The Saudis are not happy with us. This is the second time in six months that Pakistan has dared to be disloyal to the royals. First it was the parliament of Pakistan insisting that, as a country, we should not support Saudi Arabia in its design to attack Yemen rebels and now it is our media channels giving undue importance to such an ‘insignificant’ figure of almost 1,500 hajis dying in the Mina stampede. When the royal family of Saudi Arabia is not happy the royal family of Pakistan becomes afraid of losing its personal and financial saviour of the past. In an inexplicable response, the government has asked the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to take notice of channels and talk shows criticisingthe Mina tragedy and holding the Saudi government responsible. Who else do you hold responsible for it? Who accounts for the fact that even after 10 days of the tragedy 90 Pakistanis have been reported dead and 37are still missing? Who is there to empathise with the agony of hundreds of families that have gone through this torture of not knowing where their family members are and then going through the agony of getting the dead bodies back home or having them buried in Saudi Arabia? Is the biggest tragedy of hajj in the last 25 years not something to be debated, analysed and diagnosed to find out who all were behind this incident so that a similar incident does not occur again? Is this simple information sharing by the media or deliberate country maligning? The answer is simple: it is an order from his highness of Saudi Arabia to the aspiring ‘his highness’ of Pakistan. With Saudi Arabia we share a relationship on multiple fronts. Being a Muslim country and host of the holy pilgrimage it is a bond we respect. Being an oil producer and helping us in tough times, economic ties are also a major factor. However, in case of the present government it goes far beyond just country priorities. First of all,the Prime Minister (PM) got the Saudis to bail him out of jail and out of Pakistan during Musharraf’s time. The 10-year stay in Jeddah brought the ‘wanna be’ royals very close to the Saudi royalty and many of theirbusiness ventures have roots there. Financially also the $ 1.5 billion ‘gift’ that was added to our balance of payments last year was officially owned up by the minister of finance as having Saudi origin. This is a list that makes the Sharif family personally indebted to the Saudi government as well. However, one of the main factors that draws them to the House of Saud is royal living and majestic lifestyles. Saudi Arabia is a monarchy and a kingdom, and Pakistan is a democracy and a parliamentary system but the mental attraction of the royal lifestyle is what creates this bond. The training and exposure of leaders does affect their mindset and attitude. The Sharifswere bred in the nursery of ZiaulHaq, who was not royalty but an autocrat who worked on his own whims and fancies. The failure of the Sharif government in the first two terms of government showed how that training affected their style of governance. The 10 years in exile in Jeddah with close ties to the royal family had a reinforcing impact on the tendency to treat themselvesas born to rule heirs to the throne, treating the public as subjects to be used for this purpose. One minor example with major impact is the way the PM undergoes foreign travel. In his two-and-a-half-year stint in the office the PM has made 20 foreign trips. One example of this royal entourage accompanying him is the BBC report about his recent tour to the UN. Rs150 million were spent taking 78 people, whose names were not made public but, according to the journalists who were there to cover this trip, the entourage included four cooks who prepared special meals for the PM and his friends. He and his party are merrily dismissing questions regarding the questions being raised by the media over why he did not attend Ban Ki Moon’s reception, Obama’s reception, the terrorist summit etc. That again is the attitude that reflects disconnect with democratic behaviour and connect with the royal ‘as we wish’ attitude. The PM’s blatant preference of taking his personal best friends to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and his meeting with John Kerry was reported extensively in the media. The only impact of this news is that he is preparing for an even more elaborate trip to the US to meet Obama, which reportedly will cost another Rs 250 million. When asked a question on the extravagance ofthis VVIP tour the minister of railways replied: “Do you expect the PMto go on a scooter or rickshaw?” This royal style is an acceptable norm under the pretext that since army rule has dominated Pakistan for 30 years thus it will take time for real democracy to establish itself. Under this excuse, the leader of the PPP,Asif Ali Zardari, lives in his palace in Dubai and commands his party leadership to fly over to listen to his command. Similarly, the MQM leader abodes in London and every now and then asks his raabta committee to fly over to have a meeting. Like the royal families their families are also taken care of by public funds. To quote one example, according to the Punjab government, 761 policemen and 52 government vehicles have been provided to the PML-N chief, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and their families. The Punjab police say at least Rs40,000 is spent in terms of salary, food and many other expenses on one policeman per month, making Rs365.28 million the per annum expense of just policing the family. Fifty-two new vehicles at the disposal of the Sharif family have reportedly cost the national exchequer around Rs104 million. This is just a small peep into the lavish, lordly and royal style people aspire to come into politics for. In this style, money, power and position demand subservience. That is why our royalty is subservient to the Saudis,theUS and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) to name a few and that is why being subservient to the public is just a facade of democracy covering the mentality of royalty. The writer is secretary information PTI Punjab, an analyst, a columnist and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com