Pakistani senator Aimal Wali Khan has sharply criticised Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir for presenting rare earth minerals to former US President Donald Trump during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visit to Washington, branding the act a “mockery” and questioning the military chief’s authority to showcase the country’s strategic resources.
Speaking in Pakistan’s Parliament, Khan accused Munir of acting “like a salesman” while Shehbaz Sharif appeared “like a manager watching the drama unfold.”
Last week, during the White House meeting, Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir met with Donald Trump.
“Our chief of army staff is roaming around with a briefcase containing rare earth minerals. What a joke! It was an absolute mockery,” Khan said. “Whoever saw that photo must have thought, ‘Which chief of army staff would carry around a briefcase with rare earth minerals?’ To me, it looked like a big, branded store – the manager watched happily as a shopkeeper tried to sell a big, glittery thing to a customer.”
Khan further questioned, “In what capacity? Under which law? This is a dictatorship. I am sorry to say this is not democracy… is this not contempt of parliament?”
Previously, Khan likened Munir’s presentation of rare earth minerals to a display in an “elite designer shop,” expressing his scepticism over the army chief’s involvement in matters relating to Pakistan’s strategic assets.
A photograph released from the White House during Shehbaz Sharif’s US visit showed Munir handing a wooden box containing rare earth minerals to Trump in the Oval Office.
This marked Munir’s third trip to Washington since the May conflict between Pakistan and India, a dispute that Trump has repeatedly claimed to have helped mediate. Pakistan has even nominated Munir for the Nobel Peace Prize for his alleged peace-brokering role, though India has dismissed this, insisting the ceasefire talks were strictly bilateral.
The conflict began on 10 May, four days after cross-border clashes erupted following India’s Operation Sindoor, launched in retaliation for the 22 April Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people.
On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his claim that he ended the “very big” conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Speaking about the visit, Trump said, “The prime minister of Pakistan was here along with the field marshal, who’s a very important guy in Pakistan, and he was here three days ago. I didn’t even realise it, but as beautifully as he said it, he told a group of people, ‘This man saved millions of lives because he stopped the war from continuing, and that war was going to get very bad, very, very bad. President Trump saved millions and millions of lives. That was a bad war.’”
Trump added, “I was very honoured. I loved the way he said it.”
He also noted that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was present at the meeting and said, “She said that was the most beautiful thing. But we saved a lot of them. Saved a lot of them.”