New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif went to London to attract investors. He instead attracted controversy.
Sharif Tuesday met senior executives from some of the world’s largest financial institutions, including Barclays, JPMorgan, Citi, BlackRock, and Rothschild & Co, calling on them to invest in Pakistan. One of these meetings became a political flashpoint back home.
Sharif’s sit-down with a delegation from Rothschild & Co led by Mark Sedwill, the firm’s chair of geostrategic advisory, prompted criticism from Pakistani politicians and activists, who questioned why the meeting had taken place since Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
Pakistan Rights Movement Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan wrote on X that Sharif had met with people he described as the “founders, guardians, and influential backers of Israel”.
“This is the family seen globally as a key hub for policies and conspiracies against the Ummah of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), and it is this very family that serves as a powerful face of colonialism and imperialism,” Khan wrote. “This meeting is deeply alarming in the current context of Gaza/Palestine—will the government tell us what the agenda of this meeting was???”
Khan also pointed to legal cases filed in Pakistan against people who had publicly supported the Palestinian cause, saying that he had appeared in Islamabad courts with colleagues for bail hearings in cases related to their pro-Palestinian activism.
The criticism was echoed by Shireen Mazari, a former minister from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI).
“Let’s not forget the strong links between Rothschild & Co to rogue entity Israel. But Sedwill was NATO rep for Afghanistan & also served in Pak as well as in Arab states like Egypt. Also adviser to McKinsey & we have some bright McKinsey ppl here in Pak! Links within links shd always connect dots!” she added on X.
The reactions contrasted sharply with the government’s public description of the meeting. The Prime Minister’s Office said Sharif had met a Rothschild & Co delegation headed by Sedwill in London as part of his efforts to deepen international financial engagement.
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Capital vs diplomacy
The Rothschild meeting came during a broader push by Sharif’s government to present Pakistan as an improving destination for international investors.
Earlier Tuesday, Sharif became the first Pakistani prime minister to open a trading session at the London Stock Exchange. He also formally inaugurated Pakistan’s latest $3 billion sovereign Eurobond, a dual-tranche transaction that the government described as a landmark return to international capital markets.
The prime minister also referred to the wider geopolitical and economic pressures facing Pakistan, particularly the Gulf crisis.
“Like other emerging economies, we are negotiating this challenge while also playing an important role as a peacemaker, mediating between the United States and Iran,” he said. “I hope that we will continue in this direction.”
He said that if the Gulf crisis had not erupted, Pakistan’s economic recovery would have accelerated. Sharif also told Schwimmer that Pakistan wanted guidance on how to engage international financial markets more deeply, not only through sovereign borrowing but through private investment.
“We definitely like to seek his guidance and advice on how to further engage international financial markets to play a role in Pakistan, not just in terms of sovereign debt but through very attractive investments,” he said.
He invited Schwimmer to visit Pakistan, describing his own participation in the opening of the London Stock Exchange session as a moment of significance for the two countries’ financial relationship.
The controversy over Rothschild & Co, however, highlights the difficulty for Pakistan’s government to separate its search for international capital from diplomatic entanglements.
The reaction extended beyond Pakistan. Even the Afghans chose not to stay behind amid growing animosity between the two countries. Sangyar Paykhar, an Afghan journalist, shared a report on the Rothschilds and their infamous connection to Epstein.
American writer Shaun King was surprised by the Pakistan PM’s post on X.
“He posted this. Voluntarily. On purpose,” he wrote.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)