Pakistan, Oct. 29 -- Wars are usually judged by what happens on the battlefield. Their strongest effects, however, often travel far beyond it. The 2026 war between the United States and Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz for months, drained global oil stocks and pushed up fuel prices in countries that had no part in the fighting. Pakistan was one of them.

The scale of the shock was unprecedented. The International Energy called it the largest oil supply disruption in history. More than 14 million barrels a day of Middle East output was shut in, and by May global supply had fallen about 13.6 million barrels a day below pre-war levels. Even after the interim agreement, the warned that flows were unlikely to return to normal before early 2027...