- Prime Minister Imran Khan has to explain his policy
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Malaysia let him apologise for not attending the recent Kuala Lumpur Summit, but it did not quiet questions arising at home about the utility of membership in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The questions have become particularly poignant this Kashmir Solidarity Day, after Saudi Arabia has said that it will not support an OIC Foreign Ministers’ Summit on Kashmir. This had been promised by Saudi Arabia when its Foreign Minister visited Pakistan after Mr Khan had stayed away from the Summit, and there was some wondering among the Pakistani public at how Arab states, Saudi Arabia leading, would behave at a Summit which would hold India to account for at least the lockdown in Kashmir, which has made it so difficult for Kashmiris to carry out the most ordinary tasks of daily living.
Now it has become clear. Saudi Arabia has decided not to criticise India, and has decided against the Summit. Those attending the Kuala Lumpur Summit included Muslim powers which took a pro-Kashmir stance when the lockdown began in August, like Iran and Turkey. The host itself, Malaysia, has taken a forthright stance on the issue. It has caused comment that an organisation which so valued Pakistan’s membership at its founding that India’s application to join was rejected, because then President Yahya Khan said Pakistan would not join, should place the commercial interests of its Gulf members above the Kashmir cause.
Is Pakistan interested in remaining in an organisation which ignores an issue of deep interest to it? Has the Saudi government got the impression that it can twist the OIC to favour India because it suits it? While the OIC has condemned the US Mid-East peace plan, Saudi Arabia will not let it say anything against the USA’s new-found friend, India. Is Pakistan supposed to imagine that the aid packages given by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which did not prevent an approach to the IMF, will be enough to avoid even lip service to the Kashmir cause? Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, and thus perhaps unaware of the importance to a government of public opinion, which at the moment wants Mr Khan to choose between the Saudi relationship and the Kashmir cause.
