JOIN USPakistan’s obsession with Kashmir is costing it dearly. Its relations with Saudi Arabia are fraying over its insistence that the Saudi-led Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) call a high-level meeting to discuss India’s abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy. Since the revocation of Article 370, the Pakistani government has been badgering the Saudis on the matter, with a view to embarrassing India and in the hope of isolating it. It accelerated its campaign to do so a fortnight ago when Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi issued an ultimatum to the OIC that Pakistan would go ahead and call a meeting of Islamic countries that would stand by it on the Kashmir issue if the OIC did not convene a meeting immediately. The Saudis responded swiftly, but not in the way Islamabad would have wanted. They called on Pakistan to return $1 billion of a $3 billion loan and have frozen an oil credit facility worth $3.2 billion that they had offered it in 2018. Unlike in the past, when the Saudis would have simply written off the loan, this time, they have called in the debt. After all, it is Riyadh that is the dominant partner in the Saudi-Pakistani relationship and Islamabad overstepped the limits by badmouthing the Saudis.
Pakistan should have read the writing on the wall several years ago. Saudi Arabia’s relationship with India is improving. Unlike in the past, when Riyadh has blindly backed Islamabad, it has adopted a more nuanced approach in dealing with India and Pakistan in recent years. More importantly, Pakistan’s warming ties with Iran as well as its cosying up to Turkey and Malaysia, the kingdom’s rivals for leadership of the Sunni-Muslim world, has not gone down well with the Saudis. When Prime Minister Imran Khan enthusiastically participated in planning a summit of Islamic countries in Malaysia, the Saudis cracked the whip. Not only did Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman abruptly deny Khan a ride home from the US in his private jet, but he also threatened Pakistan with sanctions if it participated in the Malaysia summit. Khan stayed away. Surely, Pakistan’s leaders would have been aware that the Saudis would not take their criticism lightly.
Domestic calculations could be driving Qureshi’s recent comments on Kashmir. He could be positioning himself as a champion of the Kashmir cause, as a stronger proponent of this issue than Imran Khan. There is speculation that Qureshi took a hard line on Kashmir to impress the military, which is said to be tiring of Khan, but the Saudi reaction to it has queered the pitch for Qureshi himself.