ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that Pakistan’s absence in the Kuala Lumpur Summit was due to Saudi Arabia as the country threatened Islamabad of economic sanctions.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan alleged that Pakistan refrained itself from the Kuala Lumpur summit because of Saudi Arabia’s threats of economic sanctions.
According to the Turkish newspaper, Erdogan was quoted saying that it was not the first time that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had put pressure on a country for doing or not doing certain things.
Erdogan added, “Unfortunately, we see that Saudi Arabia pressures Pakistan. Now, there are promises that the country has given to Pakistan regarding the central bank. However, more than that, there are 4 million Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia. They would send Pakistanis back and re-employ Bangladeshis instead.”
Erdogan was quoted as saying. He added that the kingdom has also threatened to withdraw money it had deposited in the State Bank of Pakistan.
The statement of Erdogan came after when Pakisatn did not attend the Kuala Lumpur summit which started on 18th December. The summit was meant to discuss problems facing Muslim countries.
Read more: PM discusses important regional issues with Erdogan
The Foreign Office while not directly addressing Erdogan’s statement, denied the allegations and stated that Pakistan did not participate in the Kuala Lumpur summit because time and efforts were needed to address the concerns of major Muslim countries regarding possible division in the Ummah.
Pakistan was one of the first countries with which Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir shared his plans for holding the summit when he met Prime Minister Imran Khan along with Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York in September. Later, Imran Khan formally conveyed his acceptance of the invitation for attending the summit when Deputy Foreign Minister of Malaysia Marzuki Bin Haji Yahya called on him in Islamabad on 29th November.
Also read: FM praises Turkish President Erdogan over Kashmir stance
Last week, however, reports of the prime minister canceling his trip to Malaysia started making rounds after his visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday Imran Khan decided to stay away from the Kuala Lumpur summit.
ADVERTISEMENT
