Arab ‘Bothers' Frustrating Pakistan

Islamabad is disappointed that Saudis have done precious little for it on their own and have sabotaged all efforts to get the OIC on its side

- Karamatullah K Ghori

During his recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Imran Khan lamented that Pakistan wasn’t getting from its ‘brothers’ in the Muslim world the support it expected over its tangled relations with neighbouring India.

Imran had gone to Kuala Lumpur to smoothen out kinks in his equation with Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohammad, whom he’d greatly disappointed by not showing up at the Kuala Lumpur Summit last December. Imran publicly apologised to his host for not showing up at that important conclave—of which he was himself a proponent along with Mahathir and President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

Imran apologised for his absence which, he acknowledged, was because of ‘misconception’ of some Muslim states who thought of the conclave as ‘divisive’ and ‘disruptive’ of the fabled unity of the Muslim ‘Ummah’.

Imran didn’t name names of the countries that suffered from the ‘misconception’, but he didn’t have to. An outspoken Erdogan had done that on the heels of the meeting by pointing the finger at Saudi Arabia which, according to him, had twisted Imran’s arm to not turn up at the conclave.