Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shebaz Sharif, had a humiliating experience at US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on Thursday.
The inaugural meeting of the board, which convened members from over 40 countries, saw Pakistan’s lack of presence at the gathering.
The side lining was most prominent when the prime minister was denied a centre position in the official group photo.
Trump took centre stage flanked by Vice President J D Vance and Secretary of state Marco Rubio. Behind him were leaders from Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Qatar. PM Sharif, meanwhile, was placed in the corner.
In another awkward moment, Trump asked Shehbaz Sharif to stand up mid-speech while taking full credit for the India-Pakistan peace. “Pakistan and India, that was a big one. Pakistan and India, thank you very much. I spoke to Prime Minister Modi. He’s excited. He’s watching us right now.” Trump said.
Earlier, Trump had praised Sharif, saying, “I like this guy.’’
“Prime Minister Sharif, I like this man. There was some firing going on when I got to know him, and your Field Marshal Asim Munir, he is a great guy. He said in front of our Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, he said: ‘Do you know nobody knows but I believe that President Trump saved 25 million lives when he stopped the war between us and India, ” he said.
Sharif was also trolled on social media for calling Trump a “man of peace” and the “saviour of South Asia” and crediting him for securing a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
“Your timely and very effective intervention to achieve a ceasefire between India and Pakistan potentially averted the loss of tens of millions of people,” Sharif said. “You have truly proved to be a man of peace. And let me say you are truly a saviour of South Asia,” he said at the event.
India has been consistently denying that Trump had any role in facilitating a ceasefire between the countries during their military standoff.
One point of discomfort for the Pakistani leader seemed to have been the country’s hesitation to commit to deploying thousands of personnel to an international stabilising and police force for Gaza according to a source who spoke to News18.
