What Went Wrong

Mystery still shrouds postponement of the Saudi crown prince’s visit to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: After his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced that Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman was going to visit Pakistan soon.

“Our government has revived projects with Saudi Arabia that had been facing delays for the last few years. The kingdom will establish an oil refinery in the country at a cost of $10-12 billion,” the premier had said while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad on October 28.

However, around two weeks after this announcement – on November 12 – the foreign office said that the Saudi crown prince’s visit to Pakistan and other regions of South Asia had been postponed. It said that the new date of his visit would be announced soon.

Soon after the foreign office’s announcement, some politicians in the ruling coalition – including Defense Minister Khawaja Asif – started claiming that the crown prince postponed his visit to the country due to the ongoing long march of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The PTI, on the other hand, rejected these claims and said that Mohammad bin Salman, who is also referred to as MBS, postponed not just his visit to Pakistan but to other South Asian countries.

Talking with reference to the development, Zafar Hilaly, a retired diplomat and renowned political analyst, said the Saudis are denying to have scheduled this tour of the crown prince.

“Officials of the Saudi government are of the view that no date was set yet for a visit. They state that the crown prince would be visiting Pakistan in future.

“To reach a conclusion is very difficult in a scenario like this where no date was set for the visit. But if the visit was cancelled after being scheduled then it might be due to instability in Pakistan.”

He said it was still undecided as to who is going to be the next army chief and the Saudis might have taken this fact into account “as the Saudis have relations with the Pakistan Army”.

To a query as to why the foreign office announced postponement of the visit if it had not yet been scheduled, he said the foreign office was left with no option but to announce a postponement as the premier had already announced the visit.

“There is a need to probe the matter to know whether the visit of the crown prince was scheduled or not. If it was scheduled then it is a major development and if it wasn’t scheduled then the entire discussion is meaningless,” Hilaly added.

A lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Dr Samina Matloob, however, accused PTI Chairman Imran Khan for the postponement.

“History has repeated itself. Earlier, the Chinese president had also cancelled his visit to Pakistan in 2014 due to the marathon sit-in of the PTI in Islamabad.”

She said the crown prince was not coming over here for the sake of the PML-N or for the PPP which are the ruling parties. According to her, the MBS was to bring huge investment to Pakistan.

Dr Samina said the long march of the PTI has brought embarrassment to Pakistan.

“Things like this aren’t in favour of the country and there is an immense need to think as to what is in the best interests of Pakistan.

“We should first think about the country and all other things should come later. Unfortunately we think about everything but are least bothered about Pakistan.”

She said the parliament is the forum which should be used to find solutions to every problem. Protesting on the streets is not a solution to anything.

Shakila Luqman, another PML-N lawmaker, said the postponement of the visit is not a good omen.

“It is a loss for the entire country as the visit was a matter of pride for the entire nation.

“The crown prince had told the premier when he was going to come to Pakistan. He was supposed to announce investment to the tune of $21 billion in Pakistan.. An oil refinery was supposed to be set up in Pakistan as a result of his visit but the PTI long march made him change his plan,” she added.