We should never ever annoy our neighbouring countries

So many things are simultaneously happening on the political stage of the country that it is well-nigh impossible for an analyst to comment on one and leave the other as they are intertwined and inextricably linked with one another. If whatever Ahsan Iqbal has been saying on the Economic Corridor is taken to be correct on its face value then let us admit that he has not been able to properly explain the nuts and bolts of this project to the political leaders of the other three provinces of the country thus resulting in their hue and cry over it. The prime minister without further waste of time address properly the reservations of the smaller provinces in the matter. The Saudi leadership wants to see Pakistan become an active member of the 34- muslim countries’alliance cobbled up by Riyadh but our government must tread in the matter with abundant caution. Can any one deny that this Alliance which has been stitched up by Riyadh is basically against Iran which is our next door neighbour which we cannot annoy just for nothing. When we were in trouble in the past so many times at the hands of India with which we were involved in two wars also, did Saudi Arabia or, for that matter, any member country of this Alliance come to our help? Religion, unfortunately, has never been a binding factor for the unity of Muslims, It is the regional and world politics and geographical realities of a region that have always been determining the nature of relationship among them. Every Muslim country is guided by its own economic and geographical interests in the formulation of its foreign policy rather than any other factor. Make no mistake.
The PPP’s agonies are not yet over despite Bilawal’s re-activation. There are many who believe that unless he frees his party from the influence of his father completely and replace the existing office-holders from to to bottom with new faces every district after holding a fair and free intra-party election, the common man’s confidence in the party simply cannot be restored. That, however, seems to be a remote possibility at the moment.