World hails efforts of PM Shahbaz and Field Marshal Munir.
Pakistan becomes world’s most significant mediator overnight.
ISLAMABAD:
Business leader and former president of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce, Shahid Rasheed Butt, said on Thursday that in the space of a single night Pakistan did what no other country could: it talked the world back from the edge.
Less than two hours before US President Donald Trump’s deadline to begin destroying an entire civilisation, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir secured a two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, halting strikes, steadying oil markets, and pulling the Middle East back from the brink.
Shahid Rasheed Butt said the ceasefire, announced by PM Sharif, came just hours before the deadline expired. Peace talks between US and Iranian delegations are now scheduled for Islamabad on April 10.
What makes this moment extraordinary is not just the outcome but the architecture behind it. At the centre of the effort was Field Marshal Munir, whose coordination with the civilian government allowed decisions to move immediately, with diplomatic signals kept tightly aligned with security assessments at every step.
Butt said Pakistan served as the sole communication channel in the talks, with Field Marshal Munir remaining in contact throughout the night with US Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi simultaneously.
He added that this was not shuttle diplomacy; it was Pakistan operating as a nerve centre. Pakistan was the only country in the region able to speak to both Iran and the United States, and it used that opportunity wisely. Pakistani leaders chose the harder, lonelier road of restraint and engagement—and it worked.
The global response was unambiguous. The UN Secretary-General, the German Chancellor, the President of the European Commission, and leaders from Kazakhstan to Malaysia publicly credited PM Sharif and Field Marshal Munir by name. Pakistan’s mediation demonstrated its central role in global politics, with financial markets reversing declines the moment PM Sharif’s appeal went public. When a country’s diplomatic statement moves stock exchanges, it has entered an entirely different league.
The Islamabad Accord will carry Pakistan’s name into diplomatic history alongside the 1971 back-channel that helped open China to the world.
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