Once upon a time, not so long ago, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was known for his no-nonsense attitude. A perfectionist when it came to administration, punctuated with obvious shyness. However, his good humour in Samarkand where he managed to steal the limelight from quite a few overpowering heads of state managed to surprise everyone. Mr Sharif had left the homeland on a very rocky ship where his remarks over impending doom and gloom and regret over the reluctance shown by “friendly countries” had not sat well with any and all concerned. His bete noire–former ruling party PTI–had leapt on this as a god-given chance to thunder over his gross failures. But once in the air, he jerked the pessimism away, enthusing a new determined posture in his stead. A very confident younger Sharif trying to carve a position on the Big League’s Table, relying on his multilingual fluency and political legacy, in Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) tried hard to put his case before a budding community. That ignoring Afghanistan and letting the flames of extremism tear down decades’ worth of development would be a “big mistake” was a much-needed continuation of Pakistan’s foreign policy. After all, just last year, the then PM Imran Khan’s participation in the same conference was heralded as the “need of the hour” to put forward the country’s proactive diplomacy: repairing the damage incurred by malicious propaganda and pointing to the grave ground realities. “Peace in Afghanistan would ensure peace in Pakistan” could not have been reiterated on a more appropriate occasion given the resurgence of terrorism in Swat valley and the insistence of Kabul to sit on the fence and watch our house burning from afar. Nevertheless, even changing the hot seat in Islamabad was not enough to break the ice of frosty Pak-India relations. Much fanfare and hype had followed in the wake of confirmation from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But despite having offered an olive branch soon after coming to power, Mr Sharif did not show any inclination of reaching out. In his defence, the Foreign Office has already clarified that the other side had also not sought any meeting. Any chance of an improved bilateral agreement should have topped the agenda because of the crippling food shortage ready to pounce down the main door any day now. Since the worst onslaught of floods has decimated nearly all of the country’s agriculture, making new bridges should have been a purely economic move. But then again, ours is a nation that seldom decides matters on sheer logic. *