‘You are a terrific guy,’ Trump tells PM Nawaz

In first telephone conversation, US president-elect praises Pakistanis and their premier

ISLAMABAD: Although it remains to be seen what shape Pakistan-US ties will take under the new US administration, the first-ever telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif suggests the US president-elect may prove to be Islamabad’s good friend.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Premier Sharif called Trump on Wednesday and felicitated him on his victory in the US presidential election.



Surprisingly, Trump was all praise for Sharif and Pakistan contrary to his pre-poll rhetoric and said that he felt like he had known the prime minister for a long time.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, you have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work which is visible in every way. I am looking forward to seeing you soon,” the Prime Minister’s Office quoted Trump as saying.

“As I am talking to you Prime Minister [Sharif], I feel I am talking to a person I have known for a long time,” the US president-elect said.

Trump praised Pakistan as an amazing country with tremendous opportunities and called Pakistanis “one of the most intelligent people”.



“Please convey to the Pakistani people that they are amazing … all Pakistanis I have known are exceptional people,” he told Premier Nawaz. On being invited to visit Pakistan by the prime minister, Trump said that he would “love to come to a fantastic country, a fantastic place of fantastic people.”

“I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems,” the president-elect continued.  “It will be an honour and I will personally do it. Feel free to call me any time even before 20th January that is before I assume my office.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2016.