Mohammad bin Salman's visit to Pakistan has been a major boost to Pakistan's economy since investment worth 14bn dollars has been promised by the Saudi crown prince. The question however is, what's the flip side.
- “Mr Prime Minister! Consider me Pakistan’s ambassador in Saudi Arabia”
- “We can’t say ‘NO’ to Pakistan”
- These were Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman’s words
- during his recent Pakistan visit
- But everything has advantages and disadvantages
- So let’s assess what benefits we see from this visit
- and what its flipside could be
- First let’s discuss the advantages
- The kind of political challenges Pakistan is facing,
- the promise of an investment worth USD 14bn is a welcome move
- and the economic activity this investment generates
- will be beneficial for both the countries
- But then, what could be its flipside?
- Any country that invests such a large amount in another country,
- does it only expect financial benefits in return?
- And if we look at it in historical perspective,
- have we only looked at Saudi Arabia for financial transactions
- or has Saudi Arabia also made other demands from us?
- We got major financial assistance from Saudi Arabia
- when we fought US’s proxy war in Afghanistan
- Saudi Arabia matched the funding we received from the US
- and it was around one billion dollars
- But we’re reaping the crop we had sowed then
- So what would be the trade off this time?
- This is the question analysts are trying to find answer to
- Saudi Arabia wants to improve its presence in the region
- The crown prince visited Pakistan, and then India too,
- hinting at investment worth 40bn dollars there as well
- So we’ll have to see where this situation leads us to