Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Pakistan was compelled to skip the Kuala Lumpur summit because Saudi Arabia had “threatened” to withdraw its economic support.
“Unfortunately, we see that Saudi Arabia pressures Pakistan. Now, there are promises that the country has given to Pakistan regarding the central bank,” the president was quoted by Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah as saying on Friday.
Erdogan was apparently referring to the bailout package of $3 billion which the kingdom has parked in Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves to shore them up and also established a credit line worth $3 billion for the sale of petroleum products on credit for three years.
The differences between Saudi Arabia and Malaysia had compelled Pakistan to stay out of the Kuala Lumpur summit with officials maintaining that the decision was taken to maintain neutrality in the “Muslim Ummah”.
The recently concluded summit was meant to discuss problems facing the Muslim countries and suggest way forward. Observers see it as an attempt by Malaysia and other like-minded countries to create a new Islamic bloc, excluding Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.
According to the Turkish president, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have a tendency of dictating the decisions to others countries.
“However, more than that, there are 4 million Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia. They [threaten by saying that they] would send [Pakistanis] back and re-employ Bangladeshi people instead,” he was cited by the Turkish daily as saying.
The kingdom has also used similar threatening tactics regarding the central bank case by claiming that they would withdraw their money, the president added.
Erdoğan went on to say that due to its economic difficulties, Pakistan had to obey such threats, while implying that Indonesia, which also pulled out of the summit, has suffered from similar problems too.
