Pakistan’s Mecca Pact: From Sovereignty to Saudi Subcontracting

There was a time when Pakistan could still distinguish an alliance from an employment contract. In April 2015, Saudi Arabia wanted Pakistani aircraft, warships and troops for its war in Yemen. Pakistan’s parliament did something that now looks almost embarrassingly sensible: it said no. Another country’s war, it understood, does not become yours merely because its rulers are richer, louder, and accustomed to being obeyed. The Gulf response stripped away the sentimental language of fraternity. Anwar Gargash, then the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, warned Pakistan that it could pay a “heavy price” for its supposedly ambiguous position. Ambiguous? Parliament had unanimously voted for neutrality. In the diplomatic vocabulary of petro-monarchies, it seems, “ambiguity” can mean nothing more […]