The Qatar angle
Prime Minister
Imran Khan’s two-day visit to Qatar produced all the pomp and show associated
with the arrival of a friendly state’s government head. The activities between
the two sides included a one-to-one meeting between the prime minister and
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and delegation-level talks on a
whole range of issues pertinent to mutual ties and the situation in the region.
However, the final communiqué promised more than it revealed as rhetoric about
trade facilitation and Qatari investment in Pakistan was plentiful but lacking
in any detail. What has come through the thicket of diplomatese is the Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaaf government’s swallowing the Liquefied Natural Gas supply
agreement by its predecessor government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
despite having been bitterly critical of it in opposition. The only request to
the Qatari authorities from the Pakistan contingent in this respect was for a
reduction in the Liquefied Natural Gas price of 13.39 percent of the international
benchmark crude oil price and deferred payments for gas under the 15-year
supply contract. Qatar is a Gulf state with enormous reserves of gas that it
has turned into a lucrative export item in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas.
Pakistan’s imports of Liquefied Natural Gas total $ four billion per annum. To
handle the imports of Liquefied Natural Gas from Qatar, two private sector
terminals for regasifying the Liquefied Natural Gas have been constructed as
part of the deal. Whereas Pakistan has received $ six billion from Saudi Arabia
and the UAE for balance of payments support and deferred payment terms for oil
imports from these two countries, it remains to be seen what if any concessions
Qatar makes to an already signed and delivered deal. The real, tangible,
immediate benefit Pakistan can hope for in the immediate future is the offer by
Qatar to employ 100,000 skilled workers from Pakistan. The FIFA World Cup is scheduled
to be held in Doha in 2022. The huge construction and infrastructure work
entailed in this project requires a large contingent of foreign workers as
Qatar’s total population of 2.6 million includes 2.3 million expatriates
already. Indigenous labour, quantitatively and qualitatively, is insufficient.
Hence the offer to Pakistan, with its concomitant advantage of boosting
workers’ remittances home that now occupy an important position in easing the
country’s external deficit difficulties to some extent. The only reservation
about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s otherwise seemingly smooth, seamless,
positive welcome in Doha is his habit of dragging domestic controversies into
foreign visits. In particular, his penchant for lambasting the opposition as
corrupt, money launderers, etc, and putting the entire blame for Pakistan’s
structural economic problems on this factor, does not behove the head of a
government representing his country abroad. This mantra was repeated in the
visit to Malaysia, and now Qatar has heard it. Arguably, this airing of domestic
issues of a contentious nature on foreign visits does the country’s image
precious little good and may even discourage prospective investors.
The other sensitive
aspect of relations with Qatar is its ongoing dispute with the Gulf Cooperation
Council countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the Yemen war and
Qatar’s support to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. While
Pakistan has acted wisely in refraining from being dragged into taking sides in
sectarian (the Saudi-UAE conflict with Iran) or inter-Arab ( the Saudi-UAE-Gulf
Cooperation Council differences with Qatar) quarrels, and even offered
mediation to help resolve these conflicts, it is open to question whether
Pakistan is in any position to act as a neutral arbiter acceptable to all sides
in these conflicts. The only saving grace in such offers may be that it helps Pakistan
keep a healthy distance from awkward commitments to any side, despite our involvement
with the Saudi-led military alliance aimed, Iran thinks, against it.
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