Pakistan faces backlash at home over its support for Trump’s Gaza plan

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has joined seven other Muslim nations in backing U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan aimed at ending bloodshed there. However, the move has triggered sharp criticism from opposition and religious groups, raising concerns of political trouble for the government.

Trump on Monday announced a 20-point plan to bring an end to the war in Gaza.

“The ministers welcome the announcement by President Trump regarding his proposal to end the war,” said a joint statement issued by the foreign ministers of eight Islamic countries, including Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Pakistan, who met with Trump in New York last week.

“I welcome President Trump’s 20-point plan to ensure an end to the war in Gaza,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also said in a post on X.

Pakistan’s traditional stance on Palestine is that it does not recognize Israel and supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders, having East Jerusalem as its capital.

Wounded Palestinians receive treatment at Al-Shifa Hospital after being injured in an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Sept. 29.

Experts said that Pakistan, along with other Islamic countries, agreed to the new plan in order to end the bloodshed.

“Civilians, children, and elderly Palestinians are being killed brutally. So, the immediate goal is a ceasefire,” Farhan Hanif Siddiqui, a professor at the Karachi-based Institute of Business Administration, told Nikkei Asia. “The short-term goal is to end the violence now, and the long-term political issues can be addressed later,” he added.

Qamar Cheema, executive director of Sanober Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank, told Nikkei that “the Arabs and the U.S. considered it necessary to have Pakistan on the table for issues related to Palestine and the Middle East.” He also believes that the consensus of the countries was in line with Islamabad’s aims, as it “wants to take a collective approach to the Palestinian issue with other Arab and Muslim leaders,” he said.

The Pakistani government, however, is facing mounting domestic pressure which has arisen since the announcement to support Trump’s Gaza plan.

The country’s largest opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, is one of the vocal critics. “[PTI] expresses its deep concern over President Donald Trump’s recently announced Peace Plan about Gaza, which seeks to determine the future of Palestine without ensuring the free will and consent of the Palestinian people,” the party said in a statement.

Chief of right-wing political party JUI-F and influential Islamist leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman also rejected Trump’s plan, describing it as a blueprint for Israeli expansion rather than a path to Palestinian statehood.

Sabookh Syed, a political analyst based in Islamabad, believes that the opposition can mobilize support against the Gaza plan since it’s a very sensitive issue for people in Pakistan.

A man passes a Domino’s pizza outlet in Karachi, Pakistan, that was covered with sheets after it was vandalized during an anti-Israel protest in April.   © Reuters

“Since this issue is directly tied to public sentiment, the stance of Maulana Fazlur Rehman carries weight,” he told Nikkei. “If public pressure grows, the opposition could exploit it for its own political [goals], and Imran Khan could even take the lead on this issue,” Syed added.

Siddiqui from the IBA provides a different standpoint. “I do not think the opposition [in Pakistan] has the strength to push the government into reversing its position,” he said. “In Pakistan’s hybrid system, decisions like this usually reflect a consensus between the government and the military.”

Islamabad is also weighing the option of sending peacekeeping troops to Gaza.

“Indonesia has offered 20,000 troops for a peacekeeping force in Gaza. I am sure Pakistan’s leadership will also be deciding on this,” Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s foreign minister, told reporters on Tuesday.

“Pakistan is now already in a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, and if Arab nations request Pakistan to send troops, which can bring stability under UN cover, Pakistan will not hesitate to do that,” said Cheema from the Sanober Institute.

“Pakistan sending peacekeeping troops to Gaza will depend on how the government presents it. [It could be] seen as Pakistan contributing to a collective Muslim cause, or as bowing to the U.S. and Israeli pressure,” said Siddiqui.

“The bigger problem is that many in the Muslim world believe a stronger, united action should have been taken against Israel. But instead their governments appear to be giving in,” he added.

The article appeared in asia.nikkei