SAUDI Arabia has once again demonstrated its unwavering commitment to the progress and welfare of people of Pakistan by agreeing to another oil facility on deferred payments at this critical juncture of the country’s history.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin told the National Assembly on Tuesday that an agreement for another Saudi oil facility on deferred payments has been reached and would be formally announced soon.
This is, indeed, a very pertinent and timely relief for Pakistan in view of rising prices of oil in the international market that are putting strains on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Earlier too, the Kingdom gave Pakistan a fairly good package worth $5 billion at a time when the country was witnessing one of the worst financial crisis.
Apart from the supply of oil on deferred payment to the cash-starved Pakistan, Saudi Arabia also provided grant assistance of $1.5 billion in 2013-14, which came as a significant relief to the country.
The latest decision of the Kingdom is indicative of warming up of relations to the previous enviable position when the Kingdom came to the rescue of Pakistan during each and every testing time.
The relationship was so intimate that the then Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal described it as “probably one of the closest relationships in the world between any two countries without any official treaty.”
There are also credible reports that the KSA was ready to make large-scale investment in Pakistan in 2019 but the country was simply unprepared to realize these proposals.
There is, therefore, a need to attract Saudi investment in different sectors of Pakistan’s economy and this is a viable course given the growth momentum in Pakistan.
