India, Jan. 22 -- Pakistan's decision to sign on to the Trump-era "Board of Peace" initiative on Gaza has been presented as a responsible diplomatic step-an effort to ease Palestinian suffering and insert Islamabad into a major international mediation process. Yet behind the carefully worded statements lies a far more uncomfortable reality. The move exposes the persistent tension between Pakistan's proclaimed Islamic commitments as well as the strategic priorities of its entrenched power elite.

On the surface, what appears to be an exercise in moral diplomacy instead reflects a long-standing pattern in Pakistan's foreign policy where decisions are shaped less by ethical consistency than by the calculations of the military-political estab...