The Spat with Saudi Arabia: How Serious Is It?
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada
Don’t lend your ears to the likes of Shehbaz Sharif—principal votaries of the Saudis in Pakistan—when they beat their chests and shed crocodile tears as if Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi (SMQ) had committed sacrilege by calling a spade a spade on Saudi Arabia’s ongoing policy on Kashmir.
Shehbaz Sharif is from that cabal of Pakistani politicians enriched by their unscrupulous pandering to Saudi Arabia. They are beholden to their Saudi mentors and guardians for keeping them in the thick of Pakistani politics. In return, these shameless agents of KSA, would like the people of Pakistan to believe their twisted gospel that blind trust in whatever the besotted rulers of the Kingdom do is a cardinal pillar of faith in Islam.
What SMQ said in his August 5 interview with ARY—which went viral within hours—about the deliberate Saudi foot-dragging on Pakistan’s year-old request to call an emergency session of Foreign Ministers of OIC was a genuine cry from his heart. It wasn’t just a cry from SMQ’s heart but from the heart of every Pakistani dismayed by the unmistakable perfidy of the KSA—otherwise proudly flaunting their credentials of being guardians of the Holiest Shrines of Islam, in Makkah and Medina—in their blatant disregard of Pakistani and Kashmiri people’s sensitivities.
SMQ refusing to be constrained by what he himself described as ‘niceties’ of diplomacy has come like a breath of fresh air in a Pakistani foreign policy long subjected to blind kowtowing to Saudi Arabia and its leaders and rulers. Every ruler of Pakistan before Imran Khan’s ascent to the top seemed to believe it a touchstone of his faith that the Saudis couldn’t be wrong; or even if they were perceived to be wrong that didn’t need to be mentioned by anyone speaking on behalf of Pakistan. SMQ had the gall to put an end to that regime of imbeciles.
Blind subservience to the Saudis began under Ziaul Haq and continued with fervor under Nawaz Sharif, a protégé of his, who would spend years of his exile under their wings and upon his return to power put Pakistan’s relations with KSA on a pedestal that was untouchable. None could question Pakistan’s total surrender to Saudi whims in foreign policy, whether in the bilateral context or in the larger circle of the so-called Islamic Ummah. The Sharif-brand of exultation over KSA was almost cult-like.
That the Saudi monarchy has blatantly abused the fealty, out of religious sentiments, extended to it by the likes of Pakistan is a matter of record. The most glaring example of that is the total paralysis of OIC, the largest grouping of sovereign nations after UN, on issues, such as Palestine and Kashmir, that should be top priority on its agenda. But OIC, with its headquarters in Jeddah and much of its budget paid for by KSA has become a regrettable casualty to whims and fancies.
In more than one year since the fascist Modi regime in India snuffed out its Occupied Kashmir’s fig-leaf autonomy, on August 5, 2019, OIC hasn’t gone beyond issuing effete and cynical statements, from time to time, that deserve to be treated with contempt, as India has shown to them.
The infatuation with Modi’s India is at the back of why the Saudis wouldn’t let OIC play a meaningful role on the tragedy of the Kashmiri people.
Saudi Arabiahas been investing heavily in India, much more than $ 10 billion promised in investments to Pakistan (hardly any Saudi investment has so far found its way to Pakistan). A market-place savvy KSA has no stomach to displease Modi or question him on his brutal suppression of the Kashmiris’ rights in Indian-Occupied Kashmir. Instead, KSA, decorated Modi with its highest civilian award soon after his brazen assault on Kashmir.
Saudi apologists would argue that national interest is swaying KSA as much as it would any other ruler, in any other country. So be it. But the maxim also applies to Pakistan, whose national interest now demands that the shackles on its foreign policybe loosened.
Imran Khan may have, absolutely rightly, concluded that it was hopeless to expect OIC playing an active, much less dynamic, role on Kashmir. It’d be naïve for anyone to think that SMQ fired off that salvo of his toward the Saudis without clearing his move with IK. A disgruntled Pakistan has every right, and reason, to seek support among those willing and ready to extend it help on Kashmir. Turkey and Iran—the two luminaries, apart from Pakistan, of the galaxy of non-Arab Muslim states. They are both progressive. IK’s ‘New Pakistan’ has no reason to be tied down by senseless ties of subservience to non-progressives among the Islamic world.
That a peeved KSAhas reacted angrily to Pakistan’s daring is quite understandable. Demanding the reimbursement of a billion dollars out of the three billion loaned to Pakistan last year, underlines the pettiness of KSA. Suspending the supply of Saudi crude to Pakistan on deferred payment is another petulant and knee-jerk reaction. Pakistan should count its blessings that in a considerate China, Pakistan has a reliable neighbor and friend, willing and ready to bail it out of tight corners. Beijing extending a billion -dollar loan to Pakistan, to repay KSA, is a pointer that China is a friend, indeed.
It's crunch time for Pakistan and IK. Rushing General Qamar Bajwa to Riyadh on a fire-fighting mission was a smart diplomatic move.
The only way forward for IK is to work seriously for an alternative to Pakistan’s erstwhile and unproductive reliance. The way to Tehran and Ankara is wide open.
K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)
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