Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Pakistan’s Defence Minister, posted and then deleted a message on X calling Israel evil and a curse for humanity, saying genocide was being committed in Lebanon, and wishing that those who created Israel on Palestinian land burn in hell. The post, which accumulated 2.4 million views, 38,000 likes, and 12,000 reposts before being taken down, was published on the night of April 9, while Pakistan was actively hosting indirect peace talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad — talks that Pakistan’s own prime minister described as approaching a critical and sensitive stage.

The excuse being floated in Pakistani political circles is that the Defence Minister was under the influence when he published it. The post has since been deleted, leaving the familiar X message — Nothing to see here yet — in its place.

There are only two possible explanations for what happened, and neither reflects well on the country currently positioned as the world’s most important diplomatic intermediary.

The first is that Asif published the post while intoxicated, as is being suggested. If true, the Defence Minister of a nuclear-armed state — the country hosting the negotiations that the entire global energy market, the ceasefire architecture, and the Strait of Hormuz reopening all depend on — was drunk-posting incendiary antisemitic content on a public platform with 2.4 million views at 10pm on the most diplomatically sensitive night in Pakistan’s recent history. The American delegation led by Vice President JD Vance was in the same city. The Iranian delegation was in the same city. The world was watching Islamabad. And Pakistan’s Defence Minister was apparently not in a condition to exercise basic judgement about what he was publishing.

The second explanation is that he was entirely sober and posted it deliberately — for engagement, for domestic political consumption, to signal solidarity with a particular audience, or simply because he wanted to say it. If that is true, the Defence Minister of the country brokering the most consequential geopolitical negotiation of 2026 chose that moment to publish what can only be described as hate speech, calculated for maximum inflammatory impact, while his own government was simultaneously asking the world to trust Pakistan as a neutral and responsible mediator.

The post itself is worth examining clearly. Calling Israel a cancerous state and wishing that those who created it burn in hell is not political commentary on the Lebanon conflict. It is not a criticism of Israeli military conduct, however strongly worded. It is language designed to dehumanise and to inflame, published by a cabinet minister of a government that had spent the previous 48 hours presenting itself to the world as a broker of peace and stability.

The deletion does not undo the 2.4 million views, the 38,000 likes, or the 12,000 reposts. It does not undo the fact that it was seen by the American and Iranian delegations, by every diplomatic correspondent covering Islamabad, and by every government monitoring the talks. It does not undo the question it has placed directly in the minds of everyone involved — if this is what Pakistan’s Defence Minister posts on the night of the talks, what does Pakistan’s government actually believe, and how neutral is a mediator whose cabinet members are publishing this content in real time?

Pakistan has staked significant diplomatic capital and genuine political effort on the Islamabad process. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s role in brokering the ceasefire has been widely praised. The country’s outreach to both Washington and Tehran reflects real diplomatic work over weeks. All of that is now sharing the news cycle with a deleted post and an excuse about the Defence Minister’s sobriety.

Drunk or deliberate. Pick one. Both are a problem.

Disclaimer: This article reflects publicly available information and social media posts. Business Upturn does not endorse any of the language contained in the post described above.

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