There are close personal relations between the elite of Pakistan and Saudi monarchs. The formers frequently visit the kingdom to look after their businesses, the latter’s only visit Pakistan for haunting the threatened species or merrymaking. The Saudi monarchs have always shown little interest in business with Pakistan and the European countries appear to be the best destinations for riyals. The new leadership in Saudi Arabia has introduced a development programme, Saudi Vision-2030, at a time the kingdom is going through political and social changes. There is a chaos in the royal family and dozens of high-profiled princes are arrested to strengthen the hands of the current rulers. After years of strong relations between the elites of the two sides, the Pakistani rulers and policymakers never tried to persuade Saudi investors to invest in Pakistan. The volume of Saudi investment in Pakistan is negligible. However, the Pakistani officials now suddenly woke up to evolve a ‘comprehensive’ policy to promote bilateral trade and investment. A package is under preparation to simplify visa procedures for Pakistani entrepreneurs, remove non-tariff barriers and initiate negotiations to sign a preferential trade agreement. Pakistanis are already spending billions of dollars in Saudi Arabia during haj and umra tours.
On another note, the Saudi princes chose Pakistan for troubles, but love to invest in non-Muslim nations. They have least regard for Islam or Muslim brotherhood and look Pakistanis with disdain. Thousands of Pakistani businessmen have lost all their properties and belongings in the kingdom at the hands of their Saudi sponsors. There is no forum to knock at for justice and Pakistani diplomatic crew is the least interested in resolving the problems of their countrymen. Due to failed policies of the government, Saudi Arabia remained the biggest beneficiary of the Pakistani brain drain. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s trade with Saudi Arabia is posting a consistent decline, dropping to $2.5 billion in 2016-17 from $5.08 billion in 2013-14. The petroleum products constitute 50 percent of the total imports from Saudi Arabia. Pakistan’s exports rice, fruits, vegetables, apparels and clothes but the volume of exports is also on the decline. The basic element to enhance bilateral trade is sincerity which the Saudi officials lack from the core. But still there is hope that the Saudi officials will change their minds and will look toward east than the west. The proposed agreement will help improve trade volume between the two countries.
