Published on, Aug. 23 -- August 23, 2025 12:35 AM

In South Asia, political atmospherics change with the seasons. This month, as Pakistan's foreign minister prepares to step onto Dhaka's soil, one senses the fragrance of a new spring: tentative, fragile, and unmistakable. The visit, slated for later this month, signals a recalibration between two estranged siblings who once shared not just a border but a fractured history.

For too long, ties between Islamabad and Dhaka have been marked by inertia, weighed down by the bitterness of 1971 and stiffened by rigid alignments in recent years. Under Sheikh Hasina's India-centric governance, engagement with Pakistan was little more than ritual. That frost has begun to thaw. First came the resumpt...