India, May 11 -- While a ceasefire brokered by Washington, DC, has been announced, it is difficult to predict how the fallout of the hostilities between India and Pakistan will evolve. What is certain is that Islamabad will seek to gain advantage in the optics of any such outcome.

A study of past Pakistani behaviour would show that it always wants to end up at least optically one up on India. In 1998, when India conducted five nuclear tests, Pakistan had to do one more. During the previous stand-off in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack of 2019, at the end of the day, Pakistan could demonstrably claim it had shot down an Indian aircraft and taken its pilot prisoner. He was then ceremoniously and "magnanimously" handed back to India ac...