Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With Pakistan trying to be too clever by half, the UAE has reportedly expelled thousands of Pakistani Shia workers in recent weeks amid the ongoing Iran war, the media reported on Saturday.
This is a fresh serious blow to a nearly bankrupt Pakistan, adding strain to already troubled ties between Islamabad and Abu Dhabi.
The move comes just a month after the UAE forced Pakistan to repay a USD 3.5 billion loan, The New York Times reported.
Community leaders and clerics in Pakistan say the deportations have affected thousands of families and could hurt the country’s economy, which depends heavily on remittances from workers in West Asia.
The paper reported that deportations of Pakistani Shia workers have been taking place since at least mid-April. An Islamabad-based cleric linked to a Shia political organisation claimed that around 5,000 families have already been registered as affected by the expulsions.
Leaders from Shia-majority villages in Pakistan’s northwest said nearly 900 men had returned from the UAE in the past few weeks. The reported crackdown has raised concerns because nearly 2 million Pakistanis live and work in the UAE.
Last year alone, they sent back around USD 8 billion in remittances, making the Gulf nation one of Pakistan’s biggest overseas income sources.
Not other countries
The NYT reported that the action appears focused mainly on Pakistani Shia workers. Shia workers from countries such as Iraq and Lebanon were not part of the deportation campaign. Eight business owners operating in the UAE also told the newspaper that several Pakistani employees had been expelled recently.
The Pakistan-UAE relations had been under pressure for more than a year, but the ongoing conflict in West Asia widened the gap further. Pakistan, which signed a defence pact with Saudi Arabia, to the chagrin of the UAE, has attempted to position itself as a mediator during the conflict.
However, reports suggest the UAE was unhappy that Islamabad did not strongly condemn Iranian attacks on Emirati territory.
Iran launched more missiles and drones at the UAE than at any other country in the region during the conflict that started on February 28 with the US and Israel attacking Iran. While Pakistan pushed for negotiations and ceasefire efforts, the UAE favoured stronger military pressure against Iran. This difference in approach created suspicion in Abu Dhabi that Pakistan was leaning closer to Tehran.
The Saudi factor
Pakistan’s growing closeness with Saudi Arabia has also become a sensitive issue for the UAE. After Abu Dhabi sought repayment of the USD 3.5 billion loan, an amount equal to nearly one-fifth of Pakistan’s foreign reserves, Saudi Arabia stepped in with financial support, granting Pakistan USD 3 billion and also extending an existing USD 5 billion loan by more than a year.
Last month, reports also emerged that UAE telecom giant Etisalat was considering exiting Pakistan. The company currently owns a 26 per cent stake in Pakistan Telecommunications, the country’s largest telecom company.