Roving Periscope: Romancing the ex, the US restarts living with wrinkled Pakistan!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: President Donald Trump, always a business dealmaker, has rediscovered Pakistan, America’s first love-at-sight in South Asia in the 1950s, ensured that Islamabad gets a high seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to cherry-pick terrorists, and even invited its self-appointed “Field Marshal,” Army chief General Asim Munir, who almost owns Pakistan, to grace a military parade in Washington this week.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharief prepared this ground by allowing Pakistan to enter into a cryptocurrency deal with Trump family members.
Emboldened with this long-awaited US love bite, Pakistan has hiked its defense budget by 20 percent—to buy American defense material. Islamabad’s growing proximity with Washington has also alarmed China, particularly after the Chinese defense equipment failed to protect Pakistan’s assets last month from the wrath of Indian missiles and drones.
On Thursday, a visibly delighted General Asim Munir, infamous as ‘Mulla Munir’ for his open support to Islamist terrorists, confirmed his presence at the 250th US Army Anniversary and a military parade in Washington on June 14—which President Trump will celebrate as his 79th birthday. The media reported that Munir is also expected to meet with officials from the State Department and the Pentagon.
Ironically, Pakistani diaspora in the US is planning to stage protests in Washington during Munir’s visit.
His Washington visit comes days after a top US General praised the Pakistani Army chief. At a congressional hearing this week, Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), called Pakistan “a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world” and underscored Islamabad’s contributions to operations against ISIS-Khorasan.
Gen. Kurilla also noted that while the US seeks a strong relationship with both India and Pakistan, it “cannot be a binary switch” in which relations with one preclude ties with the other.
All these signal that the US is returning to its old balancing act, to maintain close strategic ties with India mainly for business, while also keeping traditional ally Pakistan within its orbit for security reasons to counter its growing closeness with and dependence on China.
This recalibration became visible in the Trump administration’s statements re-hyphenating the two nuclear-armed neighbours after Operation Sindoor and the so-called ‘ceasefire’ that followed in May.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, which New Delhi has firmly rejected. He has called both nations great powers that the US wants to be friends with, a departure from his previous hawkish stance on Pakistan.
During his first term (2017-21), Trump had embraced India tightly and lambasted Pakistan for harbouring terrorists and even threatened to cut off billions in aid for failing to act decisively against terror outfits on its soil.
Munir’s arrival in Washington is also being met with protests from the Pakistani diaspora. Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has announced demonstrations in the US capital during the army chief’s visit.
“Let the White House know that any deal with this government is not acceptable to the people of Pakistan,” PTI’s Secretary for Overseas Affairs, Sajjad Burki, tweeted. He urged Pakistani-Americans to join a protest outside the Pakistan Embassy in Washington on June 14. Pamphlets calling for mass mobilisation have been distributed in Pakistani-American neighbourhoods across the city, the media reported.
But Pakistan is celebrating resumption of love signals from America. Last month, it even celebrated a crushing defeat from India during Operation Sindoor and ‘promoted’ the failed Army chief as a “Field Marshal.”
That explains why, despite its bread-and-butter crisis, Pakistan has hiked its defence budget by 20 percent, the highest in a decade, even as its fragile economy remains completely reliant on International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans.
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced the increase in defence spending amid rising security threats from India.
Tabling the annual federal budget on June 10, he proposed an allocation of PKR 2.55 trillion (USD 9 billion) for the country’s three armed services – the army, air force and navy, amounting to 1.97 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP), up from 1.7 percent in the previous budget.
“The security situation in the country is precarious, and the armed forces have rendered commendable service in protecting the borders,” Aurangzeb said during his speech, as India has threatened to conduct more strikes if armed groups carry out attacks on India or Jammu and Kashmir.
India, which passed its budget before the May conflict, also increased its defence spending to USD 78.7 billion, a 9.5 percent rise from the previous year.
In September 2024, the IMF had approved a 37-month, USD 7 billion loan programme for Pakistan, its 25th since 1958. The most recent tranche of USD 1.3 billion was released in May this year, a day before the ‘ceasefire’ during Operation Sindoor, which India declared was merely a pause in cross-border clashes. The global lender has been pressurizing Pakistan to streamline its expenditure, reduce subsidies and improve the efficiency of its governance structures. With these conditions, prices of essential commodities in the bankrupt country have risen again.
Even as its defence spending has gone up substantially, Pakistan’s overall budget for the next fiscal year has been reduced to PKR 17.57 trillion (USD 62 bn), a 6.9 percent decrease from last year.
Its military’s budget has nearly doubled in the past five years from PKR 1.28 trillion (USD 4.53 bn) in 2020-21 to USD 9 billion now.
The all-powerful Pakistan Army has cornered PKR 1.17 trillion (USD 4.1bn), nearly 46 percent of the total defence budget. The air force and navy received a meagre PKR 520 billion (USD 1.8 mn) and PKR 265.9 billion (USD 941 mn), respectively.
Due to Pakistan’s mounting external debt, at USD 87.4 billion, according to the latest government figures, the largest share of the national budget is consumed by debt servicing, which stands at USD 29 billion, almost 47 percent of total expenditure.
In the budget announced on Tuesday, Pakistan has cut subsidies, and outlined plans to expand the tax base, remove exemptions, and introduce new taxes to raise public revenue.
The last few years have been deeply turbulent for Pakistan’s economy. Foreign reserves fell to just under USD 3 billion in 2023, bringing the country of 250 million people to the brink of default. Following the IMF deals, however, foreign reserves have since risen to USD 11 bn.
