Pakistan withdrew from Malaysia summit due to pressure from Saudi Arabia, says Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Pakistan withdrew from the Malaysia summit as it was pressurised by Saudi Arabia to do so.

Speaking to media representatives in Kuala Lumpur, the Turkish president said that Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan had withdrawn from the summit after economic threats from Saudi Arabia.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who along with his Malaysian counterpart and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had been a prime mover behind the summit, made a last-minute decision to withdraw from the meeting.

"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 (threaten by saying that they) would send (Pakistanis) back and re-employ Bangladeshi people instead," said Erdogan.

Saudi Arabia said its leaders were not attending the summit because it was being held outside the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation based in Jeddah.

"We see Saudi Arabia issuing economic threats to Pakistan and threatening to replace the 4 million Pakistani workers with Bangladeshi workers," the Turkey-based TRT World news channel quoted Erdogan as saying.

The Turkish president added that the Saudi kingdom has used similar threatening tactics regarding State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), threatening that they would withdraw their money.

The Pakistani central bank received its third and last $1 billion tranche in January this year as part of a balance-of-payments support program from Riyadh.

He also implied that Indonesia, which also skipped the Malaysia moot, was also suffering from similar problems, and added that he would have liked to have seen both countries present as well.

On Wednesday, the Saudi Arabia-based OIC criticised the Malaysia summit in a statement, saying that it was against the interests of the Muslim world to hold meetings outside the organisation, which has for decades acted as the collective Islamic voice.

Pakistan reveals why it withdrew from Kuala Lumpur summit

Pakistan on Friday said that it withdrew from the summit as "time and efforts were needed to address the concerns of major Muslim countries regarding possible division in the Ummah". 

"In response to questions from the media, the Spokesperson stated that Pakistan did not participate in the KL Summit as time and efforts were needed to address the concerns of major Muslim countries regarding possible division in the Ummah.

"Pakistan will continue to work for the unity and solidarity of the Ummah, which is indispensable for effectively addressing the challenges faced by the Muslim world," read a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).