Daily Times

Blame it on Bollywood or the local soaps that make us excel in high emotions. I am at a loss, when it comes to this overwhelming disappointment being drummed up over the shabby treatment received by the Prime Minister at Riyadh Summit last week. The poor PM, according to the reports in the media had practised to deliver his speech, but at the last minute had to discard his grand plan of captivating the audience with his oratory skills. The idiot box went into overdrive drumming up the snub as a national insult and made it all about the colossal dent on our national pride.

The opponents, of course, added the layer of “Panama” being the overarching taint that followed the poor Premier like a shadow no matter where he went. According to their assessments, the moral authority of our dear PM has deeply eroded and he was sidelined by our brotherly country due to his challenging turpitude. For those who come up with these lousy meaningless and over emotional theories, very simply, international relations do not quite work according to our whims and wishes. As harsh as it may sound, such relations are squarely based on mutual interests. You do not need to be a genius to decipher that the stronger nation holds an edge over the weaker one.

Speaking of that edge, when the Kingdom decided to build a “force against terrorism”, the young Saudi defence minister made a courtesy stop in Islamabad to recruit the right talent. No diplomatic niceties and channels were explored. Bypassing everyone, like a true royal, he made a straight and direct offer. We were told that due to our long standing “special and brotherly relations” we had to accept as “we” had no other choice.

The Riyadh Summit was, in simple words, a power show orchestrated by the Kingdom to send the right signals to its adversaries. The Arab world was summoned  by the “Big Brother” and the Chief Guest was President Trump, with his keynote speech to supporting and endorsing the initiative. So add all of this and then think, where on this regional board was Pakistan supposed to place itself.

Pakistan being a fellow Muslim country and perhaps due to the long standing relationship with the Kingdom was invited to add some weight to the attendance roster. Those of us, who were offended, ought to visit the fundamentals of Economics, which are based on undeniable facts.

Some of us who were hung up on our former General, being a commander in Chief of the Muslim force and yet such lack of recognition mantra. To them, I would very respectfully say, that our former General is not representing Pakistan anymore. He is an employee of the Kingdom and has to abide by the rules, which he signed when he accepted the offer, he was unable to decline. Very simple!

Back when his decision to join this force, was being debated vigorously on the idiot box, his self proclaimed spokesperson had made all kinds of wild claims. According to those claims, the good General was going to use his influence to mediate between the Kingdom and its age old foe, the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was not going to command any force, which could potentially be used against another Muslim country.

Someone ought to ask the respected defence analyst: had the Kingdom needed a mediator, would it come to the Good General for that purpose? The Kingdom recognised his talent for being an efficient commander and a leader on the military front and not some astute diplomat, who has brokered and peddled diplomatic manoeuvres. This is common sense 101 and requires no special course, training or degree to deduce the obvious.

The not so much of a mystery surrounding the objectives of a so called “Muslim NATO” was formally unveiled and it was very unfortunately as expected. The reversal of Iran policy that President Obama had very successfully implemented will bring more instability to the ever restive Middle East. More conflicts, bloodshed and more economic catastrophe will result from the encirclement of Iran. This is a disastrous move on all counts, but trigger happy powers will ignore any such advice.

The critics here at home ought to learn another very harsh reality of life. There is a very famous saying in English, “beggars cannot be choosers.” With tranches of financial and military aid, both from the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we are not in a position to confront either of them.”

The lack of a real Foreign Minister is another lame argument. Had there been the sharpest male or female Foreign Minister present in the entourage, would the outcome of Riyadh Summit been any different? This very ordinary scribe with utmost humility thinks and says, negative.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets @dasghar