A diplomatic snub we shouldn’t forget

Nawaz’s failure to appoint an actual foreign minister and empower a foreign ministry is coming back to bite him

The bruises from the diplomatic spanking Pakistan got in Riyadh are unlikely to heal soon. It made all Pakistanis cringe in despair, regardless of their political affiliation. The way we were treated as a nation by our Saudi brothers (and others) should be an eye-opener: Pakistan’s foreign policy is in tatters and it needs a fundamental realignment that is based on regional cooperation, trade and non-alignment from a sectarian point of view. That this leaning towards the Saudis — both in terms of Nawaz Sharif’s closeness to the royal family and General Raheel Sharif’s appointment to the grand military alliance is extremely dangerous.

Nawaz’s failure to appoint an actual foreign minister and empower a foreign ministry — a needless and ultimately detrimental move — is coming back to bite him, and this will be a particularly nasty bite. Ironic that had he just appointed a foreign minister to begin with, he would have now had a scapegoat to offer up to the angry mob of domestic blowback that’s headed his way. Kind of like what he did with Pervaiz Rashid.

But he didn’t. And now he will be remembered by historians as the thrice-elected PM of Pakistan that was treated like a nobody in the country, and by the family that he held so dear to his heart. It’s actually quite tragic on a personal level and I would feel bad for our prime minister in less humiliating times.

The fact is that if a prime minister believes that he has the energy and intellect to be both the premier of a country and its chief foreign emissary and decides to take on both roles, then he stands to be judged by his performance in both capacities. The fact is that the large delegation and legion of aides that the PM takes with him had no clue this was going to happen. Since they couldn’t anticipate it, they had no way of pulling a last minute face-saving manoeuvre, ultimately resulting in a comedy of tragic errors that led to the worst diplomatic moment of Nawaz’s entire political career.



Intelligence failure doesn’t even begin to describe what a snafu this was. One would be tempted to blame the sheer incompetence of the Foreign Office and the PM’s aides but since the premier is also the de facto foreign minister, the buck stops with him. It is ultimately his responsibility to recruit competent aides and build competent teams to act in the best interests of the nation. A well-oiled diplomatic machine should ideally have built a bank of diplomatic capital and personal relationships to draw on in every country to prevent against situations exactly like this. Clearly, this wasn’t the case.

The fact that Pakistan’s fight against terrorism went unacknowledged in Riyadh was insulting to the memory of thousands of Pakistanis who were either killed and maimed in this war. This warrants a grand reckoning and rethink of our foreign policy. In many ways it could be an opportunity to course correct and reset. It is also yet another opportunity to open our eyes and remind ourselves as to how our alignment with Saudi Arabia is flawed and how the Saudis view Pakistan from a religious, strategic and sociopolitical point of view; as mere guns for hire, as a dumping ground for their brand of conservativism and as a subservient little puppet state.

And why shouldn’t they view us this way? Pakistanis, generally, view Saudis with a degree of deference.

When we don’t have much respect for our own identity, why should the Saudis give us any?We can’t even stand up for the thousands of Pakistani labourers that enter into state sanctioned bonded labour in the Kingdom.

From the Saudi perspective this was a calculated move: nothing to gain by giving Pakistan and Nawaz airtime when there were bigger games afoot, and comparatively not much to lose by snubbing us. It’s not like Nawaz will now suddenly sever his cozy relationship with the Saudi royal family. It’s not like General Raheel will resign in protest from his post presiding over the grand alliance. This was a message and a reminder — that we’re not that important to them and that they expected compliance with the request for Pakistani troops in Yemen. Outlive your usefulness and this is what happens — don’t do it again, is the message being sent out.

The Saudis may be many things, but you can hardly accuse them of not being pragmatic and unversed in realpolitik. They know a few million dollars in grants will smooth things out if we get too sentimental about this affront to our pride. We’ll come running back like we always have.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2017.

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