India, Oct. 18 -- The new strategic gossip around the block, and there's plenty of it when it comes to Pakistan, is the reported offer of the port of Pasni to the US to build it up as a route to secure critical minerals. A report in The Financial Times does, however, say this idea is yet to be pitched officially to the White House, but is being discussed with businessmen, a route that Pakistan army chief Asim Munir has used successfully in getting US President Donald Trump's attention.

All of this needs a little disaggregating to make sense of a deal that Pakistani officials are now trying to backtrack on, in an effort to appease China. As a war threatens on the Afghan border despite the current tenuous ceasefire, and the Tehreek-e-Labba...