By Bittertruth.uk
History is not merely a chronicle of men; it is the very soul of nations, the destiny of peoples. Each time we turn our gaze upon the intricate web of relations between Pakistan and the United States, it seems less a contemporary episode and more a tale from antiquity, rehearsed endlessly with fresh actors upon the same age-old stage. This is the soil of Pakistan—brought forth in the name of God, where its people are soldiers in the caravan of Lā ilāha illā Allāh. And yet, alas! upon the chessboard of world politics this caravan has too often been reduced to pawns in the hands of the mighty.
The Qur’an reminds us:
وَلَا تَهِنُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
“Do not falter, nor grieve; for you shall surely be the uppermost if you are believers.” (Āl ʿImrān 3:139)
At times the storm of Trump’s accusations, at times the fleeting warmth of professed friendship; now the smile of investment, now the sombre question of war and peace. These shifting winds recall to us that when nations forget the foundations of their being, destiny deals with them as it did with Andalusia, as it did with the streets of Baghdad, as it did in the lanes of Delhi.
Iqbal’s resounding cry still shakes our conscience:
؎ اپنی دنیا آپ پیدا کر اگر زندوں میں ہے
سرِ آدم ہے، ضمیرِ کن فکاں ہے زندگی
“Create your own world, if you are truly among the living;
Life is but the secret of ‘Be, and it is’ within the soul of Man.”
The journey of Pakistan is not one of treaties alone; it is a pilgrimage towards its essence, its survival, and its greatness. And therein lies the question upon which generations yet unborn shall stake their fate: shall we be the architects of our own destiny, or the puppets in another’s theatre?
Thus, when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif commenced his address to the General Assembly of the United Nations with a recitation from the Qur’an, it was no mere ritual preface. It was a solemn reminder to the world that the very foundation of Pakistan rests upon Lā ilāha illā Allāh; that our politics and our diplomacy draw their breath from a spiritual wellspring.
In the shadow of the recent war with India, Pakistan’s historic victory breathed a new air into the august Assembly. When Indian aircraft were reduced to smouldering wreckage in the skies, it was more than a military triumph; it was a declaration of a new epoch. And as the hall resounded with the cry “Pakistan Zindabad!”, it was no empty slogan, but the voice of a wounded nation rising in unison, its soul uttering its truth.
The Prime Minister of China lauded Shehbaz Sharif’s speech with open admiration. It was as though one of the great powers of the Far East had acknowledged that Pakistan was no longer a mere patch of land, but a decisive force in the balance of world affairs.
Yet history has a way of turning its wheel. Was it not the same United States, and the same Donald Trump, who once dismissed Pakistan as a sanctuary for terrorists, and who at another time hailed Imran Khan as a friend? And when the colour of the Presidency shifted, and Biden took his seat, the
ties between the two nations sank once again into a winter of estrangement—no calls exchanged, no meetings convened, as if two caravans upon the same road passed each other by as strangers, their silence a discordant note in an old, broken melody.
But history turned a new page. On a Thursday, President Trump declared Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir to be “great leaders” and “men of the highest stature,” as though unlocking a gate long rusted shut. Their subsequent meeting in the White House, many will mark as a turning point inscribed upon the scroll of time.
That same week, Trump convened a special assembly with leaders of the Muslim world, a gathering he himself called “memorable.” In that council he did what few American presidents have dared: he spoke aloud his disappointment with Israel’s conduct.
On that occasion he presented to the Muslim leaders a twenty-one-point peace plan for the Middle East and Gaza: an immediate ceasefire; the swift delivery of humanitarian relief; the establishment of an autonomous administration in Gaza; the curbing of Israeli expansion in occupied territories; negotiations on the status of Jerusalem; the release of Palestinian prisoners; and the deployment of a United Nations peace force. It was, on its face, a proclamation of peace—yet its political reverberations will be felt across the map of the Middle East for years to come.
Following the meeting, the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad declared that American firms had been invited to invest in Pakistan’s fields, its mountains, and its reservoirs of energy. The doors of the nation appear to be opening—but one cannot help but ask, in which direction does the wind truly blow?
And this was no mere conversation of commerce. Alongside investment, the leaders spoke of regional stability and cooperation against terrorism—an avowal to keep the flame of peace from guttering out. Thus, within that council, the fragrance of peace and the odour of interest mingled alike. It was a promise, fragile yet fragrant, containing within it both the allure of prosperity and the peril of trial.
