 "Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir")
When Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s all-powerful army chief, took charge in late 2022, he inherited a nation teetering on economic collapse and political chaos.
Nearly three years later, despite high-profile diplomatic breakthroughs — including an unlikely “bromance” with US President Donald Trump — Pakistan’s economic and social landscape remains bleak.
According to a Financial Times report, Munir has emerged as the central figure in Pakistan’s power structure, commanding influence far beyond the military’s traditional domain.
Yet while his international stature rises, the domestic picture tells a story of a country struggling with deepening poverty, vanishing investment, and a stagnant economy that has failed to deliver for most of its 250 million citizens, added the report.
Diplomatic revival masks domestic crisis
According to the report, Pakistan, once isolated and debt-ridden, has returned to global attention under Munir’s leadership.
His meetings with Trump, Xi Jinping, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have restored Islamabad’s visibility on the international stage. A smiling Munir, in a widely circulated Oval Office photo, presented Trump with samples of Pakistan’s critical minerals — an image designed to symbolise Pakistan’s economic promise.
Yet for many Pakistanis, such imagery contrasts sharply with daily reality. Inflation remains punishingly high, foreign direct investment has dwindled, and joblessness has soared. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lifeline that kept Pakistan afloat came with severe austerity measures, driving millions below the poverty line. Economists say the military-led establishment, despite its control, has failed to create a coherent development strategy.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Munir may have won Trump’s attention, but he hasn’t won the confidence of investors or the people,” says a Lahore-based economist who requested anonymity. “The economy is still built on loans, remittances, and hope.”
Militarised economy with civilian consequences
The FT notes that Pakistan’s army, which has ruled directly or indirectly for most of the country’s history, is now more entrenched in the economy than ever before. Munir’s administration — described by supporters as a “hybrid system” — has consolidated power across civil, judicial, and economic institutions.
Courts, once a limited check on executive overreach, are increasingly pliant; dissenting journalists face censorship or exile; and political opposition, especially from former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been crushed.
This consolidation has coincided with a widening gulf between elite power and public suffering. Despite promises of reform and efficiency, military-run conglomerates dominate sectors from construction to agriculture, crowding out private enterprise. The army’s economic footprint — long justified as “nation-building” — has, critics argue, become an obstacle to genuine market reform.
“Munir models himself on Mohammed bin Salman or South Korea’s Park Chung-hee,” the Financial Times quoted one insider as saying, referring to leaders who combined authoritarian control with economic modernization.
“But Pakistan lacks the institutions and discipline that made their models work.”
Poverty rising, investment falling
For ordinary Pakistanis, the gap between rhetoric and reality is widening. Official statistics show poverty rates above 40 percent, while youth unemployment exceeds 30 percent. The country’s manufacturing base continues to shrink, with textile exports — once Pakistan’s lifeline — falling due to chronic energy shortages and lack of competitiveness.
Despite talk of attracting US investors to exploit Pakistan’s copper and rare-earth deposits, the FT noted that few tangible deals have materialised. The proposed development of the Pasni port, envisioned as a logistics hub for US mineral shipments, caused a domestic firestorm. Many saw it as a geopolitical gamble that could alienate China, Pakistan’s largest creditor and investor under the Belt and Road Initiative.
“Pakistan’s leaders talk of minerals, but ignore the mines of human poverty all around them,” says Mehmood Achakzai, an opposition parliamentarian quoted by the FT. “Without democracy, a free press, and an independent judiciary, there can be no true progress.”
Foreign policy wins, domestic strains
Munir’s global charm offensive has indeed won applause abroad. Washington views his crackdown on militant groups favorably, while Beijing and Riyadh see him as a stable interlocutor. Pakistan has also tried to balance its competing alliances — deep economic ties with China, security cooperation with the US, and religious-political links with the Gulf states.
Yet these diplomatic overtures have done little to ease domestic instability. Two insurgencies — in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — continue to sap military and economic resources.
Relations with the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan have deteriorated, with cross-border attacks at their highest level in a decade.
The FT reported that Pakistan’s army has responded with force, including ordering 1.4 million Afghan refugees to leave the country — a move that drew international criticism.
Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the military’s spokesperson, defended the stance bluntly: “If you nurture snakes in your backyard, they will bite you.”
Repression and risk of rebellion
Munir’s assertive rule has left Pakistan’s political class subdued but restless. The incarceration of Imran Khan and hundreds of PTI members has silenced formal opposition, yet discontent simmers among urban youth and civil society groups. Political analysts warn that the combination of economic despair and political repression could ignite widespread unrest.
“The field marshal has control — for now,” said a Karachi-based political scientist. “But control is not legitimacy. You cannot govern indefinitely through fear and photo-ops.”
Indeed, the FT quoted veteran analyst Mushahid Hussain Syed as observing that the military’s power has “outlasted its credibility.”
For every billboard in Lahore showing Trump, Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif under the slogan ‘United for Pakistan’, there are millions of citizens wondering when unity will translate into prosperity.
The geopolitical illusion of progress
While Pakistan’s leaders celebrate diplomatic revival, the underlying economic fundamentals remain perilous. Public debt exceeds 70 per cent of GDP, and foreign reserves are barely enough for two months of imports. The country’s reliance on external financing — from the IMF, China, and Gulf allies — has deepened its vulnerability to global shifts.
Even the supposed mineral wealth that Munir showcased in Washington is far from being monetized. Analysts note that without political stability, regulatory reforms, and infrastructure investment, no serious investor will commit billions to Pakistan’s volatile market.
The Financial Times observed that Pakistan’s leadership is trying to present a new narrative — one of revival and global respect — but it rests on fragile foundations.
For a population battered by inflation, unemployment, and shrinking freedoms, international applause offers little relief.
Nation waiting for real change
As Munir prepares for what could be a decade-long tenure, his challenge is no longer diplomatic recognition — it is domestic redemption. The question facing Pakistan is whether a centralized, military-led system can deliver economic transformation where civilian governments failed.
For now, the signs are grim. The economy remains stagnant, corruption endemic, and the social fabric frayed. Even the Financial Times, which chronicled Munir’s global rise, concluded that Pakistan “has started to regain its rightful place in the comity of nations” — but only on the world stage.
At home, it remains a country adrift: a nuclear power where millions go hungry, an aspiring hub for minerals where factories lie idle, and a proud nation where power is absolute but prosperity elusive.
With inputs from agencies