How Will Saudi Arabia's Dire Straits Affect Relationship With Pakistan? -- September 11, 2020

The dire financial straits Saudi Arabia finds itself in will have repercussions across the entire Mideast, Pakistan, India, and China. There's a reason "peace" is breaking out among strange bedfellows across the middle East. Are we seeing the beginning of a more overt episode in the clash of civilizations? The clash, of course, is nothing new. Samuel P. Huntington wrote of it years ago. Another book to re-read, What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis.

From the Hindustan Times:

Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi crossed the red line last week when he asked OIC to “stop dilly-dallying” and set a deadline for the Saudi-led grouping of 57 Islamic countries [a most interesting phrase

“If you cannot convene it, then I’ll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiris,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a Pakistani news channel last week. 

The remark did not go down well with the Saudi leadership which had made Pakistan pay back $1 billion two weeks ago, forcing Islamabad to borrow from China instead. 

The Saudis are yet to respond to Pakistan’s request for a $3.2bn oil credit facility, part of a $6.2bn package announced in 2018. 

From Reuters

Remittances from Pakistani workers employed abroad hit the highest level for a single month in July, officials said on Monday, increasing 36.5% year on year, mostly thanks to less spending on Haj pilgrimages because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The global economic slowdown had raised fears that remittances, key to Pakistan’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves, would decline given falling employment in countries from where most of the money is sent - particularly Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

But July remittances rose to $2.768 billion, the State Bank of Pakistan said, adding the increase was up 12.2% from June, when remittance numbers were also high.

Bottom line: Pakistan has reason to worry.