While the relations between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have always been intimate and intense, Pakistani Foreign Office has recently remarked that the these ties are slipping. Serious irritants have forced Riyadh to quantitatively down grade economic and political engagement with Islamabad.
On the face of it, the relations are still very strong and Pakistan continues to please the Royalty in view of its dependency. The Saudi King has always ‘brokered’ honourable ‘exits’ for Pakistani politicians, facing serious trials, and has given ‘shelter’ in the Kingdom. The recipients of the largesse include Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif and their families during Gen Musharraf’s regime. Gen Musharraf himself was allowed to leave Pakistan under an arrangement brokered by the Saudi King and his intelligence chief, who had made several secret trips in an attempt to patch up differences among Pakistani political leaders.
The two countries also have robust cooperation in security matters. Pakistan in September last handed over to Saudi Arabia two sons of the top Yemeni Al Qaida leader ,Alawi, who master-minded a suicide attack on Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mehmud bin Nayef. Like wise, five Pakistanis arrested on arrival in Jeddah with drugs in their slippers were released and sent back home.
However, funding to various terrorist tanzims in Pakistan continued from various Saudi charities owned by Royal family members. This has been going on since the first Afghan war against the then Soviet Union and Pakistan was a beneficiary of such funding as they had channelled it to various jehadi groups being used against India and in Afghanistan.
Recent terrorist incidents against Shias in Muzaffarabad in ‘Azad Kashmir’ and Karachi exposed the Saudi funding to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan who claimed responsibility for the two terrorist acts of December 26 and Dec 28, 2009. Ten people were killed and 40 injured in the strike that targeted Shia religious gathering in Muzaffarabad. A suicide bomber detonated explosives at the entrance of Pir Alam Shah Bukhari Imambargah on December 28 in which nearly 50 persons died.
The Taliban, while claiming responsibilities for those acts, said that they would carry out more such attacks in the coming days. They also identified the suicide bomber that attacked the Moharram procession In Karachi as Hasnain Mawya.
Interestingly, a secret report prepared by the Crime Investigations Department of Karachi police predicted such attacks by the Taliban. “Joint plans of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan are to target Shias,” the CID warned and stated that “The new |Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Hakimullah Mehsud and his cousin Qari Hussain Ahmed have strong anti-Shia views and have ties with the banned Lashker-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad.”
Both LeJ and JeM are known for their anti-Shia orientation and benefitted from Saudi charities. The roots of both outfits can be traced to the Lashkar fountain head in Lahore.
The Saudi Arabian charity, “Al Haramain Foundation”, which is believed to be a front of Al Qaida and banned by UN Security Council, has provided US$ 15 million to extremist groups in Pakistan to carry out terrorist attacks. A major chunk of these funds went to Tehriq-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Irritants between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan started appearing in October 2008 when Pakistani government withdrew a hunting ground from Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif, who is the third in the ruling hierarchy in the Kingdom, and subsequently allotted it to a Dubai dignitary. The Saudi princes had been leased two hunting grounds by Pakistanis as against about a dozen to the royals from the UAE. The Saudis immediately retaliated by imposing a condition of knowing the local language by even unskilled Pakistani workers for working in the Kingdom.
Granting licence to hunt endangered bird species like ‘houbara bustard’ is one of the main Pakistani strategies to keep the ruling Royal families of the Gulf happy and to continue underwriting Pakistani financial needs and political support. This winter too, at least 27 dignitaries from the Gulf states have been awarded special permits to hunt the protected ‘bustards’, accordig to theKarachi daily, The Dawn ( December 18), The licensees include Prince Fahad Ben Sultan Ben Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, governor of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
