on Pakistani exports—an economic blow the struggling economy can ill afford.
Yet the unkindest cut of all is that none of this has improved Imran Khan’s standing. The Army is exasperated with his erratic leadership, his party is fracturing, allies are restive, and the Opposition smells blood amid fresh scandals. Meanwhile, ordinary Pakistanis face soaring inflation and joblessness, fuelling widespread discontent.
Diplomatic Missteps and Rising Anti-Semitism
Abroad, Pakistan’s hysterics risk severe blowback. At one level, they have laid bare the country’s entrenched anti-Semitism. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s anti-Semitic remarks in a CNN interview were only the tip of the iceberg. In Parliament, members of Imran Khan’s party openly lauded Hitler, called for the extermination of Jews, and even suggested Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal be used to threaten Israel. Calls for jihad against Israel and Jews have shredded whatever diplomatic veil Pakistan once maintained.
The hypocrisy is glaring: Imran Khan, who derides his Indian counterpart as a “Hitler incarnate”, leads a party where admiration for the Nazis and their massacre of Jews is professed without shame. If fascism has a budding kernel in South Asia, it is in Islamabad, not New Delhi.
Selective Zeal: Palestine versus Kashmir
Many Pakistanis themselves are asking why Imran Khan showed such extraordinary zeal on Palestine—a land thousands of miles away—while his response to India’s annexation of Jammu and Kashmir, declared Pakistan’s “jugular vein”, was muted. The inconsistency exposes the cynical calculations behind his activism: an attempt to burnish his credentials as a “leader of the Islamic world” by loudly posturing on emotive causes.
Yet Pakistan’s claim to leadership of the Ummah is tenuous at best. Unlike other Islamic states with genuine historic or cultural claims, Pakistan is at most a supporting actor, enlisted when convenient. Its grandiose pretensions will not be taken seriously; if anything, they risk antagonising precisely those Arab states on whose financial lifelines Pakistan depends.
Strains with Arab Benefactors
Already, Islamabad’s manoeuvres are ruffling feathers in the Gulf. Once again, Pakistan has aligned with Turkey to push a hard line on Palestine—much as it did previously, prompting anger from Saudi Arabia and the UAE and forcing Islamabad into humiliating backpedals. Now, only days after Imran Khan’s visit to Riyadh, Pakistan is undermining Arab strategic positions by pressing for an uncompromising Islamic front, embarrassing its benefactors.
Domestically, Arab governments are being derided in Pakistan’s controlled media as weak, cowardly, and unworthy of leadership. For states that continue to provide Pakistan with aid, loans, and debt relief, this propaganda is not only insulting but dangerous. It risks inflaming Arab publics against their governments while emboldening radicals who may take matters into their own hands.
Indeed, the circulation of inflammatory, often manipulated images risks inspiring terrorism in Arab states, targeting both Jews and their own governments. The UAE’s earlier suspension of visas to Pakistanis following normalisation with Israel was not without cause; intelligence suggested the risk of Pakistani groups targeting Israelis on Emirati soil.
Risks to the West
Nor are the consequences confined to the Arab world. In Parliament, Foreign Minister Qureshi warned Europe—home to 65 million Muslims—that there would be no peace if European governments failed to act against Israel. Such rhetoric, thinly veiled threats, should alarm European leaders, particularly given the size of the Pakistani diaspora in Europe and its links to radical Islamist networks.
A Dangerous Template
For Imran Khan, this stridency is a political shield: a way to rally support now, and a ready-made excuse should he fall from power. He will not hesitate to claim that an international conspiracy—Hindu, Jewish, or American—was behind his ouster. But beyond Imran Khan’s own survival tactics lies a far more serious concern.
The template now being forged in Pakistan—a nuclear-armed, deeply radicalised state—poses grave dangers for the Arab world, Europe, and beyond. By fanning anti-Semitism, threatening Europeans, and weaponising Islamic causes for domestic politics, Islamabad risks destabilising not only its own fragile state but also its allies and benefactors.