It almost sounds like a love story—except instead of handwritten notes exchanged between gushy teenagers, it involves a dour Field Marshal and a patently abrasive American President. The other protagonist in this cross-continental “romance” is Donald Trump—perhaps the last person one would expect to be penning hosannas or sonnets for anyone other than himself. Yet, that is precisely the tone he strikes when he refers to his “favourite Field Marshal,” alongside Pakistan’s Prime Minister, as “great people,” “extraordinary men,” and part of a “kind and competent leadership.”
Reciprocally, the usually unsmiling Field Marshal Asim Munir—who carries the emotional expressiveness of a sealed security dossier—is suddenly all diplomatic smiles and carefully calibrated warmth in the presence of Trump.
Like his ideological template General Zia-ul-Haq, Munir is a Hafeez-e-Quran (one who has memorised the Quran) and is not known for theatrical flourish or conversational exuberance. His public persona is more institutional than intimate, more briefing note than banter, more command post than conversation.
Even the United States’ number-two man, Vice President JD Vance, could not resist adding a touch of teasing ambiguity to the narrative. In a remark that was half light-hearted and half revealing, he noted: “An Indian and a Pakistani are the two most important people in my life.”
The “Indian” being his wife, and the “Pakistani” not the President, not the Prime Minister, and not even a rotating cricket captain—but the Five-Star Field Marshal of Pakistan’s ever-elusive “establishment,” believed to operate somewhere between Rawalpindi GHQ and a cloud of strategic ambiguity.