Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif's long wait for Trump dubbed as 'welcomed on red carpet' in Islamabad

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir meet US President Donald Trump at the White House. This meeting was scheduled on the sidelines of the UNGA. The ‘great leaders’ that Trump lauded had to wait for an hour. “We have a great leader coming, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Field Marshal. Field Marshal is a very great guy, and so is the Prime Minister, both, and they're coming, and they may be in this room right now. I don't know, because we're late,” the 79-year-old said.

After declaring they are running late for the meeting, the White House also completely missed acknowledging this engagement. But the president’s interaction with the Turkish president featured on their social media in which Trump expressed, "It's a pleasure to be with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, and we've been friends for a long time... We do a lot of trade with Turkey, and we're going to continue... We're going to get a lot done.”

Welcomed on the red carpet, says Pakistan

Back in Pakistan, the government says the leaders received a red carpet welcome. The government’s X handle posted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has arrived in Washington DC, accompanied by the Pakistani delegation to meet with US President Donald Trump. Upon arrival at Andrews Air Base, the Prime Minister was welcomed on the red carpet by a senior US Air Force official. The Prime Minister's motorcade departed from the airbase under tight American security.

While pictures speak a different story, according to news agency AFP, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was seen waiting as US President Donald Trump was finishing the signing of executive orders ahead of their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif Photograph: (Credits: AFP)