ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Saudi Arabia forced Pakistan to the side away from the Kuala Lumpur Summit by threatening that Riyadh would send 4 million Pakistani workers back and withdraw billions of dollars from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Erdogan told Turkish media representatives in the Malaysian capital before returning to the country that he wanted both Pakistan and Indonesia to be present in the Malaysian capital but Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) affected their absence.
“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,” Turkey’s Sabah daily quoted Erdogan as saying.
“The kingdom has also used similar threatening tactics regarding the central bank case by claiming that they would withdraw their money,” he said, adding that due to its economic difficulties, Pakistan had to “obey such threats”.
Following the Turkish newspaper report, Pakistan’s Foreign Office issued a brief statement in response to several media queries but it did not mention President Erdogan’s talks in Malaysia.
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