Saudi govt provides US$ 300 mln in aid to Pakistan

[AgNoStIc MuSliM]

Originally Posted by irfan1173

AoA
AgNoStIc MuSliM
You got it wrong. Its Saudi Arabia that has asked its citizens to get NOC before travelling to pakistan. Its not in our interest so why would we ask for it. Check this Link

Thanks for the correction. I read that article a while back and incorrectly recalled the contents. I do think that it is in our interest to have Saudis (and others - Algerians, Egyptians etc.) vetted before traveling, if the GoP can manage to control foreign funds transfers to organizations that are possibly engaging in indoctrinating extremist ideology, or have links to extremist organizations. To this extent the planned regulation of Madrasssa's and Government auditing of their books is an extremely important tool, as is the continued crack down on Hundi/Hawala networks.

There is no doubt that Arabs and other foreigners are joining the Taliban/AQ nexus - and while they do not constitute a significant number of the recruits of these organizations, any restrictions on them should be welcome.

[Energon]

Agnostic: did you ever get around to reading Steve Coll's works (particularly "Ghost Wars") There is a section either in that book or one of his essays where he highlights the GID's (Saudi intelligence Agency) long standing policy of unloading Saudi's unwanted elements who pose a direct threat to the Royal family on to more impoverished Islamic states like Pakistan, Sudan and Somalia as part of monetary aid packages.

Regardless, if the GoP is really serious about taking on the radical elements there are bound to be some rather violent standoffs between the military and the Madrassah mullahs, many of whom are in the good graces of the Saudi clerics (if not of Saudi and/or Arab origin themselves). In the case of such standoffs, monetary grants can be used as leverage against the Pakistan armed forces and thereby ensure a certain level of freedom to these people.

[AgNoStIc MuSliM]

Energon:
I am 3 quarters of the way through it - juggling it with about five other books (including a couple of very recent additions by Selig Harrison and AB Alam on Baluchistan ), plus school work, projects etc. etc. etc.....

On that note, I am somewhat disappointed by the book. I did not find it quite as well written or objective as Ahmed Rashid's Taliban, on content where the two overlap (though Rashid apparently reviews it favorably). There is also an "American slant" to it - phrases like "Vodka soaked Soviet officers", and repeated descriptions of the Americans involved as "keen/sharp eyed", "decent" etc. (you know, mostly positive adjectives) made me question how objective his presentation of the facts was - especially when very rarely did he extend the same sort of verbiage to describe the other nationalities involved, but some interesting information nonetheless.

Now I am no supporter of the Saudis, I have always criticized the fawning attitudes of some Pakistanis towards the Arabs.

The role of the GID is indeed very interesting, however, the events of that era do need to be looked at within the context of the misinterpretation by all three intelligence agencies (CIA, ISI, GID) of the future risk posed by these elements. It did cement a long held view of mine that the Saudi royal family allowed the extreme Wahabi segments within the Kingdom a certain amount of free rein to maintain themselves in power. I don't think that automatically implies that they want these elements supporting "terrorism", but they do indeed support efforts by them to proselytize and expand their ideology outside of Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan is not the only recipient of this "largess" however - the British have also been having a strong discussion over the role of Saudi funded mosques and their content. At the very least the Saudi sponsored ideology supports an intolerant and unidimensional interpretation of Islam, but the problem cannot be solved as easily as simply banning Saudi sponsored Madrassa's, where would we stop? Ban the Indian Deobandis and Deobandi offshoots? Iranian affiliated schools?

The entire system, needs to be changed - with GoP monitoring of the curriculum, full declaration of assets and funding sources, independent auditing - essentially a level of transparency that would allow the State to avoid the "sledgehammer approach" of "banning" organizations, and instead making the rules clear, and then individually target specific institutions and Leaders who violate those rules.

The Saudis have already acted to influence GoP action against personalities that are in their favor - Hamid Gul was arrested after the emergency and released because of Saudi intervention, and it is possible that if the GoP does manage to implement the Madrassa reforms I mentioned, the Saudis might step in to protect some of their blue eyed boys, but we'll have to wait and see. Hamid Gul is an extremely high profile individual, and had contacts due to his involvement with the GID during the Afghan Jihad - I am not certain the Saudis would use up their political capital for any mere Mullah running a seminary.

[Cheetah786]

AgNoStIc MuSliM

The Saudis have already acted to influence GoP

As i said before Aids from house of saud didnt come for free.

[Salim]

Good for Saudis to help Pakistan.

Every bit helps!

And anyway, Nawaz Sharif must have had an influence to make the Saudi help!

[WebMaster]

And anyway, Nawaz Sharif must have had an influence to make the Saudi help!

No, I dont think so. Nawaz hasn't even entered in the building.

[SMustafaMoiz]

Yeah, a lot of extremists come from Saudi Arabia, but this is money, not extremists.

[maqsad]

Why blame the Saudis for this even if they are going to take advantage of Pakistan? Whose fault is it to begin with that this happened? It is the fault of the corrupt and the retarded people in GoP who were in charge of the pak economy for the last 8 years. And the 8 years before that was even worse. Why isn't there anybody since the Ayub Khan days in GoP who can fix the economy? How hard is it to do?