In the turbulent month of May, when the clouds of war gathered ominously over the plains of the Subcontinent, President Trump hastened to claim the laurel of peacemaker. The ceasefire, fragile yet decisive, was draped as a garland around his shoulders. Pakistani leaders, too, did not withhold their acknowledgment, styling him the “Man of Peace.”
But history is seldom a linear tale; it is a palimpsest of motives and manoeuvres. Analysts remind us that both Pakistan and America remain acutely aware of their mutual necessity, each lighting its own lamp of self-interest. Yet the essential question lingers: what substance lay beneath the optics of this meeting?
To Trump’s eye gleamed the lustre of rare minerals—the hidden wealth of the earth that stirs the ambitions of empires. Pakistan, for its part, proclaims that beneath its mountains and deserts lie the treasures of the future. Only recently, the American corporation USMM formalised its intent with an investment of half a billion dollars. Yet history offers a stern admonition: when the mines of wealth are opened, too often the coffers fill abroad while the hands of the local populace remain empty. Especially in Balochistan, that restless crucible of rebellion, the people know all too well what it is to be reduced to pawns upon a foreign chessboard.
Repeatedly, Pakistan has extended the olive branch of dialogue to India and looked towards Washington as a possible arbiter. Observers contend that if Islamabad and Washington were to draw closer, its reverberations would extend beyond South Asia to the very heart of the Middle East. Yet Delhi’s politics, sensitive to intrusion, resists any acceptance of a foreign hand in its quarrel with Pakistan.
Nor are the ties between Washington and Delhi free of strain. America has imposed a fifty per cent tariff upon India’s purchase of Russian oil, a sanction that has cast a chill over their once vaunted “strategic partnership.” In such a theatre of shifting alliances, one must ask: what design is forming in the recesses of Trump’s mind?
Beyond Pakistan’s perpetual tensions upon its eastern frontier, America perceives a necessity upon the western flank. Iran remains a smouldering ember in Washington’s calculus. Should Pakistan lend its weight, the spark may perhaps be contained. In return, Islamabad might expect assistance in quelling the insurgencies of Baluchistan and the tribal regions.
Meanwhile, upon the stage of the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel rose to speak. Yet in a gesture of silent protest, delegations from several nations departed the hall. The symbolism was unambiguous: the world grows weary of Israel’s belligerent policies. With the massacre in Gaza still fresh in conscience, UEFA, the European football authority, has signalled that it may suspend Israel’s membership. Should this come to pass, it would mark a symbolic but stinging defeat for Tel Aviv upon the international cultural stage.
As the Qur’an reminds us:
﴿وَتِلْكَ ٱلۡأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيۡنَ ٱلنَّاسِ﴾
“And such are the days, We alternate them among mankind.” (Āl ʿImrān 3:140)
The fortunes of nations are not fixed; power shifts like the winds upon a restless sea. Pakistan now stands at a crossroads where opportunity and peril walk hand in hand.
In recent weeks, Europe’s conscience stirred—hesitant, yet audible—when Slovenia imposed travel sanctions upon the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. This act, though modest in the theatre of global politics, was in truth a moral trumpet-blast, the faint herald of a Europe no longer willing to turn a blind eye. It was, perhaps, the first flicker of that verse in the Holy Qur’an:
وَلَا تَحۡسَبَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَـٰفِلًۭا عَمَّا یَعۡمَلُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَۚ
“And never think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do.” (Qur’an 14:42)
Even as Europe roused, Israel’s air force descended upon Sana’a, unleashing fire upon the Yemeni capital. Each missile was not merely a weapon, but a spark cast into the tinderbox of the Middle East. The world is compelled to ask: will the fragile architecture of international peace extinguish this blaze—or be consumed by it?
Amidst this conflagration, the signing of a new defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan did not escape Washington’s gaze. That President Trump should address Riyadh and Islamabad in one breath is telling: it proclaims, with unmistakable clarity, that Pakistan is no longer a peripheral voice but an indispensable actor in the symphony of the region.
This truth was underscored when Field Marshal Asim Munir, the first Pakistani leader to set foot in the White House during the Trump years, strode across its threshold to meet the American President. His recent voyages—to the Gulf, to Central Asia, and to the councils of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation—speak less of ceremonial diplomacy and more of a new reality: the military no longer lingers in the shadows of foreign policy, but stands, luminous and unmasked, at the very forefront.
