 "Pakistan army for sale? Did Asim Munir demand $10,000 a soldier from Israel for peacekeeping in Gaza?")
What would you say if you found out that your country’s army had decided a soldier’s worth monetarily? Would you be shocked or angry?
That’s what has reportedly happened in Pakistan with a well-known journalist claiming that Islamabad demanded for $10,000 per soldier from Israel for sending their troops to Gaza, as part the of the Gaza peacekeeping force.
Here’s all that we know so far.
Pakistani troops to be part of Gaza peacekeeping force
When US President Donald Trump presented his 20-point peace proposal for Gaza, one of the salient features of the plan was the formation of a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) which would be deployed to Gaza immediately. As per Trump’s plan, the ISF would train and support vetted Palestinian police forces. It would work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces and prevent munitions from entering Gaza and facilitate the rapid and secure flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza.
It was also decided that the ISF would be formed with its Arab and other international partners with no American troops on the ground in Gaza.
Among those who extended their support to this peacekeeping force was Pakistan. Late October, after much confusion and back and forth, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the country’s troops would be sent to Gaza as part of the proposed peacekeeping force. “If Pakistan has to participate in it, then I think it will be a matter of pride for us. We will be proud to do it,” he told Geo News.
And based on reports, Pakistan would be sending 20,000 soldiers to the Gaza Strip under the deal. This move came after Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir held secret meetings with senior officials from Israel’s Mossad and America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as per a News18 report.
In their discussions, it emerged that in Gaza, Pakistani soldiers would “neutralise remaining Hamas elements and stabilise the territory under Western instructions”. Sources further told News18 that the arrangement involves a “controlled Pakistani military presence in Gaza" under the guise of humanitarian rehabilitation and reconstruction, but the real mandate would involve neutralising Hamas and maintaining a buffer zone between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.
This mark Pakistan’s first indirect engagement in Israeli security operations, and would be especially significant as Islamabad doesn’t recognise Israel. Many defence and geopolitical experts even called it a “historic and unprecedented realignment” for Pakistan and West Asia.
Pakistan’s $10,000 a soldier demand
However, eyebrows have been raised within Pakistani circles over a post by a veteran journalist. Asma Shirazi, who is a well-known and senior journalist, has claimed that Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir demanded $10,000 (Rs 8.86 lakh) per soldier for deploying Pakistani troops to Gaza. Israel, however, denied these demands, reportedly offering a mere $100 (Rs 8,860) per soldier.
If Shirazi’s post is to be believed, then it exposes Islamabad’s transactional approach to international crises. Moreover, it lays bare the truth of Pakistan’s so-called image of being the ‘defender of Muslim causes’ around the world.
Munir’s demand of an exorbitant $10,000 per soldier — that’s $200,000,000 in total — is also directly contradictory of its ‘solidarity’ stance with the people of Palestinian. It also casts a shadow on Pakistan’s credibility as well as raises doubts if Pakistan’s military is motivated by profit rather than peace.
Pakistan’s renter army
However, many note that it’s not totally unbelievable to imagine Pakistan demanding money from Israel for its troops. That’s because the country has a history of being a ‘renter army; available to a generous bidder.
In the past, Pakistan has collected billions of dollars from the United States for deploying soldiers in the fight against the Taliban in the two American wars in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has also long been Saudi Arabia’s outsourced muscle. The Kingdom has earlier deployed Pakistan’s forces as its proxies in regional conflicts and internal uprising management. This can be traced back to as far as 1979 when militants seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. At the time, Riyadh turned to Pakistan and Islamabad deployed its commandos to help reclaim the mosque from Juhayman al-Utaybi and his militants. Following the incident, Saudi Arabia reportedly paid back Pakistan in the form of financial aid and oil supplies.
And as recently as 2022, Pakistan army soldiers were even deployed for the Fifa World Cup 2022 in Qatar. The timing of this move coincided with the news that the country would receive $2 billion from Doha in bilateral support to help ease its funding crunch and the consequent risk of default, which prompted many to believe that it was a quid pro quo move by Islamabad to deploy its troops for the global sporting event.
However, many Pakistanis were left angry at the development with some questioning on social media if their army was “on loan” “on rent” or “for sale” to another country.
As Shekhar Gupta writes in The Print, “The Pakistani military and strategic capital has always been available for rent, whether for cash, kind (from the Middle-East Arabs) or strategic and economic benefit, as with the US.”
With inputs from agencies
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