EDITORIAL: When last week the Foreign Office in Islamabad said the UAE had stopped, effective November 18, processing new employment and visit visas for Pakistan’s citizens as well as those of some other countries without any explanation, many believed it had something to do with the coronavirus pandemic. A press report now says the emirate has stopped issuing fresh visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Somalia, Algeria, and Tunisia. Had the decision been related to the novel coronavirus pandemic the ban would have been applied also to nationals of the US and European countries, which have become the epicenter of Covid-19.
Interestingly, the UAE’s Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship did not make that announcement, instead the decision was discreetly publicized via a document issue by a state-owned business park, apparently, to avoid giving a formal reason for the ban. A Reuters report quoting an important source says the visas have been temporarily stopped over security concerns without providing details of those concerns, though. The government may not want to state the reason, but that does not stop others from looking for an explanation. An obvious one is the Gulf state’s normalization of relations with Israel by establishing diplomatic, security, trade and investment ties at a time the two-state solution is dead in the water and the Zionist state has gone full steam with its settlements construction activity on occupied Palestinian lands. The move has angered many in the Muslim world, and could be worrying the emirate about a possible violent backlash from radicalized individuals/groups. Some Western diplomats, however, have claimed that the ban is unrelated to the UAE’s cozying up to Israel, arguing that it had strained relations with some of the countries listed, such as Turkey.
Pakistan is supposed to have good brotherly relations with the UAE. Only the other day, risking domestic criticism, Islamabad issued a special permit to the ruler of Dubai, for ‘export’ of 150 falcons of two rare species, protected under the local wildlife laws as well as international nature conservation treaties. Yet all is not well between this country and the leading Gulf Arab states, which is plain from the reports that the Kashmir issue is not included in the agenda of the two-day OIC foreign ministers’ meeting being held in Niger. Nor the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir is scheduled to hold any meeting. Though since denied by our FO this clearly is reflective of tensions in this country’s relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia over what Pakistani diplomats say are “unfulfilled expectations.” What those expectations might be is not difficult to guess. Soon after the UAE struck the US-brokered normalization deal with Israel, Prime Minister Imran Khan had averred “whatever any country does, our position is very clear. … That we cannot ever accept Israel as long as Palestinians are not given their rights and there is no just settlement.” The FO has since been reiterating that stance. Pakistan, of course, is not expected to accept occupation in the case of Palestine and demand its end in Kashmir. It is sad to see the OIC veer away from its original mission statement to raise “the collective voice of the Muslim world” and to “protect the interests of the Muslim world.” And that some of its influential members should have no qualms about dropping even the veneer of Muslim unity.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020