Daily Times

Saudi Arabia has provided $ 1.5 billion to the government of Pakistan. Apprehensions and misgivings are widespread over the ulterior motives behind this big sum of money. The Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan and the finance minister have stated to the opposition parties, the media and the nation that the money has been ‘gifted’ to Pakistan by Saudi Arabia without any terms and conditions. This is not a plausible explanation by the PML-N. This has never occurred in the history of Pakistan. The PML-N first tried hard not to divulge the name of the donor country but in this cyber age that attempt failed and it fuelled suspicions of ulterior objectives behind the move. Saudi Arabia has been frustrated by the US’s inclination to support dialogue between the rebels and the Assad government for a resolution of the Syrian civil war. Saudi Arabia has criticised the international community for not arming anti-Assad regime rebels. Saudi Arabia wants an end to the regime in Syria at every cost. It knows well that if Bashar al-Assad is not removed, Shia resistance in the Middle East will continue and its dreams of being the sole powerful player in the affairs of the Middle East will remain unfulfilled. To turn its dreams into a reality, Saudi Arabia has turned to Pakistan. The talk about town is that Saudi Arabia needs Islamabad’s support for anti-Assad forces in Syria. The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia visited Pakistan in January. The crown prince came to Islamabad in February. The King of Bahrain paid a visit this month. All these dramatic visits paint the picture that Saudi Arabia needs men and arms from Pakistan.

Pakistan has already suffered enormously for interfering in the affairs of others. It has done so twice. The then president Ziaul Haq dragged Pakistan into the Afghanistan war in the 1980s. This made the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan the permanent abode of freedom fighters and, nowadays, terrorists. Ex-president Pervez Musharraf repeated Zia’s acts and involved Pakistan’s army in a US-led war on terror to crush those fighters once called freedom fighters during the Zia regime. The war on terror has proved costly for Pakistan. Islamabad has lost its economy, peace, cricket and tarnished its international image as well. Pakistan cannot afford to step for the third time in history into the affairs of another country — the conflict in Syria.

There is very disturbing news too that ‘al Qaeda militants seek a Syria base, US officials say’ (The New York Times, March 25, 2014), which reads: “Dozens of seasoned militant fighters, including some mid-level planners, have travelled to Syria from Pakistan in recent months in what American intelligence and counterterrorism officials fear is an effort to lay the foundation for future strikes against Europe and the United States…The Qaeda veterans have multiple missions and motivations, counterterrorism officials say. Like thousands of other foreign fighters, many have been drawn on their own to Syria to fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad.” Pakistan’s involvement or any indirect role in the Syrian conflict will turn sour the relations between Pakistan and its neighbouring country, Iran. It will shelve the already long delayed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. Pakistan faces a severe energy shortage and the supply of gas from Iran will play a pivotal role in reducing it. The US and Saudi pressure on Pakistan is huge in that both do not want Pakistan to purchase gas from Iran. Pakistan must pursue its own national interests. It has made a pact with Iran for the gas purchase so it must live up to its pact.

Relations between Pakistan and India have always been strained. This has always compelled Islamabad to make a huge budgetary allocation to the defence sector. In the last budget, there was over Rs 600 billion for defence — around 18 percent of the total budget. Sour relations with another neighbouring country, Iran, will have unbearable impacts on Pakistan in terms of defence budgetary allocation. All the efforts of Iran are directed in Syria towards saving the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and any anti-Assad regime move by Pakistan will surely prove the final straw in relations between Islamabad and Tehran. Pakistan is being blamed internationally by those who say that its foreign policy is for sale and that it is a rentable state. There should not be any compromise on our foreign policy and national interests. The PML-N government must clearly reveal the real Saudi intentions behind provision of the money to dispel the wrong perceptions being circulated in different national and international circles that Pakistan received the money to arm anti-Assad rebels and send armed men to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to topple the Assad regime. There is a strong suspicion that a secret cauldron is boiling in Pakistan regarding the fate of Syria. We must learn a lesson from the past two blunders made by Zia and Musharraf. Pakistan should not be part of a third blunder, which will make for the mother of all blunders.

The writer is a blogger and freelance columnist