Yes but you will still need a visa or a passport with a visa waiver.

I'm going to play it safe and get a visa. Not travelling until May, so plenty of time.

Remember that you'll get SSSSed if US bound

There are some incredible J fares to the U.S. from Pakistan, on EK as well as other airlines. The country also recently issued an e-visa portal. I applied, but had to go to the consulate in Dubai to complete the process. I also asked for multi-year multi-entry (one of the options) but they only gave me single, so my plans were dashed. I thought maybe I would try my round-trip from PK with a single-entry visa and hope that I would make it through the outbound without having to use the visa, preserving it for the return, but decided not to chance it.

Perhaps this time I got greedy and would have been granted a double-entry had I asked for that. Fingers crossed for next time, and also hoping that once one has had and used the first visa, the second one will be completely on-line.

Once before (on a previous passport) I did an international-to-international transfer through KHI on separate tickets. Although I had a visa, they were prepared to let me transit without using it.

OP, please report if you can do an immediate turnaround assuming you have a visa.

I agree with this

I played it safe and opted for the CMB repositioning.
Tried and tested. Don't want the hassle (and stress).
Plus it's more time in F on the way back from CMB.

You can use the same visa multiple times as long as it is valid. They won't stamp it if you remain airside in transit on a turn-around, it would be like you were never there.

Can you share an example of these fares? Are these private fares? I can't find any fares that are incredible compared to POS LK/TN/ZA, for example

That was my point:

Do a trip from PK nested within a round-trip from Dubai with a single-entry visa. If I could do I-to-I transfer without them stamping the visa, then I would be safe for the return (either to do a stopover in the country or at least be able to check in for the flight). But if I couldn't transfer without using the visa at the beginning of the trip, then it would be burned and I couldn't do the return.

Just did a search for some random dates in July and found EK ISB-DXB-LAX round-trip for $3,133 in biz saver:

https://www.kayak.com/flights/ISB-LA...s=airlines=~EK

Maybe "incredible" is a bit hyperbolic in this instance, but compared to the non-stop fares on EK to LAX or SFO, this is pretty good. Sometimes I have seen them for a bit less. Also given the frequencies, fares, and time involved to fly from DXB to Pakistan, especially KHI, compared to the other origins you mention, it makes that a good location to use for a DXB-based passenger who wants to fly EK.

On other airlines, I have seen much better, e.g.:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/prem...b-2-000-a.html