Pakistan to skip summit in Kuala Lumpur under intense Saudi pressure
Javed Rana
Press TV, Islamabad
Pakistan has decided to skip a summit in the Malaysian capital Kula Lumpur. The several days long summit would start as of Wednesday to come up with a unanimous stance on how to address major challenges to the Muslim world with particular focus on human rights abuses in the occupied Palestine by Israel and in disputed Kashmir region by India.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a meeting in New York in September decided to hold the summit. Iranian and Qatari leaders are also participating in the event which would be attended by over 400 Muslim scholars and thinkers from 52 countries.
Media reports have revealed that the decision to skip summit was taken under intense pressure from Saudi Arabia. Riyadh suspected that Iran, Qatar together with Turkey and Malaysia would wean away Pakistan from Saudi Arabia by setting up a parallel block of Muslim countries which could overshadow 57 member Saudi dominated Organization of Islamic Cooperation or the OIC.
Prime Minister Imran Khan flew to Riyadh to convince Saudi top leaders. However, intense pressure finally compelled Pakistan to skip the conference.
However, Malaysia has confirmed that Pakistan has informed Kula Lumpur it would not participate in the summit.
All participating countries except Pakistan and Indonesia, have tense ties with Saudi Arabia over a lot of geo-strategic issues in the Middle East.
Pakistan is financially dependent on Saudi Arabia which also houses its 2.7 millions citizens working in the Kingdom. Islamabad has also close defense ties with Riyadh which has the record of interfering in domestic and foreign policies of Pakistan.
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