Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said it won't export oil to Pakistan and cancel its loan to the latter. The move came after Pakistan criticised the nation, a powerful member in the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), for not supporting Pakistan in relation to the Kashmir issue and not racking up the Islamophobia agenda against India.
Now, as relations between the two nations hangs in balance, Pakistan’s army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa plans to visit Saudi Arabia over the weekend with hope to smoothen things over.
In 2018 Saudi Arabia gave Pakistan a $3 billion loan and $3.2 billion oil credit facility to help its balance of payments crisis. “Yes he is travelling,” Reuters quoted Pakistan army spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar as saying. However, the official line was that the visit was pre-planned and “primarily military affairs oriented”.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full.
Last year, Pakistan had pulled out of a Muslim nations forum at the last minute on insistence by Riyadh, which saw the gathering as an attempt to challenge its leadership of the OIC.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, last week, had said Islamabad asked Riyadh to convene an OIC session in order to discuss the Kashmir issue, “If you cannot convene it, then I will be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiris,”
Qureshi's remarks revived Riyadh's anger.
