Parliament expresses 'deep concern' over Gulf diplomatic rift, but government stops short of taking a side.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif holds close ties with the ruling families in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar [EPA]
Islamabad, Pakistan - Pakistan's parliament has expressed its "deep concern" over the blockade and severing of ties with Qatar by several Arab states, calling for the government to help mediate in the crisis between the Gulf state and its neighbours.
| INSIDE STORY: What is behind the diplomatic breakdown in the Gulf? |
"This House calls upon all countries to show restraint and
resolve all differences through dialogue," read a resolution
passed by the lower house of parliament on Thursday.
The measure came as Pakistan's foreign ministry reiterated
the
country's "concern" at the escalating situation - but stopped
short of endorsing one side or another.
"Pakistan believes in unity among Muslim countries and has
made consistent and serious efforts for its promotion," Nafees
Zakaria, the Pakistani foreign office spokesperson, said on
Thursday.
"We are therefore concerned at the situation."
But Zakaria refused to comment when probed on whether
Pakistan had taken any steps to mediate the crisis or was
also considering severing ties with Qatar.
He also had nothing to say when pressed to provide Pakistan's
position on the allegations of "supporting terrorism"
levelled against Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and their allies.
Pakistan has a close economic and strategic
relationship with Saudi Arabia, which is leading the
calls for the blockade and severing of ties.
Yet, in the past it has resisted pressure to wade
into regional conflict in the Middle East.
In April 2015, Pakistan's parliament voted to remain neutral
in the war in Yemen, despite pressure to join a Saudi-led
military alliance targeting Houthi rebels in the country.
On Monday, Pakistan's foreign office indicated that it currently
had no plans to sever ties with Qatar.
What's at stake for Pakistan
Pakistan's relationship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE is
based on close diplomatic ties, but also deep economic
relations.
Saudi Arabia is home to more than 1.9 million Pakistanis,
mostly unskilled workers, while the UAE hosts a further
1.2 million, according to government data.
Qatar, a much smaller country by comparison, hosts only
115,000
Pakistani citizens.
Those expatriate Pakistanis have a significant impact on
their country's economy, with foreign remittances playing
an important role in bolstering Pakistan's foreign exchange
reserves.
Analysts believe that any attempts to expel Pakistani workers
or block remittances could have a major impact on Pakistan's
economy.
Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries with the highest
remittances to Pakistan, with $4.52bn in funds sent home
by Pakistanis in the current fiscal year, according to Pakistan's
central bank.
The UAE comes in next at $3.47bn, with Qatar appearing
much further down the list with only $304m in remittances.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also two of Pakistan's major
trading partners. The South Asian country has imported
goods and services worth $5.84bn from the UAE in the
current fiscal year, and a further $1.95bn from Saudi Arabia,
according to the central bank.
It also sold exports worth $852m and $300m to those two
countries respectively.
By comparison, Pakistan sold exports worth $42.6m to Qatar
in the current fiscal year, while importing $864m worth of
goods and services.
The bulk of those imports have been in the form of Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG), after Pakistan signed a landmark 15-year
deal with Qatar in February 2016.
In addition, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif holds
close ties with the ruling families in both Saudi Arabia and
Qatar. In 2000, when he fled a military coup, Sharif resided
in Jeddah, a Saudi Arabian port city on the Red Sea, for eight
years while in exile.
The Saudi government also gave Sharif's government a grant
of $1.5bn in March 2014 to help meet debt-service obligations
and undertake large development projects. At the time,
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar termed the grant "a gift".
In more recent times, Sharif has relied heavily upon the
testimony of former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin
Jasim Bin Jaber Al Thani as a part of his defence in an
ongoing corruption investigation at the Supreme Court
that could unseat him as prime minister.
'If push comes to shove'
"Of all Muslim nations, Pakistan is probably in the most
difficultposition," James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore
and specialist on Pakistan's relations with Gulf countries,
told Al Jazeera.
Dorsey pointed to the appointment of Pakistan's former
army chief Raheel Sharif to lead a 39-member military
alliance put together bySaudi Arabia, ostensibly to combat
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group,
as a concession the country was forced to make after
refusing to join the war in Yemen.
Tehran and others have criticised the alliance as being
focused more on furthering Saudi objectives against Shia-
majority Iran in the region than against ISIL.
Roughly 15 percent of Pakistan's roughly 200 million
people are Shia Muslims, and the opposition at home was
one of the major reasons the country did not send troops to
fight the war in Yemen, according to analysts.
Dorsey said the recent rift with Qatar "potentially puts
Pakistan in an even tighter spot".
He added: "Obviously Pakistan has a historic relationship
with Saudi Arabia, and Saudis are not only very important
to them [economically], but also very influential on all
kinds of levels. But they also have a very close relationship
with the Qataris, economically."
But Dorsey argued that while the relationship with Qatar is
strong, Saudi Arabia has more leverage to exert on Pakistan,
if push comes to shove.
"There is a lot of Saudi money going into Pakistan. When
Pakistan has a financial shortage, there are two places they
go: Saudi and China," he said.
"There are a lot of Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia. […]
They could keep the Pakistanis and stop the remittances.
And all of this would hit Pakistan quite hard."
Moreover, Saudi Arabia has also embarked on a soft power
campaign in Pakistan for decades, said Dorsey, whose
research has tracked donations and funding trails from the
Gulf kingdom to Pakistani religious organisations.
"Saudi Arabia in the last four decades has waged the single
largest public diplomacy campaign in history. […] That
campaign was designed to further a Sunni Muslim
ultraconservatism world view."
Political opposition at home
Hasan Askari Rizvi, an Islamabad-based political analyst,
said it seems unlikely Pakistan would wade into this regional
conflict, not least because of potential political opposition at
home.
"I don't think they will sever ties," he told Al Jazeera.
"There will be domestic opposition, there will be political
opposition that this is not an advisable strategy to get
totally involved in a conflict in the Arab world."
Rizvi's view seems borne out by Thursday's parliamentary
resolution, which was moved by key leaders of the country's
opposition parties.
Either way, Pakistan will serve as an interesting test case
for major non-Arab Muslim states around the world, bo
th
analysts said.
Turkey and Iran have already come out in support of Qatar,
week.
Other countries with major Muslim populations such as
Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria have remained largely
neutral, so far.
Some smaller countries, such as the island nations of
Mauritius and Maldives have joined the boycott of Qatar.
"A lot of the Muslim states don't want to get sucked into
this," Dorsey said.
"What you'll see is countries will try and muddle through
this,maybe take some sort of step [to isolate Qatar], but
stopping short of fully taking sides. The Saudis and Emiratis
may not find that sufficient, so it remains to be seen what
happens if and when [they] try to put Muslim countries
against the wall."
Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera's Web Correspondent in
Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim
