91nuclear-armed countries (Shakoor et al. 1999 ). Amidst the tension and
violence along the Indo-Pakistan borders, Prime Minister Sharif visited
the Kingdom and held consultations with Saudi leadership and this con-
tributed to the withdrawal of Pakistani troops to the LoC and the
de-escalation of the Kargil crisis (Shakoor and Mahmood 1999 ).
A much greater manifestation of the Pakistani factor in India’s engage-
ments with Saudi Arabia, however, has reflected through the OIC and
the latter’s approach towards Indo-Pakistan tension, with Riyadh being
the pivot.
the rabat Fiasco
Pan-Islamism has been a dominant feature of the Pakistani nationalism
since the early 1920s. During the closing stages of the First World War, the
Muslim League rallied around the beleaguered Ottoman Caliph who was
threatened by the British imperialism and post-war cartography. Coming
in the wake of the British commitment towards a Jewish national home in
Palestine, the Khilafat movement spearheaded the Indian Muslim senti-
ments against colonialism (Niemeijer 1972 ). Until then the Muslim atti-
tude towards the British was lukewarm; though resenting over the demise
of the Mughal Empire, the Muslim aristocrats and landed gentry were not
drawn towards anti-British sentiments. Anti-Ottoman war efforts trans-
formed the erstwhile indifference and the Muslim masses rallied around
the caliphate.
With the abolition of the caliphate by the Turkish Republic in 1924,
Palestine became the only external agenda of the League and it became
vociferous in its condemnation of the Balfour Declaration and periodically
called for its abrogation (Pirzada 1976 ). The Palestine issue was also a use-
ful camouflage for the League to establish its anti-imperial credentials
when it was working closely with and benefitting from the British rule. For
example, during the Second World War the entire leadership of the
Congress party, including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad and their followers were incarcerated while the League
was allowed to function and hold its meetings regularly.
In the wake of the partition of the subcontinent, Pakistan incessantly
flagged its Islamic credentials to the point of offending some Arab leaders.
Upset over this King Farouk of Egypt reportedly observed that Islam was
“born” on 14 August 1947, the day Pakistan became independent
(Mudiam 1994 , 39). The Islamic world became Pakistan’s prime attraction
PAKISTAN FACTOR