Pakistani response
While it is unfortunate that Saudi authorities have not moved fast enough to offset the Pakistani/Indian worker crisis in some cities there, the response of the Pakistani government so far is unforgivable. The Indians have adopted a far better approach; immediately shuttling the state minister for foreign affairs to the kingdom, talking to the authorities and reassuring the workers. The Pakistani embassy in Riyadh, on the other hand, sent ‘a packet of onions, two packets of tomatoes, three packets of tea and a can of oil for 204 affectees’ in one of its few responses, according to the press. It’s little surprise that the workers refused the gesture, despite their compromised position.
This, considering the Gulf economic situation, was more or less inevitable yet nobody seemed prepared for it. Apparently the company involved belongs to Lebanon’s Hariri family, which is very close to Saudi royalty, so it is surprising that the situation has not been handled so far. This shows how hard some of the leading concerns have been hit by the prolonged drop in Brent crude. With the prospect of more and more companies going belly up in not too distant the future, the government is obviously concerned about setting a precedent of total bailout, which would imply taking over company liabilities immediately.
Not so strangely, this issue is also indicative of a subsequent breakdown in the Pakistani balance of payments. Remittances contribute close to $20 billion annually to the national kitty ($19.9b in the last fiscal). With oil only showing faint signs of recovery before being knocked down again, we must not only prepare for a pinch in transfers, but also for hordes of laid off workers that will add to the employment burden back home. And it does not inspire much confidence that the foreign office seems not just unprepared for, but also unaware of, the impending crisis.
