Islamabad: In a blistering parliamentary tirade that has set Pakistan’s political cauldron bubbling, lawmaker Aimal Wali Khan has unleashed scorn on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir, branding their recent White House overtures to US President Donald Trump as a crass spectacle of subservience and constitutional sacrilege.
The fireworks erupted in the National Assembly, where Khan, a fiery voice from the Awami National Party, dissected a viral photograph from the duo’s US sojourn. Snapped amid the hallowed halls of power, it captures Munir — fingers splayed over an open wooden briefcase brimming with rare minerals presented as a “gift”— gesturing animatedly towards Trump, with Sharif hovering awkwardly in the frame.
Khan thundered, “Munir looked like a desperate salesman hawking his wares, while Sharif stood by like a hapless manager, overseeing the farce.”
Khan’s outrage stems from deeper disquiet: What authority, he demanded, empowers a military chief to dole out national treasures in diplomatic dalliances? The duo’s frequent jaunts to America, he alleged, mock Pakistan’s democracy, entrenching a “dictatorship” that tramples the assembly’s dignity. “These foreign jaunts and cosy confabs are an insult to our sovereignty and the spirit of the Constitution,” he fumed, painting a portrait of leaders who are more eager to curry favour abroad than fortify their home turf.
The image, splashed across social media, has amplified the uproar, turning a purported gesture of goodwill into a symbol of perceived humiliation.
As Pakistan grapples with economic woes and internal fissures, Khan’s salvo spotlights a perennial faultline: the military’s outsized sway in civilian affairs. Will this parliamentary parry force introspection, or fuel further factionalism in the corridors of power?