Reposting the old (50 year) NYT article on the gibs pakees received from gulf and mohamedan countries in 1970s in context of post Israeli yom kippur war and subsequent gulf oil embargo
en.m.wikipedia.org
Pakistan Is Bolstered by Aid From Other Moslem Nations
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan —The learning of Arabic is being encouraged in Pakistan. Editions of the Koran marred by typographical errors are barred from bookshops. Airline employes, announcing flight plans, stipulate, “If Allah wills.”
Such devotion to the faith and culture of Islam is earning Pakistan rich rewards: During the 12 months ending June 30 other Moslem countries gave her more than $500‐million in aid from their oil profits.
That is the equivalent of more than $7 for each Pakistani, a great boon in a country whose per capita income is put at $80 to $110 a year.
The effect of the aid, along with assistance from the United States and other sources, has been to cushion the impact of the rising prices Pakistan must pay for oil and other imports, of her runaway population growth and of the global economic doldrums.
The money has helped to keep Pakistan far better off economically than floundering India and has made it easier for her to indulge in little luxuries such as the 10 Mirage reconnaissance jet, planes that she ordered from France last month in a $75‐million deferred‐payment deal.
The close ties with other Islamic states were reflected in a typical recent message, beginning “excellency and dear brother,” that Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto addressed to President Anwar el‐Sadat of Egypt, with greetings to “the fraternal Egyptian people” and a denunciation of “Zionist aggression.”
Economically troubled Egypt was not among Pakistan's benefactors, but her stanch and open handed supporter, Saudi Arabia, was, to the tune of $35‐million in credits. Libya lent Pakistan $97‐million, Abu Dhabi $108‐million, Qatar $11‐million and Kuwait $5‐million.
A further $251‐million came from Iran, the Moslem but nonArab nation that adjoins Pakistan on the west and which, like Pakistan, has been stressing Islamic solidarity and ties with the Arab world.
All the loans are at low interest rates, to be paid in eight to 40 years.
Though many Pakistanis see the aid from the oil‐producing nations as a natural outgrowth of Islamic ties, such aid was relatively scant before the impact of the price rises that began late in 1973, before Mr. Bhutto began stressing those ties.
Under the military regime that preceded Mr. Bhutto, an official observed, “there was a sort of cultural gap—the force that Islam represents was not fully perceived.”
Nowadays Prime Minister Bhutto takes pains over such matters as the naming of ambassadors to key Moslem nations. High‐level contacts with Islamic leaders have become frequent, notably at the Islamic conference held in Pakistan in February, 1974. At that conference Mr. Bhutto, stressing Pakistan's common cause with the Arabs, said the Israelis were “intoxicated with their militarism and reeking with ethnological arrogance.”
Pakistan makes other gestures of solidarity with the Arabs. The Pakistani press, which is responsive to the Government's views, has endorsed recent Arab criticism of Israel's administration of the tomb of Abraham at Hebron, on the Israeli‐occupied West Bank of the Jordan River.
“There seems to be no end to Israeli vandalism and the Zionist state's persistence in taking step after step deliberately aimed at causing grave provocation to the entire Moslem world,” the Karachi Morning News said in an editorial a day after Moslem worshipers rioted at the tomb to protest an Israeli proposal to divide it between Jews and Moslems.
Pakistani officials are also at pains to stress their cultural links with Iran. Persian poets such as Omar Khayyam are quoted and revered. The Prime Minister, on a recent visit to Iran, so admired an ornate gate that he is having one like it put up to adorn a Moslem shrine. In June the two nations signed a voluminous cultural‐exchange agreement.
In addition strategic interests underlie Iran's support for Pakistan: The Shah of Iran feels uncomfortable surrounded by the Soviet Union on the north, Soviet‐influenced Arab nations on the west and Soviet‐armed Afghanistan on the east. Accordingly, Iran has buttressed her other eastern neighbor, Pakistan, which has close ties with China.
The relatively liberal Pakistani élite sees no conflict between the Government's ties with China's secular, anticlerical regime and the grass‐roots Moslem faith of the Pakistani populace.
It was taken for granted that the Minister of State for Railways, Mian Muhammad Atta Ullah, should make a speech here saying that it was the duty of every Pakistani Moslem to learn Arabic to be able to read the Koran.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs reported that the sale of four editions of the Koran had been banned under a 1974 law after they had been found to contain numerous typographical errors. Legal proceedings are expected to be brought against a luckless Lahore concern that recently brought out a Koran containing 340 errors.
I made rough estimate showing the value of aid pakees received in present context the figure is like $24 billion USD per year should be given to pakees match per capita gibs they received in 1970s.
Tbf they do receive some portion of gibs as zakat for madrasahs etc from gulf which reduces burden on pakee govt and elite from spending on schools as lower classes join their children in these gulf funded madrasahs for free food and stay they provide. Pakees are expert in milking ummah.
Pak was getting half a billion dollar aid in just one year, in present rate that equals 6billion USD, and if you compare the aid as percent of percapita income it will be even more aid required in present day, like $7 bump at a percapita lf $110 in 1975, is like 6% bump in percapita income just because of aid, if similar percent in pakistan percapita has to occur in 2025 withe a percapita of ~$1600, it requires a $100 bump percapita and for the population of 240 million, it gives 24 Billion USD of aid in just a year.
pakees were buying chinese goods with saudi money anyway like the VT4 deal in 2020s iirc, so we should stop panicking about this treaty/agreement.
Mohemdan countries will anyway support pakees thru gibs, fuel, social media info war etc unless pakees explicity messed their relation with them and even then street support will always be with pakees even if rulers might think in geo-politics context.
So all this should be accounted for when ever we decide to address the pakee question finally.
. Chabahar port anyone?
