Pakistan’s military establishment is once again overplaying its hand. Field Marshal Asim Munir has floated an audacious $1.2 billion pitch to Washington: build a deep-water port at Pasni and a railway link into Pakistan’s mineral heartlands, according to a Financial Times report. The idea is to entice American investors with access to so-called “critical minerals” while quietly presenting Pasni as a counterweight to China’s Gwadar port.
On paper, it is a bold attempt to lure the US back into Pakistan’s orbit and hedge against overdependence on Beijing. In reality, it is a desperate gamble by a weakened regime that risks angering China, ignores Pakistan’s chronic instability, and exposes Islamabad’s habitual duplicity in playing both sides of global rivalries.
What Munir wants
Munir’s proposal, shared by his advisers with US officials ahead of his September White House meeting with Donald Trump, seeks three outcomes. First, it aims to convince Washington that Pasni could be a mineral gateway, particularly for copper and antimony, which have spiked in importance since China banned exports to the US. Second, the project is being framed as a counterbalance to Gwadar, where Washington fears China may eventually establish a naval base. Third, a US-backed rail link would integrate Pakistan into wider Central Asian trade routes, giving Islamabad leverage over regional connectivity.
A key detail, as reported by the Financial Times, is that Munir insists Pasni excludes “direct basing” for US forces. This is Pakistan’s way of signalling to China that Pasni would not be a military outpost, while still dangling access to Washington. One adviser even told the FT, “We don’t need to consult the Chinese as it’s outside the Gwadar concession,” a statement that reeks of opportunism and shortsightedness.
Why it could backfire
Munir’s manoeuvre is not without risks. Pakistan is deeply indebted to China, which has poured billions into the ambitious CPEC project. Offering Washington a rival port just 70 miles from Gwadar is bound to irritate Beijing, which sees Gwadar as a centrepiece of its Belt and Road Initiative. Unlike the US, China has already underwritten Pakistani infrastructure and provided critical weapons systems, including aircraft used in clashes with India. Pakistan cannot afford to alienate its only reliable patron.
Moreover, Islamabad’s track record is abysmal. The mineral sector contributes a paltry 3 percent to GDP, largely because insurgencies in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa disrupt extraction and logistics. Pakistan’s promise to deliver minerals to US companies is undercut by its inability to secure the regions where those resources lie. The token shipment of under two tonnes of copper, antimony, and neodymium to Missouri-based US Strategic Metals last month illustrates the gap between rhetoric and reality.
The bigger game
Munir’s gamble also reflects Pakistan’s insecurity after India’s Operation Sindoor demonstrated how vulnerable the country is to a naval blockade. With Karachi as its economic lifeline, Pakistan wants US presence on the ground in Balochistan to deter Indian strikes. But Washington will see through this ploy. As Moeed Pirzada mockingly suggested on X, Munir increasingly looks like an OLX salesman hawking ports and rocks, hoping someone will buy into Islamabad’s recycled promises.
Ultimately, Pakistan is attempting a dangerous split, much like Ajay Devgn’s famous motorcycle stunt. But unlike cinema, this balancing act may collapse. By trying to pit Washington against Beijing while depending on Chinese loans, Pakistan risks burning both bridges. This latest “reset” is not strategy. It is desperation dressed as diplomacy.
Should it concern New Delhi?
For India, the Pasni pitch is more than a bilateral US–Pakistan issue and may have direct strategic implications. If Washington entertains the idea, even symbolically, it could create a quasi-legitimacy for Pakistan’s mineral corridor in Balochistan, a province already wracked by insurgency and separatist demands. Any American foothold at Pasni, even civilian in nature, would alter the regional balance by giving Islamabad leverage in projecting itself as indispensable to both Washington and Beijing.
More importantly, Pasni lies barely 400 kilometres from India’s western seaboard, making it another potential node in the “string of pearls” dynamic New Delhi already monitors across the Indian Ocean. While Gwadar has long been in India’s crosshairs as a Chinese outpost, a US-backed Pasni port could complicate India’s maritime calculations by introducing another player into the mix. This is not just about Pakistan hedging bets; it is about New Delhi preparing for scenarios where Washington’s tactical opportunism undermines India’s long-term security interests.
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