Did White House push Pakistan to broker ceasefire before Iran deadline?

The Trump administration leaned on Pakistan to persuade Iran to accept a pause in fighting. The proposal focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan's role was to present the deal as coming from a fellow Muslim-majority state, in the hope it would be more acceptable to Tehran.

Pakistan tried to present itself as a peacemaker, but the script appears to have been written elsewhere. According to a report by Financial Times, the White House pushed Islamabad to broker a temporary ceasefire with Iran.

The effort, however, has raised serious questions about Pakistan’s role -- not as a neutral broker, but as a convenient channel for Washington’s pressure campaign. Even as the US sharpened its tone against Iran, Islamabad appeared quick to step in and project itself as a mediator, while largely carrying proposals that echoed American strategic interests rather than offering any independent or balanced peace initiative.

The Trump administration leaned on Pakistan to persuade Iran to accept a pause in fighting. The proposal focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan’s role was to present the deal as coming from a fellow Muslim-majority state, in the hope it would be more acceptable to Tehran.

The back-channel effort was largely steered by Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, who held a series of urgent calls with the Trump administration -- including Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff -- as Washington scrambled to manage rising oil prices while avoiding a drawn-out conflict.

Islamabad tried to present the ceasefire push as its own diplomatic breakthrough, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif even announcing the proposal on social media. But the messaging quickly backfired when his post mistakenly carried a "draft" label, exposing how rushed -- and possibly coordinated -- the announcement really was. A snapshot of Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif’s allegedly edited post on X.

In reality, Pakistan looked less like an independent negotiator and more like a go-between. It circulated a US-drafted 15-point proposal, passed along Iran’s responses, and floated different ceasefire timelines -- reinforcing the perception that it was acting as a conduit for Washington rather than a neutral broker.