by Nilesh Kunwar
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would be really proud of himself-and he has all the reasons to be so. After all, by successfully stopping US President Donald Trump from bombing Iran “back to the stone ages,” didn’t he single handedly achieve what the UN Secretary General and many influential world leaders couldn’t?
But that’s not all-the icing on the cake is that Sharif could get the otherwise inordinately stubborn POTUS to almost immediately accept his suggestion of extending the US deadline for Iran’s slated destruction by two weeks “to allow diplomacy to run its course.”
While Pakistan may be revelling in its new found role as an effective international peacemaker capable of bringing two extremely hostile warring sides to the negotiating table, a shoddy ‘cut and paste’ job by the Prime Minister’s Office has revealed that rather than being a negotiator, Islamabad was all along acting as Washington’s mouthpiece.
Sharif’s original post on X calling for the two-week ceasefire mentioned “*Draft-Pakistan’s PM Message on X*.” As it didn’t make any sense, this curious remark immediately [and rightly] caught public attention. Sharif’s supporters would obviously maintain that as the prime minister is a busy person, his official posts on X are compiled by the PMO and after being approved by him posted on social media.
While this explanation does make sense, the question that arises is- why did the PMO address Sharif as “Pakistan’s PM” and not simply the PM? Moreover, even if one assumes that the PMO refers to the PM of the country as “Pakistan’s PM” in its internal official correspondence, and putting up drafts for approval is a routine affair, why the person who put this post on social media didn’t delete the mention of it being a draft?
Lastly, if it was merely an inadvertent error, why was this post edited and reposted with the draft portion expunged?
In retrospect, it appears that the text of post on X ascribed to Sharif could well have been authored by the US as a face-saving device and the draft sent to Islamabad with the directions that it should be posted on social media by “Pakistan’s PM.”
The fact that this post appeared just hours before Trump’s threat to bomb Iran “into the stone ages” deadline was to expire and in wake of his menacing warning that a “whole civilization will die tonight” is definitely not a mere coincidence.
Similarly, Trump [who otherwise appeared to be in a tearing hurry to wreak havoc on Iran], promptly accepting the two-week long window for giving diplomacy a chance suggestion within hours of Sharif’s post appearing on X is a clear indication that this entire episode was nothing but a ‘fixed match’ to help POTUS wriggle out of an embarrassing situation.
Trump displayed extraordinary belligerence and brazen disregard for international laws and conventions on warfare by threatening to destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran within just four hours. However, by constantly shifting the goals and timelines of his Iran offensive Trump exposed his weak moorings and having knowingly pushed himself into an irretrievable situation, a desperate Trump sought an honourable exit.
It was Sharif who saved the day by using social media to post exactly what the US President desired, making it known to all that it was sent across by him. But, as nothing pleases Trump more than seeing heads of states and other key dignitaries displaying their subservience to him, Sharif’s post cemented his role as a faithful underling and provided POTUS an excellent ego-massage. So, while his unedited post on X is definitely discomforting, this faux pas is possibly a boon in disguise.
Trump’s war management skills may be suspect but his ability to further his political ambitions by identifying and wooing minions is indeed remarkable. Readers would recall that he ushered 2018 by tweeting “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan…”
Fast forward to the present and we find that Trump’s views have undergone a sea change and his infatuation with Pakistan seems to transcend all boundaries. He thinks Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir are “great people,” and despite a 2026 US Congressional Research Service document identifying “Pakistan as a base of operations and/or target for numerous armed, non-state militant groups,” Trump still feels that this country is “doing terrifically well.”
With Sharif calling Trump a “man of peace” and supporting him for the Nobel Peace Prize and Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir’s confidential interaction with POTUS during his White House luncheon after which Trump started calling him his “favourite field marshal,” Pakistan is back in Washington’s lap.
But how long this honeymoon lasts and what good it does to Pakistan remains a million dollar question- remember former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s incisive observation- “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal”!
Nilesh Kunwar is a retired Indian Army Officer who has served in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. He is a keen ‘Kashmir-Watcher,’ and after retirement is pursuing his favourite hobby of writing for newspapers, journals and think-tanks. Views expressed above are the author’s own
