The Yemeni Puzzle of Pakistan 
By Karamatullah K. Ghori  
Toronto, Canada

Yemen has had the fame, since antiquity, for its Lal-e-Yemeni, the precious rubies coveted by princes and damsels alike.

However, for the Nawaz government in Pakistan Yemen has become a hot potato because of the shenanigans of our Saudi ‘brothers.’ How earnestly Nawaz may muse that he didn’t have to handle this gratuitous hot potato gift of his ‘brothers’ in his hands.

The Holy Qur’an narrates to its followers the episode of the Yemeni King Abraha who wanted to sack the House of Allah, the Holy Kabaa in Mecca, few years before the birth of our Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Allah destroyed the elephants of that besotted invader by despatching little birds with pebbles in their beaks to check the advance of the aggressor. That, perhaps, was the first-ever aerial defence of a military target in the recorded history of mankind.

But what an irony it is that in this 21 st century, Yemen is being pummeled from the air by the besotted rulers of Saudi Arabia who claim to be keepers and custodians of the Holy Kaaba. History, indeed, is repeating itself, but in completely reverse order.

The Saudis had no business invading a hapless—and aerially defenceless—Yemeni people from the air. It’s as much an act of bloated hubris as was Abraha’s invasion of the land where the House of God was located.

But the age of miracles has long since come to an end. So, it’s inconceivable that there would be any squadrons of miracle birds coming to the aid of the beleaguered Yemenis and blasting the Saudi fighters and bombers off the Yemeni air space.

However, the irony of ironies is that it’s the modern-day Abrahas who are seeking the help of their friends, ‘brothers’ and allies to beef up their invasion with their armies and arms so they may heap more misery on the poor Yemenis . Pakistan is one ‘brotherly’ state the Saudis desperately covet to rope into their corner.

The dilemma of Nawaz couldn’t be greater—and saying so is undoubtedly an under-statement. The request for assistance came from a ‘brother’ who has done so much for Pakistan, on so many occasions, and has been munificent with its donations in cash and in kind. Saying no to it couldn’t be anything but fraught with ‘consequences.’

Nawaz’ votaries—all overtly charitable to him—are giving him credit for handling the hot potato with incredible finesse. His move to throw the ball into the court of the parliament, they say, was the stroke of a genius. Let the collective intelligence and genius of both houses of the parliament decide how to handle the hot potato. Why should Nawaz, alone, or together with his kitchen cabinet—made up, mostly, of buffoons and knaves—take the rap for turning down the Saudi request. If it should be a ‘nay’ vote, let the entire legislature own it, collectively.

None may argue that getting the parliament—and with it every segment of Pakistan’s political culture—involved into the debate was a brilliant move. The votaries, once again, have been pumping their fists into the air that Nawaz knows the Saudi rulers better than anybody else. And why shouldn’t he? After all he spent seven long years of his forced exile in their august company and the least he could do by way of self-education was to plumb the minds of his royal hosts.

That the gamble, if at all it was one, to lob the ball into the parliament paid off, richly, is also beyond debate. Nawaz didn’t need to be a sage or a wizard to know, in advance, how the parliament would react. The main political parties and their principal movers and shakers had been articulating with gusto, from day one of the Yemeni crisis that it wasn’t Pakistan’s baby—not by any stretch—and going out on a limb would be a venture of fools.

But now that the parliament has spoken with one voice and with a rare expression of unanimity, Nawaz’ Arab friends are understandably upset. Some of them, like the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs—one Dr. Anwar Gargash, have actually been frothing at their mouth and hurling ill-disguised threats of ‘serious consequences’ for Pakistan.

I’d never heard the name, Gargash, in the UAE context, nor had any knowledgeable friend of mine. So I googled and learned that he’s Western-educated—highly educated; really? My surprise centered on what I’ve been taught since my childhood: cultured and sophisticated people don’t hurl crude and uncivilised threats at others.

But, then, being Western-educated and being cultured are two different things—especially so when you’re up against one steeped in the Bedouin culture. I’ve known hundreds of Western-educated Arabs—some very eminent people—who, in their cultural and social mores are as Bedouin as the one who never travelled beyond the desert.

Our own Western-educated feudal lords and their progeny are no improvement, either. Peel off the glitz and sheen of their Western education—in any testing time—and out comes a typical bully: hard on the poor and mellow before the powerful.

That’s exactly how the Western-educated Bedouins of the Gulf are—bullies. You should see them before their Western mentors and ‘allies.’ They would be obsequious to a fault. But when it comes to a poor South Asian they are pharaohs reincarnate.

It doesn’t matter that the South Asian before them has a high station in life. They are all Miskeens—penniless serfs out to steal from their oil wealth and their heaps of petro-dollars. The memories of the slave trade—in which Arabs from the Gulf wallowed—are still clouding their behaviour. South Asians are as good as slaves---and slaves aren’t supposed to say no when given a command.

That explains the fury and anger of our rich Arab ‘brothers.’ How dare the Pakistani Miskeens say no to the command to despatch forces, pronto, so the Saudis may take the back seat—rest and enjoy their Arabian coffee—and let their Pakistani minions do the fighting.

Of course we should be prepared for some negative fallout of our decision to not meddle into the Yemeni crisis. Our peeved Arab ‘brothers’ may send some of our workers home as an expression of their unhappiness with our ‘neutrality.’  That’s a price we should be prepared to pay for our sense of honour and national dignity.

But those mealy-mouthed Pakistani ‘experts’, with some of them claiming oracular wisdom, painting doomsday scenarios of hordes of Pakistani workers trekking home-ward are just being Cassandras. They are, in fact, being the devil’s advocates desperately trying to scare the people and leaders of Pakistan. We aren’t, after all, a banana republic, and Arabs—bullies et al—know it as well as our Jeremiahs.

Those Arab policy makers who have the faculty to think beyond their blinding egos can see that the unanimous resolution of the Pakistani parliament still has a lot favouring them. All is not lost.

The resolution, intentionally or inadvertently, still leaves a lot of initiative in the hands of the government to rally to Saudi Arabia’s support—by all means, as it says between the lines—if there’s any threat or violation of the Saudi territorial integrity.

This, seemingly innocuous, caveat gives a long handle to the Saudis to ‘engineer’ a situation forcing their Pakistani ‘brothers’ to live up to their pledge of defending the Saudi soil to the last man.

The 20 th century was replete with examples of overly-ambitious rulers indulging in special architecture to spawn situations that paved the way for their assuming dictatorial powers. Hitler with the burning of the Reichstag, in 1933, made sure no trace of opposition to his fascist power was left intact. Lyndon Johnson did the same with his engineered bombing of the Gulf of Tonkin, in 1964, that allowed US to go marching into Vietnam.

The hapless Houthis of Yemen may not have an answer to the Saudi carpet-bombing of their land, or wanton destruction of the socio-economic infrastructure of Yemen in what could only be called scorched-earth vengeance. But if ever they got the chance to regroup, they could turn the screws on their nemesis by venturing into the Saudi lands contiguous with Yemen.

Even if the Houthis don’t do it, the Saudis and their ‘friends’ plying them with logistics and up to date intelligence about the ‘enemy’ could engineer a situation to force Pakistan to make good on its commitment. It’s a probability that’s very much there, on the cards.

That would be, well and truly, the pay-back time for Nawaz, and more than him for the military brass supposedly taking its cue from the government.

For the moment, however, and till that ‘situation’ isn’t engineered or spawned, let Dr, Gargash stew in the broth stirred by the outpouring of his bile. It stinks.

K_K_ghori@hotmail.com