Daily Times

With the kind of reception, His Excellency Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Sultan (MBS) got on his very first visit to Pakistan, one thing became certain. The remaining four and a half years of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s Naya Pakistan will be more about pragmatic realism than the Islamic idealism that the PM has been trying to sell both before and after the elections.

This in a way is a very good sign because the foremost argument against PM Imran Khan was his idealist and impractical viewpoint. The highest point of this visit was when the PM raised his concerns about the job security of 2.5 Million Pakistanis living in the Kingdom, as well as the 3000 Pakistani prisoners in Saudi jails. MBS responded to these concerns by saying “Mr Prime Minister, consider me Pakistan’s ambassador in Saudi Arabia”.

This statement was welcomed all over Pakistan, and created euphoria that both the Saudi Crown Prince and the government needed for its local consumption. The following day, Pakistan’s Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary announced that 2,107 Pakistani prisoners had been released from Saudi Jails on the orders of MBS.

Though PM Khan was not in a position to question the basis of arrests, convictions and the inhumane conditions in which huge numbers of Pakistanis were kept behind bars, the people expect him to exercise his authority within Pakistan on matters pertaining to enforced disappearances by the security agencies that are constitutionally under his command.

According to the handout issued in early February 2019 by Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances , “Out of 5,777 cases, the commission has disposed of 3,551 cases upto June 30,2018 due to personal efforts of Commission’s President (r) Justice Javed Iqbal”.

The aforementioned Commission was formed at the directive of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) but this matter — which has lingered on since the beginning of the War on Terror — should have been taken up by Khan with the heads of the security agencies and armed forces.

The MoUs signed between Pakistan and the Kingdom had a total investment portfolio of $21 billion to be completed in three phases, which may take around 5-6 years to implement. However, all of this came at a very high price.

The formation of a Sunni Muslim axis to curtail Iran can have far-reaching consequences on our social fabric and has the potential to drain much more capital from our economy than is being injected

MBS’s visit to Pakistan was followed by his visits to India and China. Diversifying its economy and decreasing dependence on its oil resources is the major goal of MBS’s vision 2030. But a lot changed last year and plans probably matured before time, after the fall of ISIS last year followed by the murder Khashoggi and Trump Statement in which he remarked, “King, we are protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us”.

The aforementioned statement irked the Saudis, forcing them to seek extensive security cooperation from Pakistan. In return, Islamabad sought economic investment. In response to Iranian encircling of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, Riyadh is looking to strengthen its ties with India and China. With Iran put under sanctions and India given a waiver of six months to import oil from Iran soon nearing its end, Saudi Arabia has offered increased oil supplies to India.

Furthermore, at the request of Indian PM Narendra Modi, MBS ordered the release of 850 Indian citizens and a likely investment of $40 billion, with the aim to make India a regional oil hub. Heavy investment in both India and Pakistan could very well make Saudi Arabia a peace-broker between the two countries.

Though Pakistan was able to diversify economic support with American-backed Saudi investment coupled with China’s investment in CPEC, the formation of a Sunni Muslim axis to curtail Iran can have far-reaching consequences on our social fabric and has the potential to drain much more capital from our economy than is being injected.

I called former Pakistani Foreign Minister (FM) and present MNA Hina Rabbani Khar for her views on relations between Riyadh, Islamabad and Tehran as well as the recent escalation between Pakistan and India. She told me, “as far as the specifics of the role played by Saudi Arabia and the UAE are concerned, I think it’s for the present government to comment on, as I am not privy to it. From what I know, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have already played their role in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan”.

Commenting on Indian FM Sushma Swaraj’s participation in the OIC, she said “It was nothing more than a photo-opportunity. The Indian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has a very short term view on security and foreign policy, which is beginning to backfire now. It’s propaganda versus facts. Even western publication houses like the New york Times are publishing articles critical of BJP’s view point.”

She added, “it is very unfortunate that in recent times the Muslim Ummah has been divided on clear cut sectarian lines. Pakistan should stay neutral and desist from taking sides in this conflict and instead assist in de-escalation of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the same way Riyadh played its role in de-escalating tensions between Pakistan and India”.

The writer is a political activist and research analyst based in Lahore

Published in Daily Times, March 11^th 2019.