&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Pakistan Army chief or shopkeeper? Asim Munir ridiculed for rare earth minerals photo-op with Trump. Watch")
Pakistan’s Army chief, General Asim Munir, has become the recipient of intense domestic criticism for presenting rare earth minerals to US President Donald Trump 'like a salesman,' during a White House visit. The move, which came to light through a photo-op, has sparked questions about the military’s role in diplomacy. In a video that is now going viral, Pakistani Senator Aimal Wali Khan mocked the optics of Munir carrying a briefcase with minerals, commenting, "Our Chief of Army Staff is roaming around with a briefcase containing rare earth minerals. What a joke! It was absolute mockery".
Pakistan's rare earth minerals
This comes as earlier this week, the White House released a photo of Munir showing Trump a wooden box full of rare earth minerals, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif looked on. The presentation followed a closed-door meeting between Pakistani leaders and Trump, and coincided with a memorandum of understanding between Pakistan’s Frontier Works Organisation, a military engineering firm, and US Strategic Metals to explore strategic minerals in Pakistan for defence and technology purposes.
This visit marked Munir’s third trip to the US in five months, highlighting the Pakistani military’s growing engagement with Washington—a trend that has drawn unease among civilian leaders and lawmakers.
Army chief or shopkeeper?
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Senator Khan questioned Munir’s authority to carry out such diplomatic initiatives, likening the scene to “a shopkeeper showing off expensive merchandise while a manager watches happily.”
"Which Chief of the Army Staff would go around carrying a briefcase with rare earth minerals? It looked like a big, branded store – a manager watching on happily as a shopkeeper tells a customer to purchase a big, glittery thing from him," asked Khan, the head of Pakistan's Awami National Party.
He called it a “contempt of Parliament” and a departure from democratic norms. “Which Chief of the Army Staff would go around carrying a briefcase with rare earth minerals? It looked like a big, branded store – a manager watching on happily as a shopkeeper tells a customer to purchase a big, glittery thing from him,,” Khan said.
A video of Pakistani Senator Aimal Wali Khan's statement is going viral on social media. Watch it here:
Khan also stressed that such actions undermine the authority of the elected government and resemble authoritarian practices. "In what capacity? Under which law? This is dictatorship. I am sorry to say this is not democracy... Is this not contempt of Parliament?"
He then demanded a joint session of Parliament to explain Munir’s diplomatic engagements, including details on the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia defence deal, Pakistan’s support for Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace proposal, and other meetings with US officials.
