Our dear Gulf friends
This is not the first time Pakistan has been asked to share its military with Arab countries. Pakistani forces have trained Gulf soldiers and fighter pilots for decades. Pak Air Force, according to records, also helped in the ’67 Six Day War against Israel. And, of course, the House of Saud has had a long and happy history with the Pakistani military, especially since the days of the first Afghan war; when we funnelled jihadi volunteers from across the world into Afghanistan to fight those godless communists.
Over the years, the relationship with Riyadh became especially warm. Towards the end of the last decade, when America’s post 9/11 wars destroyed the Afghan and Iraqi regimes, and Iran began emerging as a more powerful force, there was talk in the international academia of Saudi Arabia once again turning to Pakistan for its military needs. And soon enough just such a situation arose. The Syrian civil war was fast degenerating, and the Saudis needed help to arm anti-government rebels, most of whom had by then gathered under the Jabhat al-Nusra umbrella. It is common knowledge that much of these fighters later became ISIS. Of course, they took their petro-dollar funded weapons with them.
And another need arose with Yemen. Although parliament struck down any chances of our military waltzing into Sana’a, it was quite clear for the longest time that the government was more than willing to oblige. But, importantly, while there is no denying the financial (and oil) help our Gulf friends give us, one must also question why they do not stand with Pakistan on some of its most serious positions. How many of these states would openly side with Pakistan on the Kashmir matter, for example, especially when an extremist government in Delhi is making talks more difficult with time. Pakistan has always held the Arab world’s problems close to its heart – especially the Palestinian matter – but the Arab world has not responded in kind. Perhaps, seeing how the Saudi question had Pakistanis running here and there, they will give our problems more attention also.