New Delhi: While the world faces an unprecedented energy crisis in the backdrop of the US-Israel war on Iran, Pakistanis stand energised by the actions of their irremovable Field Marshal Asim Munir. And the leading columnists of the country are writing paens in praise of their military dictator, congratulating him for playing the peacemaker even as Iran has rejected all talks with the US and Trump remains tight-lipped on his “favourite Field Marshal’s” offer.
They are operating in a different dimension of geopolitics altogether.
Prominent Pakistani analyst and Dawn columnist Nadeem Farooq Paracha called it “the rise and rise of Asim Munir”.
“The rise and rise of Asim Munir: Thrashed India, Ended the ‘good/bad’ Taliban strategy, Challenged sectarian radicals across the board, And now, brokering a US-Iran ceasefire with the PM. Clear-headed and decisive. A man who faced outright hatred by the usual idiots,” he wrote on X.
Reham Khan, British-Pakistani journalist and former wife of Imran Khan, in an Instagram reel, even asked, “Is General Asim Munir now the new candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize?”
Another columnist, Cyril Almeida added: “Rumour is reputation… Asim became a global player today…”
He then took it a notch further to add: “Overheard… Nobel for Asim”.
Another analyst, Burhan-ud-din Awan, called it “Pakistan’s rise”. In a long tweet on X, he wrote: “Pakistan’s backdoor diplomacy and foreign policy, supported by Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, appear to have played a significant role in encouraging Iran toward the negotiating table, which could potentially lead to an end to the war in the coming days… World leaders are recognizing Pakistan’s strategic and growing importance on the global stage. In my view, the era of Pakistan’s rise has begun. It makes me deeply proud to be a Pakistani.”
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‘An escape from accountability’
However, there were the dissidents too.
Pakistani political analyst Niaz Murtaza re-tweeted Paracha’s post saying, “The fall and fall of Nadeem Farooq Paracha”.
Pakistani entrepreneur Hussain Nadim chose to counter the chest-thumping by stating plain facts.
“Nothing sells better than geopolitics. It works like opioid on the masses, delivers escape from governance and accountability to the ruling elite, and provides the surest ladder for a military dictator to take over. But there are still those, even the smart ones, that fall for these big foreign policy wins, chest-thumping centrality, and strategic relevance, every single time they are fed these lies,” he wrote on X.
In the tweet, where he went into the history of Pakistan’s geopolitics, he also added: “What regime trolls and geopolitics experts don’t get is that geopolitics only serve the ruling elite, a military dictator, not the country or its national interest, and certainly not the people. Their big wins in the geopolitics, are big losses for the people and their freedoms and livelihood back home.”
Another Pakistani X user, Afzal Khan Sherwani, tweeted a picture of Trump with his lookalike wearing a turban, captioning it, “Donald Trump is engaged in very serious and deep negotiations with Iran in Islamabad, in the company of Asim Munir, a like-minded dead-brained, mentally ill (Zehani Mareez) person.”
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)