KARACHI: Pakistan’s recent trade deal with the United States (US) is expected to bring huge investments to the South Asian country, Pakistani military sources said on Sunday, citing Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir who is on a visit to the US.

Field Marshal Munir has engaged with senior American military and political leadership during his ongoing visit, after years of strained relations mainly due to disagreements over counter‑terrorism issues.

Pakistan eyes greater collaboration with the US under President Donald Trump and both nations have appeared to be keen to rebuild their military and economic relationship in recent months.

On Sunday, the army chief met a group of overseas Pakistanis and spoke with them about his visits and a host of issues of national significance for Islamabad, according to Pakistani military sources.

“My second visit after a gap of just one and a half months marks a new dimension in Pakistan-US relations,” Field Marshal Munir was quoted as saying.

“The aim of these visits is to take the relationship on a constructive, sustainable and positive path. A possible trade deal with the US is expected to bring in huge investments.”

Both countries last month reached a trade deal according to which the US will charge a 19 percent tariff on imports from Pakistan, compared to a 29 percent reciprocal tariff announced in April that had raised alarm in Islamabad. Separately, President Trump has highlighted a partnership with Pakistan to develop the country’s oil reserves.

Field Marshal Munir said the implementation of various Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China was underway to promote economic cooperation and investment.

“Our progress and prosperity are linked to Pakistanis living around the world,” he said, adding the country’s 64 percent young population has immense potential to build a promising future of the country.

Under Trump’s renewed outreach, Washington has praised Pakistan’s leadership and reinstated military cooperation previously curtailed over Afghanistan-related concerns. Islamabad, in turn, seeks to balance its longstanding partnership with China, including arms supply and defense infrastructure, with growing engagement with the US.

Pakistan’s powerful military, which has ruled the country directly for nearly half of its history and holds sway in political matters even when not in power, plays a central role in shaping its foreign and security policies.

This is the Pakistani army chief’s second visit to the US since June, when Trump hosted him for an unprecedented lunch at the White House, signifying growing closeness between the two countries. Both leaders discussed the tensions in the Middle East, particularly the 12-day Iran-Israel military conflict.

During his ongoing visit, Field Marshal Munir also attended the retirement ceremony of outgoing United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander General Michael E. Kurilla and witnessed the handover of command to Admiral Brad Cooper in Tampa, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.

Munir lauded General Kurilla’s leadership and his contributions to strengthening bilateral military cooperation between Pakistan and the US. He extended his best wishes to Admiral Cooper, expressing confidence in continued collaboration to address shared security challenges. The Pakistani army chief also met US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine and discussed with him matters of professional interest.

“On the sidelines, COAS (chief of army staff) interacted with Chiefs of Defense from friendly nations,” the ISPR said on Sunday, without mentioning the names of the countries.

KARACHI: A leading rights group in Pakistan has said that seawater intrusion is triggering the collapse of villages and farmlands in the country’s shrinking Indus delta, urging the federal and Sindh provincial governments to launch environmental restoration projects in the region.

The downstream flow of water into the delta has decreased by 80 percent since the 1950s as a result of irrigation canals, hydropower dams and the impacts of climate change on glacial and snow melt, according to a 2018 study by the US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water.

That has led to devastating seawater intrusion. The salinity of the water has risen by around 70 percent since 1990, making it impossible to grow crops and severely affecting the shrimp and crab populations and forcing communities to abandon their parched island.

The Sindh Human Rights Defenders Network (SHRDN), which recently organized a visit of members of the civil society to the delta, described the delta situation as a “slow-motion disaster” and called for urgent national and international action to save its environment and inhabitants.

“Release of 25–27 MAF (million acre-feet) water annually into the Indus Delta to push back seawater intrusion and encroachment,” the rights group stated in a set of recommendations for authorities to address the issue.

“Expansion of mangrove plantations and environmental restoration projects, with independent audits to ensure benefits reach local communities.”

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced from the overall Indus delta region in the last two decades, according to a study published in March by the Jinnah Institute, a think tank led by a former Pakistani climate change minister Sherry Rehman.

To combat the degradation of the Indus River Basin, the government and the United Nations launched the ‘Living Indus Initiative’ in 2021. The Sindh government is currently running its own mangrove restoration project, aiming to revive forests that serve as a natural barrier against saltwater intrusion.

Chacha Ghani Katyar, a resident of Dandho Tar where the Indus meets the Arabian Sea, said the sea had swallowed “vast tracts of land” after upstream dams choked off the delta’s lifeline: the annual release of 25 MAF of freshwater promised under the 1991 Water Accord among Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.

Katyar called freshwater flows from recent floods “a guest that will soon leave.”

The SHRDN demanded federal and Sindh governments address the water flow issue to protect the delta’s ecology and livelihoods.