New Delhi: Donald Trump has a way of surprising the best of his friends and allies. On Wednesday, Pakistan was at the receiving end. On a day that Trump’s ‘favourite Field Marshal’ Asim Munir and DG ISI signed a deal with Trump’s World Liberty Financial regarding crypto mining, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio put Pakistan on the list of 75 countries that now face a visa ban.
Pakistanis are asking: “What was the use of all the pandering?”
To make matters worse, the next morning, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi wrote on X that Pakistan’s passport ranking increased from 126th to 98th and “the momentum will continue”.
However, GeoNews journalist and fact-checker Benazir Shah soon debunked that claim as well saying that the government is issuing misleading statements. Others like prominent analyst Hussain Haqqani too weighed in.
“Pakistan’s passport is still among the world’s worst passports. Improvement in ranking is only because more countries have tied on some ranks than before. In 2026, it ranks at 98th with 31 visa free countries. In 2025, it was 103rd with 33 visa free countries. 5th worst both times,” Haqqani wrote on X.
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‘Two sides of the same story’
Trump’s move prompted many Pakistanis to react, with one saying that Munir’s Nobel pitch for Trump was of no use.
“All that asskissing and nobel prize nominating only for us to end up on the banned visas list too lmaooo,” Pakistani X user Faizan wrote.
Another posted a picture of Trump watching Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif speak at Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit in Egypt last year and captioned it: “Trump ne humare he visay freeze kar diye”.
X user Hassan had a question: “Pakistan in the list of US visa ban but not India. Ki faida hoya tera asim munir? (What was the use of having you Asim Munir?)”
Another user, Musaiba, simply called Shehbaz Sharif Trump’s “sidechick”.
Then there were other local concerns. One X user shared that her mother was happy for not having said yes to her daughter being married to an American.
“Not my ama saying ‘shukar hai uss america walay larkay ko ham ney no keh dia warna tum kitna bura phas jati’?? (My mother said ‘thankfully we said no to the man from America else you’d be stuck in a bad mess)”.
One person shared an AI-generated clip of Asim Munir and Shehbaz Sharif standing outside an airport with their Pakistani passports but the airport guard has a placard saying, “No visa for Pakistani”.
The most hilarious among these were when a Pakistani X user Hamza shared a video of Pakistan’s I&B minister Ataullah Tarar from a press conference where he said that when Pakistanis show their passports at immigration counters, the response is that “Pakistan is strong”.
“Ziada hi strong ho gaya (too strong for its own good),” the user quipped.
Amid all this, there was some serious analysis too.
Pakistani tech analyst Hussain Nadim wrote on X, “Pakistan won’t be in the list for long, the decision will likely be revised. But the fact that Trump admin placed Pakistan in the visa freeze list in the first place tells you 2 things upfront: 1. How exactly is Pakistan placed in the US foreign policy thinking – grouped with some of the most troubled countries and adversaries of the US. 2. It tells you just how naive and desperate the military regime in Pakistan is to confuse and believe Trump’s ‘pat on the back’ and ‘favourite Field Marshal’ comments as a signal for some strategic win or deepening of relations.”
The irony that this order came the same day that Pakistan’s top rung signed an MoU on crypto with Trump’s company is not lost on many.
Pakistani journalist Murtaza Hussain wrote, “Signing this on the day that its announced that your country is on an immigration ban list”
Another prominent journalist, Matiullah Jan, posted newspaper clippings of both the crypto MoU and the visa ban on the same page and wrote on X: “Two sides of the same story”
When one account pointed out that it is a ban only on immigration visas, Pakistanis got angrier. A person, Umair Khan, pointed out the fallacy and said on X, “And that’s a win? That pause on immigrant visas will only affect Pakistan and not India, which means our policy in this regard has failed.”
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)