Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have signed a mutual visa exemption for holders of diplomatic and official passports (Express Tribune).
Who signed
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, on the margins of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York.
What it covers
Diplomatic and official or special passport holders only — not ordinary travellers, and not the workers who make up the overwhelming majority of Pakistani travel to the kingdom.
Dar said the step “will further facilitate high-level engagement and institutional exchanges” and would “contribute to advancing our enduring and brotherly strategic partnership”.
What else was discussed
Bilateral matters, the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, and regional peace efforts.
The proportion worth noting
Saudi Arabia is the single largest source of Pakistani remittances — $873.5 million in August alone, of a $3.656 billion total. The people sending that money travel on ordinary passports and are unaffected by this agreement.
A visa waiver for officials is a real convenience for the machinery of a relationship. It is not a change in the relationship most Pakistanis have with the kingdom.
The timing
It comes as Pakistan restates its defence commitment to Saudi Arabia almost daily, with a drone intercepted near Makkah on 15 September, Houthi strikes reaching Riyadh, and a Houthi official threatening Pakistan by name.
Agreements of this kind are negotiated over months. Signing one in this particular week is a signal about the direction of the relationship rather than about visas.
What is not established
No date has been given for entry into force, and the text has not been published. It has not been reported whether any easing for ordinary passport holders is under discussion.
[Image: Foreign Office via The Express Tribune]
