Faisal Ahmad
From the Pakistani perspective, India is viewed as a “power maximiser” accelerating a regional arms race through massive defence spending and the pursuit of offensive military doctrines. Islamabad argues that India’s actions-often under the pretext of countering China-directly threaten the strategic balance and force a reactive, yet cost-effective, response from Pakistan. India’s defence budget for FY 2025-2026 reached $78.7 billion, roughly eight to nine times larger than Pakistan’s. For FY 2026-27, India has proposed another significant increase to approximately $94 billion.
India is fast-tracking high-end acquisitions, including 114 Rafale fighter jets, advanced German submarines, and sophisticated drones. Pakistan views this as an attempt to achieve regional hegemony rather than just defence. Pakistan is particularly concerned about India’s Agni-Prime (specifically targeted at Pakistan) and Agni-V missiles equipped with MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle) technology. India’s entry into the hypersonic missile race (first test in November 2024) is seen as a move that enhances its preemptive counterforce capabilities, potentially tempting a “first strike” under a false sense of security.
Pain of military defeat in “Operation Saindoor” has gone deep in the decision-making quarters of India. The cost of miserable failure is very high for ultra-ambitious Narinder Modi amid the obvious collapse of his political legacy, which is also in his third consecutive term in power corridors. Post-Pahalgam stance of India is sufficient to prove India a regional spoiler. The ruling elite of the BJP overplayed the Pahalgam terrorist attack as a false flag to trigger war rhetoric against Pakistan for political benefits in state elections. How India politicised IWT to provoke Pakistan was the initial indicator of the expansion of hostilities. Unwise missile and drone strikes compelled Pakistan to respond in the same coin. Wide-scale embarrassment of India, especially the collapse of the IAF and paralysis of the missile system, has dented the self-created sense of regional superiority. Since then, Indian state actors and aligned quarters have been striving hard to reverse the situation and portray regional superiority. Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi’s annual press conference on January 13, 2026, reeks of fabricated narratives designed to justify aggression and coerce a “New Normal” along the LoC. His claims are a pack of lies built on baseless assumptions, aimed at masking India’s failures during the May 2025 conflict.
The so-called “22-minute strike” in “Op Sindoor” is pure fiction with no evidence of derailing Pakistan’s decision-making or killing 100 Pakistanis. It is nothing but desperate propaganda to portray India as an invincible power while ignoring how Pakistan’s resilient forces compelled India to beg for a ceasefire amid heavy losses. Contrary to Indian false claims of strikes on terror camps, Pakistan maintains no such infrastructures. It was actually India’s ploy for deterrence signalling, justifying preemptive strikes while evading accountability for its own state-sponsored terrorism in illegally occupied Kashmir.
Indian COAS has miscalculated the scenario by proposing a dedicated Rocket Force following the Chinese and Pakistani strategy. This clearly reveals in Indian designs to escalate conflict between two nuclear-armed neighbours. Placing of Pinaka, Pralay and BrahMos into a single command aims to enable swift, short-duration operations below the nuclear threshold, where even minor miscalculations could spiral into nuclear war. Faster decision-making cycles will counter India’s focus on high-intensity precision actions, ensuring credible conventional deterrence without strategic escalation.
Bracketing Turkiye with Pakistan on a “misinfo emergency matrix” is hypocritical; India amplified fake news during the conflict via its media and bots. This warns of info-warfare retaliation. Pakistan has opted to respond by projecting the truth. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s 2025 Annual Report to Congress also reflected the military success of Pakistan during the four-day clash.
This rare US acknowledgement validates Pakistan’s battlefield gains, including downing Indian jets with advanced systems like PL-15 missiles. This aligns with President Trump’s repeated claims of averting nuclear war through US mediatory pressure to save the lives of millions. There can be ‘NO New Normal’ based on coercion. Pakistan’s resolve safeguards sovereignty, thwarting India’s nuclear brinkmanship for lasting peace. This is the proven fact that India’s persistent aggressive posture, especially Pakistan-Phobia laced with nuclear brinksmanship, poses multiple threats to regional peace.
Pakistan’s military leadership has warned that any attempt by India to establish a “new normal” through surgical strikes will be met with a “swift, decisive, and destructive” response.
The writer is an alumnus of QAU, FUI & a freelance columnist, based in Islamabad. He can be reached at fa7263125@gmail.com.
