LONDON, February 22: A leading Middle Eastern publication has said that Pakistan’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia is being reshaped by its Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
The Middle East Eye wrote in a detailed analysis that Pakistan Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has “quietly reset the army’s relations with the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia and the UAE”.
Written by Kamal Alam, the Visiting Fellow at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and lecturer at several military staff colleges, the analysis noted that the recently concluded trip of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is being seen as a landmark visit with strategic implications not just for their bilateral relationship, but also for Pakistan’s role in the Middle East because the COAS has made Pakistan a strategic and equal partner, rather than a proxy in a the conflict.
The analysis said that while the media headlines have focused on PM Imran Khan’s public embrace of Muhammad Bin Salman, on the sidelines, the man who has reset the relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – and, Pakistan and the UAE – has been Bajwa.
“For decades, analysts and policymakers have written about the Saudi role in Pakistan, with a focus on their military partnership. The former Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, described their bilateral relationship as likely being one of the closest in the world ‘without any official treaty'”.
The piece noted that in the past military and civilian leaders have benefited from Saudi largesse and received personal favours but under Bajwa that’s not the case anymore.
“Former President Pervez Musharraf admitted to receiving personal favours and financial rewards, and the Saudis have long been dismissive about the corruption of Pakistani leaders. It is for this reason that the Saudis have always preferred military rule in Pakistan, while former generals have allegedly profited personally, rather than helping Pakistan’s cause. Musharraf has said that under Saudi pressure, he let former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif go, despite court action and question marks over his rule. The appointment of former army chief General Raheel Sharif as head of the Saudi-funded “Muslim NATO” raised many eyebrows in Pakistan, given the biased nature of the alliance and the absence of key Muslim countries, including Indonesia, Iran, Algeria and Iraq.”
It said: “Never before have the Saudis invested so heavily in Pakistan at the state level, without benefiting a specific politician or a general. However, Bajwa is not putting the state before individual; hence, winning admiration amongst Arab leaders”
The analysis argued that Pakistani-Saudi ties have been gradually moving out of the personal domain and into the strategic and “one of the key reasons for this strategic push has been the defence diplomacy of Javed Bajwa”. It said that till a few years ago, relations between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE were sour over Yemen to the extent that the UAE went so far as to say Pakistan would pay a “heavy price” for its “ambiguous stand” and led a media campaign against Pakistan when Islamabad voted in favour of Turkey for Expo 2020.-Agencies