The July Corps Commanders’ Conference, wherein Munir declared these journeys a triumph of statecraft, further revealed a partnership of uncommon balance between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his generals. Observers, with rare unanimity, concede that foreign policy rests primarily in martial hands; the Prime Minister, though present, rides as junior partner. To borrow a metaphor, it is the Field Marshal at the wheel, while the civilian government sits beside him, navigating but not steering.
There is a certain irony in this tableau: for while Israel is censured upon the world stage, Pakistan is cast not as a supplicant but as a responsible custodian of diplomacy. The harmony between civil and military leadership is lauded abroad as a model of “responsible diplomacy,” one that seeks equilibrium amid tempests.
And yet, one must recall that Donald Trump is no stranger to caprice. Yesterday he hailed Narendra Modi as friend, tomorrow he strikes India with punitive tariffs upon Russian oil. Yesterday he clasped hands with Putin, tomorrow he lambasts Moscow’s war upon Ukraine. Trump’s compass is not a map of principle, but the shifting terrain of personal advantage. Pakistan, therefore, must guard its worth with vigilance, for history’s ledger records with ink that does not fade: America’s mood changes with the swiftness of the desert wind.
The relationship between Islamabad and Washington is like a caravan—at times journeying through verdant valleys, at others faltering in barren deserts. Today, the caravan stands at a turning point. The question is stark: can Pakistan preserve its sovereignty whilst balancing the weight of the great powers? Or shall this chapter, like so many before, be inscribed in the annals of fluctuating friendship and estrangement?
For this is not merely a chronicle of events, but a testimony to an age. Diplomacy today stands not as a paper promise but at a historical crossroads—where Pakistan is granted a new centrality, and where the world, at long last, dares to question Israel’s unbridled hand.
O people of Pakistan! Hearken to the testimony of history. This is the soil consecrated by the Kalima Tayyiba; this is the nation entrusted by Providence with the charge of bearing aloft the banner of Islam. Yet let us ask ourselves with candour: have we honoured that sacred trust? Or have we, in moments of weakness, abandoned our destiny to the chancelleries of Washington and the drawing rooms of Delhi?
Remember this well: nations are not kept alive by investments or treaties; they endure through faith, honour, and dignity. Should we preserve our self-respect, should we anchor ourselves in the eternal law of God, then no worldly power shall bend our will. But if we neglect the lessons of history, then upon us shall fall not liberty but the shackles of servitude.
Today, the relations between Pakistan and the United States stand at a critical crossroads. This is no mere trial of diplomacy; it is a trial of our very spirit and our collective soul. The choice is ours: shall we awaken to the call of khudi and rise as Iqbal’s falcons—or content ourselves with the crumbs scattered upon the tables of others?
إِن يَنصُرْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ فَلَا غَالِبَ لَكُمۡ
“If Allah helps you, none can overcome you.” (Qur’an 3:160)
But have we yet proved ourselves worthy of such divine succour? Or have we surrendered our sovereignty, parcel by parcel, to alien capitals?
Iqbal, that herald of selfhood, admonished us with words that echo through the ages:
؎ اگر ہو خودنگر و خودگر و خودگیر خودی
یہ بھی ممکن ہے کہ تو موت کو بھی زندہ کرے
Agar ho khud-nigar o khud-gar o khud-gīr khudi,
Yeh bhi mumkin hai ke tu maut ko bhi zinda kare.
If the self be self-regarding, self-creating, and self-possessing,
It may even breathe life into death itself.
Behold then, the hour of decision: whether we take wing as eagles of the mountain sky or languish as birds that peck at scraps from foreign banquets.
O Lord of all dominion! Thou alone dost change the hearts of peoples; Thou alone dost inscribe the destinies of empires. Our vessel is beset by storms—sometimes rocked by the gales from the East, sometimes driven by the tempests of the West. Grant us the wisdom without which power is but a castle of sand and endow us with the steadfastness lit by the lamp of faith.
O Allah! Shelter Pakistan in Thy grace. Save it from the chains of subjugation. Inspire its rulers with the courage to uphold Thy law and to exalt Thy word. Bestow upon us the discernment to know which friendship is true and which alliance is but deceit.
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذۡ هَدَيۡتَنَا وَهَبۡ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحۡمَةًۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلۡوَهَّابُ
“Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us, and grant us from Yourself mercy. Truly, You are the Bestower.” (Qur’an 3:8)
Thus does history summon us to choose dignity or submission, faith or forgetfulness, sovereignty or servitude. And the choice we make shall echo, not for a season, but for generations yet unborn.