Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, congratulated the US president-elect Donald Trump on his decisive victory in the US elections on X, the social media platform banned in Pakistan. To put things into context, a community note pointed out that Prime Minister Sharif used a VPN to access X to congratulate Trump.

“I look forward to working closely with the new administration to further strengthen and expand the Pakistan-US partnership,” Prime Minister Sharif wrote in a message on Twitter.

Earlier this year, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced ban on social media platformciting national security concerns. Tarar claimed that terrorists belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were using the platform to spread their anti-national activities.

However, without lifting the ban, Prime Minister Sharif’s post on X attracted criticism from the social media community.

One of the users wrote: “If hypocrisy had a human face, it would be Shehbaz Sharif. »

Another user, while tagging Elon Musk, wrote, “Mr. Trump, this prankster is using a VPN to congratulate you… By the way, Elon Musk’s plaque form has been banned in Pakistan!!!”

PAKISTAN CALLS US “OLD FRIENDS”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan and the United States were “old friends and partners,” while emphasizing that a second Trump term would not would have no impact on Islamabad’s relations with China.

“Our relations with the United States date back decades and we look forward to further strengthening and expanding Pakistan-US relations in all areas,” Baloch was quoted as saying by PTI news agency in his report.

Asked about the impact of Trump’s second term as US president on Pakistan-China relations, she said Islamabad’s relationship with Beijing is “an ironclad, strategic and stabilizing force” in the country’s foreign policy.

“This relationship is not affected by developments in the world. So we don’t even need to consider the possibility of this relationship being affected by any domestic development in another country,” she said.