Prime Minster Imran Khan has held one-on- meeting with his Malaysian counterpart Dr. Mahatir Mohammad followed by delegation level talks in his two day visit of Malaysia. In a joint press conference, the Prime Minister articulated the reasons of his skipping Kuala Lumpur summit which was a useful forum for discussing ways and means of economic integration among the Islam countries that are endowed with rich renewable resources. He said that few Arab Friend countries had the misconception that the summit may create division in OIC.

In the joint press conference the Prime Minister hinted at increasing the quantum of palm oil import from Malaysia to partially offset the losses that may be accrued to it because of India’s intention to reduce palm oil import from Malaysia. Currently, Pakistan imports 1.1 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia as compare with 6 million tonnes imports of India.

The KL summit is a brainchild of Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad. The plan for the summit was finalized during a trilateral meeting involving Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia in September last year in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session. Therefore, Imran’s pulling out from the first summit meeting at the eleventh hour had surprised many but in background, we understand Pakistan put a lot of effort to address the concerns of the friendly countries about the KL Summit. In fact, ahead of the summit, the Malaysian PM himself had contacted the Saudi leadership to allay their apprehensions. Undoubtedly, Saudi Arabia is the most important country of Muslim world and Muslims all over the world look around it for the leadership role. Given the challenges faced by Muslim Ummah at this point in time including Palestine, Kashmir, Islamophobia, poverty, backwardness and so on, it is important that all the Muslim leaders speak with one voice from one platform. As PM Khan has agreed to attend the next KL summit, we expect that both Pakistan and Malaysia will also take on board both Saudi Arabia and the UAE to make them part of this process. Without them, we understand the summit will remain incomplete and inconclusive. We are also confident that the leadership of both Saudi Arabia and the UAE will be forthcoming. In fact the KL process could be used to firm up a concrete plan to make the OIC more vibrant and effective that truly represents the aspirations of Muslims around the world. The KL Process must also be used to build strong economic ties amongst the Muslim countries. We need to build a strong Muslim economic bloc. The first summit in fact took a very important decision regarding a common currency for the Muslim world. Though efforts will be made to thwart this idea but implementing it will be the first step towards achieving economic sovereignty.

There was also discussion over trade between the two countries, particularly with regards to palm oil that Malaysia exports, which India has stopped importing since the former threw its support behind Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. PM Khan has, in some haste, verbally agreed to import more palm oil from Malaysia to offset the effect of the Indian embargo. The question of whether or not there is enough demand for palm oil in the country or the money to purchase it in the state’s coffers to be importing more of the product just to compensate Malaysia for its diplomatic support seems to have been ignored. Either the PM is not briefed in detail prior to such bilateral visits or he is simply not receptive to the necessary input from more experienced professionals. One hopes that he becomes more amenable to the more constructive advice coming from his subordinates in the very near future.