Daily Times

Underground lava was collecting since ages. The oppressive state control kept it under the lid. Anyone who tried to disrupt the Bedouin pecking order was silenced. Sectarian minorities had no rights, women were no more than chattels and lucky ones either rotted as wives of the royalty producing blue bloodied kids or were no better than slaves. By all standards a super power in oil, it had mountains of wealth that for decades was squandered in fun and frolic, at the Rolette tables in casino in millions by the hour.

Notwithstanding claims of enlightened despotism and divine right as the concepts for their writ, there was not much of enlightenment or Islamic social justice and welfare system of the yore. Their money had silenced the voice of the poor on payment of unemployment dole outs. Mighty and the rich squandered money, outliving the most prodigal, sucking in from the money meant for the poor. Signs of economic meltdown are scary. Massive retrenchment of expatriate workers-  closing down of businesses, galloping unemployment, slashing of salaries, drastic cuts in funding of social welfare schemes  —  are manifestations of internal disorder, collapse and sure signs of impending implosion — possibly of civil war.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Death of King Abdullah proved to be a catalyst. His successor nominated by him was bypassed in favour of present King Salman in violation of the pecking order. The new King immediately after his accession started unraveling his scheme of things to re-establish Sudairi hold on absolute power in the Kingdom. King’s nomination of his son Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS) — bypassing others as Crown Prince seems to have put the last nail. No doubt 32-year old Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is reputed to be no non-sense man. One has not heard stories of any extravaganza about him, nor have there been any tales of Arabian nights. And the good news is he is modern and he wants “to revert back” to moderate Islam, perhaps as humane as it was in its initial days.

MBS’ blitzkrieg action within hours of the appointment of Anti-Corruption Committee leading to crackdown against the corrupt — whether princes or the rich, well connected and with enormous power of the wealth suspected to have been collected or earned by means other than legitimate — definitely is earthshaking, causing ripples internationally, the on-goings so far heard apparently mean domestic clean sweeping of the Augean stables, to outsiders it is much more than meets the eye. An over ambitious Crown Prince wants to have the cake and eat too.

While our government is busy 24/7 in doing its best to rescue the deposed Prime Minister from the judicial lock-jaw, others who matter including the Parliament should assess the impact of Saudi developments especially on Pakistani economy

However, the sound of death knell finally of the old order is being clearly heard when it is said that Prince Muqrin bin Muqrin who should have been the King if the traditional pecking order was followed, was killed in a mysterious helicopter crash near the Yemeni border just when Crown Prince Salman’s blitzkrieg had started. Yet more intriguing has been the death of Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd — killed during a firefight as authorities attempted to arrest him. His death has been confirmed by the Saudi royal court but circumstances remain unknown.

Both Duran and Al-Masdar News report that Prince Aziz (44) — youngest son of late King Fahd, died when his security contingent got into a firefight with regime gunmen attempting to make his arrest. The Duran Report points out that Prince Abdul Aziz was deeply involved in Saudi Oger Ltd, a company which until it ceased operations in the summer of this year, was owned by the Hariri family, former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was in charge of the company until it ceased operations. Cause of Saad’s resignation tendered in Riyadh coincides with the death of Prince Abdul Aziz and the crackdown on the corrupt in the Royal Kingdom.

Sections of Saudi population have welcomed the crackdown. They had become wary of scandals of princes for extracting huge commissions in various deals by jacking up the contractual prices of products and purchasing of plants or whatever business where money could be made. Arms purchases from America, UK, France, Sweden etc could not be made without big commissions to the high and mighty. While in Saudi Arabia it did not matter but when scandals of commission being taken by government functionaries broke out in UK, quite a few heads rolled.

In the anti-corruption drive the wealthiest among the corrupt rich is billionaire Al Waleed — 50th richest man in the world. He was picked up from his desert camp and the authorities did not disclose the allegations that prompted the action against him. Whatever — his arrest would surely have its implications — big of small — in the international market, so would the overall action cause its ripples globally.

The establishment of 34-country coalition Sunni army has been the brainchild of the Crown Prince who seems to be in a hurry to bring changes in the Gulf according to his vision. Escalation with Iran, pinpricking of Qatar, deeper involvement in Yemen, Syria and Iraq — all are related to his scheme of things. Howsoever well-meaning he might be, the instant support that he has received from American President Donald Trump make matter shady.

While our government is busy 24/7 in doing its best to rescue its deposed prime minister from the judicial lock-jaw, others who matter including the Parliament should assess the impact of Saudi developments especially on the economy. Prognosis is ominously alarming. The only positive factor that one can see in Saudi anti-corruption from our common man’s point is the major setback for both Nawaz Sharif and General Pervez Musharraf. MNS would now not get the Saudi support that he previously received for his corruption, nor Saroor Palace in case he has to go in exile. And no more easy money would come to the ‘Bhagora General’ as gift from RKS to put him in style in London.

The writer is the former High Commissioner of Pakistan and a veteran journalist

Published in Daily Times, November 8^th 2017.