A one-stop fare via Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi is sometimes cheaper than a direct flight to Pakistan or India, but the comparison needs to include total journey time, connection risk, and whether checked luggage transfers automatically. For trips with young children or elderly relatives, a direct flight is often worth a moderate price premium.
Compare like with like: total door-to-door time, not flight time. A connection adds the layover itself plus the slack you should build around it. A tight connection saves an hour on paper and costs a day when it goes wrong. Check whether both legs sit on a single ticket. One booking means the airline owns the problem if you misconnect and your bags are checked through; two separate cheap tickets stitched together means you own the problem, and that risk is rarely priced into the "saving".
The connecting option earns its place in specific situations: when your dates are flexible enough to catch the better one-stop pricing, when the layover is long enough to be genuinely restful rather than stressful, or when you're comparing cabins. A one-stop business class fare via the Gulf sometimes prices below what you'd expect against a direct fare in the same cabin. The mistake is treating the headline price as the whole comparison.