Is Pakistan willing to jeopardise its
relations with Iran for Saudi Arabia?
By Shakir Lakhani Published: April 2, 2017
Army chief General Raheel
Sharif receives King Abdul Aziz Medal of Excellence from Saudi Crown Prince
Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud during his official visit to Saudi Arabia. PHOTO:
ISPR
It was shocking to hear Defence Minister Khwaja Asif proudly
confirm that the government has agreed
to the Saudi request and
will allow former army chief General (retd) Raheel Sharif to command the
Saudi-led military alliance of 34 Muslim nations to fight terrorism.
However, observers are concerned that the coalition could be used for future
conflicts against
Iran and its ally Yemen.
The National Assembly had earlier agreed that it would not be in
the country’s interest to take
sides in the present war between
Saudi Arabia and Yemen (Iran’s ally), and had decided that Pakistan would stay
neutral in the
conflict. Hence, this recent announcement comes as a bolt from the blue. I
would like to know how and why the government decided to agree to Saudi’s
request without taking the people into confidence. This is a serious matter
which should have been debated in Parliament before the decision was taken.
Perhaps our parliamentarians are too young to remember the 1965
war with
India or have seem to have forgotten what happened. During the events leading
up to the war, we had only two friends/allies who openly sided with us. The
most vocal was the Shah of Iran and the other was President Soekarno of
Indonesia. In fact, from the very beginning, Iran has been our true friend and
ally. It was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with us after
Pakistan became independent, and the Shah was the first foreign head of state to
visit Pakistan.
After we lost East Pakistan, the Shah warned India that any attack on Pakistan
would be considered to be an attack on Iran. Furthermore, not many Pakistanis
are aware of the fact that our national anthem is in
Persian. Moreover, Iranians can converse easily with the Pakhtuns of
Pakistan and Afghanistan, and our national language Urdu is closer to Persian
than it is to Arabic.
Moreover, Pakistan has the world’s second
largest population of Shia
Muslims (more than 20%). Our government should have consulted the country’s
Shia leaders before giving
a no-objection certificate (NOC)
to General Raheel to head the alliance.
It is therefore in our interest not to further antagonise Iran.
The relations between Pakistan and Iran have recently
been strained due to
our closeness with Saudi Arabia, but have not yet reached a breaking point. Iran
is our next door neighbour and has plenty of natural gas which we urgently
require.
Moreover, for once, I totally agree with Imran Khan who has
decided to oppose
the government on this
issue. Imran voiced strong reservations over these developments related to the
country’s foreign policy and claimed that his party would take up the issue
during the upcoming sessions of the National Assembly. He had previously
accused the government of not taking the parliament into confidence before
making such decisions of utmost importance as it is in violation of a 2015
resolution. As per the resolution, Pakistan, while vowing to protect Saudi
Arabia’s sovereignty, had unanimously decided not to interfere in the unfolding
developments in the Middle East, particularly the on-going civil war in Yemen.
General Sharif should listen to Imran and to those who have
Pakistan’s best interests at heart, and should re-consider
his decision.
In fact, I have a suggestion for both the government and the
general. The government should appoint General Sharif as an ambassador at large
who can act
as a mediator between
Saudi Arabia and Iran. If the two countries become allies and stop spending
heavily on weapons meant to destroy each other, it will help both the countries
and the entire Muslim world in terms of progression. Saudi Arabia should
realise that its main enemy is not Iran, it is sectarianism. It should reach
out to Iran and try to eliminate any misunderstanding between the two
countries. Their enmity will only benefit the enemies of the Muslim world, who
are relished to watch these two Muslim powers hell bent upon annihilating each
other.
Hence I appeal to General Sharif
to decline the offer and I urge Nawaz Sharif to appoint the general as a roving
ambassador. As the only Muslim country to possess nuclear weapons, it is our
duty to help our fellow Muslim brethren.
Shakir Lakhani
Engineer, former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College,
industrialist, associated with petroleum/chemical industries for many years.
Loves writing, and (in the opinion of most of those who know him), mentally
unbalanced. He tweets @shakirlakhani (twitter.com/shakirlakhani)
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/48146/is-pakistan-willing-to-jeopardise-its-relations-with-iran-for-saudi-arabia/
Post a Comment