- Pak-Saudi brotherhood
To say that Pakistan is passing through a difficult economic situation would be an understatement. It is actually faced with an unbearable financial crisis that needs to be immediately addressed failing which the economic edifice of the country might collapse irretrievably. The PTI government led by Imran Khan is making strenuous efforts to raise necessary finances to tide over the burgeoning crisis. Though it has already made a formal request to the IMF for yet another extended fund facility and the IMF team would be soon arriving to start negotiations for a possible bailout package but it seems that the major focus of the government is on assistance and loans from friendly countries, including Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar and UAE. That surely is a better alternative to the strict IMF terms and conditions for agreeing to any bailout arrangement. The prospects for friendly countries coming forth to winch Pakistan out of the current crisis seem very encouraging. It was probably as a result of the background interaction with friendly countries that Prime Minister Imran Khan told the senior journalist that Pakistan might not have to approach the IMF.
Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Saudi Arabia on 18th September and held talks with Saudi leadership including King Salman and the vibes emanating during the visit suggested that Saudi Arabia might make investments in CPEC project and also set up an oil refinery at Gawadar besides considering extending loans to rectify the situation. He has embarked on a second visit to Saudi Arabia within a month ostensibly to attend the Future Investment Initiative conference. Before his departure he reportedly told British news website Middle East Eye “We have the worst debt crisis in our history. Unless we get loans from friendly countries or the IMF we actually won’t have enough funds in another two to three months to service debts or to pay for our imports, so we are desperate at the moment. The conference being attended by leading businessmen, investors, corporate giants and representative of high-tech industries would afford an excellent opportunity to the Prime Minister to project Pakistan’s economic and investment potential as well as its vision for the next five years. He will also be having an interaction with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, which analysts believe is of immense significance and Saudi Arabia, like in the past, would stand true to the adage, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”.
Pakistan is surely lucky to have friends like China and Saudi Arabia who have stood by her through thick and thin and bailed it out of difficult situations. The nature of relations with these countries is beyond the realm of normal diplomatic relations and fits the definition of a friendship propounded by Brazilian lyricist and writer Paulo Coelho de Souza “Friendship isn’t about whom you have known the longest…it’s about who came and never left”.
As far as bilateral relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are concerned, there are no two opinions about the fact that they have an unfathomable depth. In the seventies when Pakistan needed to rebuild its economy in the backdrop of war with India the late King of Saudi Arabia Shah Faisal extended liberal help besides importing labour from Pakistan which contributed immensely towards correcting the economic aberrations.
Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Saudi Arabia on 18th September and held talks with Saudi leadership including King Salman and the vibes emanating during the visit suggested that Saudi Arabia might make investments in CPEC
In the late eighties and early nineties also the Saudis helped Pakistan in tiding over the febrile economy. The Saudis have always stood by Pakistan in every moment of adversity and bailed it out of many tight situations. Be it the devastating earth quake that struck Besham in Northern Areas in 1974, the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir or the floods that hit Pakistan inflicting wide spread destruction, the Saudis have been in the forefront to help Pakistan. The Saudi leaders as custodians of the holy places of Islam are held in the highest esteem by the people of Pakistan as well as its leaders and by virtue of their unique status and the reverence that they enjoy, they have many a times also helped in resolving political feuds within Pakistan, as its true friends
In the wake of the spiraling prices of oil in the international market in the later part of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, Pakistan was adversely affected as it had to bear the burden of 40pc increase in its oil bill that further exacerbated the already volatile economic situation. The Saudi government offered one year credit facility on the pattern of 1998 when in the wake of nuclear explosions, the US had imposed economic sanctions against Pakistan. The Kingdom approved the continuation of an arrangement stared in 1998 for delivery of free crude oil to Pakistan which imported 250,000 barrel of oil per day from the Kingdom. The Saudi loan of US$ 2 billion was also converted into a grant.
Pakistan on its part has always stood by the Saudis in regards to their global and regional interests and played a friendly role in defusing threatening situations. In early April 2012 Pakistan played a role in defusing tension between Iran and Saudia Arabia over Bahrain. On the situation in Yemen and threats to Saudi territorial integrity Pakistan has shown complete solidarity with Saudi Arabia and vowed to defend the holy land at all costs if it was attacked. Former army chief of Pakistan General Raheel Sharif is currently heading the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition also formerly referred to as the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism comprising 41 participant countries from the Islamic world. The organisation aims to coordinate efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt Afghanistan and threats to territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia. In the current volatile situation in the Middle East and its fall out for Saudi Arabia, Pakistani support to the Saudi rulers is pivotal to the ability of the Kingdom to ward off those dangers. The bonds between the two countries are infallible and it is hoped that our friends would not hesitate to extend their support for fixing the economic crisis in Pakistan.