Pakistan and Gulf States

 

Pakistan and Gulf States

Pakistan shared a religious and cultural heritage with Gulf States. With large revenues from oil sales, the Muslim states of the Gulf were able to finance industrial development in Pakistan. Libya, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all invested heavily in boosting the Pakistani economy in areas such as oil refining, shipping and banking. Saudi Arabia was the first country who considered Pakistan as an independent country and sent aids and also invested in Pakistani Industry. It also sent funds to help Afghan rebels and refugees. It is estimated that Pakistan's second largest source of foreign exchange in the early 1980’s aid was the money remitted by the three million of the Pakistani workers in the middle east.

The friendship with other Islamic nations also provided Pakistan with the opportunity to exports its military expertise. Pakistan provided military expertise for many gulf states and had 50,000 military personnel operating in other countries. Military agreements were signed with Muslim states in the 1970’s. Pakistan joined in the international coalition which sought to end the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait during the 1990-91 Gulf war. Some element especially Jamaat-e-Islami opposed the policy, as they feared a defeat of Iraq would lead to a increase in strength of the Shi’ite government in Iran and if Pakistan was Pro-Iran, Saudi Arabia would step back. There are severe clashes between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Arabia and the Gulf states. Pakistan joined in the international collision under the United Nations flag of United States to support Kuwait against the Iraqi invasion in 1990-1991 Gulf war. After the Afghan-Russia war and Islamic revolution in Iran Muslim world is divided into two groups Shia and Sunnis. Iran supports Shia Muslims while Saudi Arabia supports Wahabi governments. Pakistan is dominated by Sunni governments which keeps a balance of relations with Irani and Saudi governments. It had been an issue that if Pakistan is more towards Saudi Arabia Iran gets annoyed while if Pakistan favors Iran Saudi Arabia gets angry. However, maintaining the balance of relations and keeping it on friendly terms is an art which is very well-worked by Pakistani government. Shortly, it can be said that Pakistan, Gulf States and Saudi Arabia had been on friendly terms since 1947.

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