The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a unique story of growth and prosperity in a region torn by ideology and conflict. It shares with Pakistan a unique partnership. Along with UAE’s National Day, we also mark 51 years of a special bond. The ruling elite in both Islamabad and Abu Dhabi are passing on the baton to the next generation of leaders. This will be the first National Day for President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, who was elected in May. In Pakistan, Prime Minister ShehbazSharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari represent transition. PM Sharif and President Zayed – have met thrice over the past seven months. The UAE is host to the second-largest Pakistani diaspora in the world. Politicians, companies, state institutions, and ordinary Emiratis and Pakistanis share common stories of growing together.
When international flights to destinations in Pakistan ceased after 9/11 due to terrorism concerns, and during and after the pandemic, Islamabad relied on UAE-based airlines and airports to sustain travel and exports. Abu Dhabi was forthcoming on both occasions. After the 2020 lockdowns, UAE-based aircraft and airlines helped transport goods and people from Pakistan. In international diplomacy, the UAE has acted as a dependable ally, supporting Islamabad’s peace initiatives in Afghanistan and South Asia going all the way back to the 1990s, and helped mediate improved ties between Pakistan and the United States in recent years.
The UAE is also among the top strategic partners of Pakistan who helped deal with the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 and the floods of 2010 and 2022; and assisted in the rebuilding phase in the border regions with Afghanistan after Pakistani counterterror operations, with several projects in Balochistan and KPK.
Pakistan-UAE military and intelligence cooperation is a cornerstone of regional peace and security. Pakistani and Emirati military units often train together with international partners across the region.
THE IDEOLOGY OF PROSPERITY
In these 51 years, the UAE created a formidable example of a state focused on growth and prosperity, overruling ideological and revolutionary models that permeated the region at the time. Arab Gulf states and monarchies in those days were often dismissed as ‘regressive’ by cultural warriors of the 1970s and ‘80s. Today, it is the example created by Abu Dhabi and Dubai that has taken its citizens to new heights and benefited the wider region, while the ideological and revolutionary models crumbled during the Arab Spring and subsequent protest movements.
RARE ARAB UNIFICATION MODEL
The United Arab Emirates is also the only successful experiment in unity and confederation in the Middle East. Six emirates, ruled by centuries-old royal families, first came together to form a union in 1971. A seventh emirate, Ras Al-Khaimah, joined the federation in 1972. Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the UAE’s founding father, helped the seven emirates unite in a federation and sustain an example of unity at a time when other Arab attempts at unification failed. The UAE was formed the same year that the United Arab Republic, or UAR, was dissolved, ending a unification experiment that lasted from 1958 to 1971 between Egypt and Syria.
EVOLVING POLITICAL SYSTEM
The UAE has taken the route of creating a cosmopolitan, well-educated citizenry invested in a secure, stable, prosperous, and working state. The UAE rulers relied on developing local education and launching a scholarship program to send young Emirati women and men to learn from advanced economies. To accommodate an increasingly educated population, the Emirates adopted the government and economic system to create opportunities and transform the state. The UAE created conditions to attract global talent to contribute to the country’s growth and fashioned a society tolerant of globalism and multiculturalism.
Regular elections since 2015 for the Federal National Council is part of this process, which has included creating a National Elections Committee to develop a working and transparent representative system that ensures educated Emiratis contribute to managing a welfare state.
In the 2019 elections, late President Khalifa bin Zayed mandated that Emirati women will occupy half the NFC seats, to ensure Emirati women’s participation in the workforce.
A HUB OF CONNECTIVITY
The UAE is emerging as a hub for cultural and commercial connectivity in the region. The state has come a long way in creating an open society welcoming diverse cultures and religions while maintaining the country’s Arab and Muslim identity. The UAE has become a key market and tourist attraction for the Gulf region, Europe, Israel, Central Asia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Africa, Russia, and China. The UAE is working with China and Pakistan to connect Gwadar to Dubai, and then expand into the Mediterranean and Africa. The UAE was the first country to start using Pakistan’s Gwadar port to export to Afghanistan.
In 51 years, the UAE has created a growth and creativity hotspot that has impacted culture, economy, and politics across the region.
The writer is a journalist who covers the MENA region. He tweets @_AhmedQuraishi