By Ariba Shahid
ISLAMABAD, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Pakistan's leaders spent two years courting US President Donald Trump, but after the Democrats' win in Tuesday's congressional vote, they are preparing for scrutiny of their access to the White House.
Ordinary Pakistanis see the result differently. Many hope the shift in Washington will ease a cost-of-living crisis intensified by the US-Israel war on Iran.
Residents interviewed by Reuters after the vote said they hoped a change in DC would soon be felt in this
import-reliant South Asian nation of more than 240 million people, where war-inflated oil prices weigh on most households.
"We believe meaningful negotiations with the current US administration are not possible, and the ongoing bloodshed will not end until there is a change in [the US] government," Karachi resident Sajjad Ali said.
"We want peace, economic improvement and a reduction in the rising oil prices."
Asim Zafar, also from Karachi, said he hoped the results would rein in Trump. "It could bring changes in important policies and perhaps help prevent some of the injustices being committed against Muslim countries," he said.
But for Pakistan's government and powerful military leadership, analysts say, the outcome is far more worrying.
Pakistan's courtship of Trump, capped by its mediation in the Iran war, earned it a close relationship with his administration. That access has yet to deliver clear economic gains, and congressional scrutiny of Islamabad's dealings with Trump's inner circle now threatens the rewards its leaders hoped would follow.
A BET ON ONE MAN
The courtship began early in Trump's second term, with army chief Asim Munir -- who Trump has repeatedly described as his “favourite field marshal” -- as Islamabad's main channel to the White House.
Their June 2025 lunch took place unusually without Pakistani civilian officials present, which put the military at the centre of the rapprochement.
According to Pakistan's military, their talks went beyond security to cooperation in mining, energy and cryptocurrency.
Pakistan then joined Trump’s Board of Peace and nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, crediting him with helping end its May 2025 conflict with India. New Delhi denies US mediation halted hostilities.
Earlier this year, Iran mediation gave the courtship strategic substance: Islamabad relayed messages and hosted April talks between the US and Iran, but the eventual Islamabad Agreement quickly faltered.
For consumers, Pakistan's rising diplomatic influence has offered little protection from the war's costs while the payoff for the state has also been thin. The US Export-Import Bank approved $1.25 billion for Pakistan's Reko Diq copper and gold project in December 2025. But Pakistan's signature $10 billion request for a US Treasury facility remains unanswered.
DEALS UNDER SCRUTINY
Pakistan's outreach, public and private, now carries political risk because several arrangements involve Trump's family or close associates.
Islamabad has signed memoranda to explore payments in USD1, a stablecoin issued by the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial. At the signing in January, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said innovation should be “aligned with regulation, stability, and national interest.”
It has also signed another memorandum to redevelop Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel, a deal negotiated by envoy Steve Witkoff, and placed a limited drone order with Powerus, whose investors include Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric.
"There are no conflicts of interest," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters in September, when asked about Powerus.
Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington and senior fellow at the Abu Dhabi-based Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, said Pakistan's leaders had "built a transactional relationship" with Trump's team. Some arrangements involving the president's friends and relatives "might not last," he said. "Pakistan seems totally unprepared for that scrutiny."
Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, warned that investigations could taint the wider relationship if dealings appeared driven by private interests.
From Pakistan’s perspective, there may still be cards left to play, analysts said.
The Atlantic Council’s Michael Kugelman said Pakistan’s counterterrorism cooperation and Iran diplomacy enjoyed bipartisan support, and Democrats would be more likely to blame problematic deals on Trump than on Pakistan.
But “the risk for Pakistan is that it put so many of its diplomatic eggs in the White House basket that it won’t have anything left for the Democrats,” Kugelman said.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid; Editing by Rick Noack and Saad Sayeed)
