a large section of Pakistani population has turned AGAINST Saudi Arabia with the realization that Saudi funded wahabiism has dragged Pakistan down internally and internationally!
It is a wrong approach for an outsider(on offense intended) to try to judge the mood of a people by visiting an online forum that is frequented only by a very small proportion of that nation. It will be wrong to say that Pakistanis have actually turned against Saudis because of their wahabi madrassas, believe me most of our people still think that all of this terrorism is a conspiracy against Pakistan by likes of India, Israel and US.
The thinking that radicalization of the society because of the Saudi funded madrassas is the biggest menace of Pakistan, can only be found in the liberal segment of the society and their numbers are actually negligible when compared to the overall population of Pakistan.
The love and hate for the Saudis has always been there and no matter how many people deny that it is a fact that it has always depended upon one's sectarian affiliation.
Let me give you a break up of our society real quick.
3% are minorities (hindus, christians, sikhs and ahmadis) they certainly don't have any love for saudis.
15-18% are Shia Muslims, they actually hate Saudi regime and the reasons are quite obvious.
Then about
80% of the society is Sunni, but its not a homogeneous group. The Sunnis of Pakistan (in fact of the Sub-continent) can mainly be divided into two groups. In Pakistan their population is roughly as
40-45% Brelvi Sunnis, they are not huge fans of Saudi regime because of the destruction of Companion's tombs e.t.c and because Saudis consider many of their practices as bidah and don't allow them to practice them while being in Saudia during Hajj and Umrah.
35-40% Deobandis, Ahle-Hadiths, Jamat-e-Islami, These guys have a soft corner for Saudi regime and have varying degree of love for them. Ahle-Hadiths being their most ardent supporters, followed closely by Deo-bandis and to some extent Jamat e Islami people.
Now if you see, about 60-65% Pakistani population has never been in the Saudi camp any ways.
But here is the catch, most of the rural population of Pakistan is actually Brelvi, while most of the Urban centers are dominated by Deobandis, Ahle-Hadiths and Jamat e Islami.
Also the later group is much more politically active. Most of the major religious political or social parties are actually either Deobandi, Jamati or Ahle-Hadith, Jamiat Ulma e Islam, Jamat e Islami and of course Jamat ul Dawah to name a few. Most of the Tahafuz e Harmain Shareefain rallies were conducted by these parties (barring Jamat e Islami).
So you see Saudis never enjoyed over-whelming public support in Pakistan but the segment of society that supported them previously still supports them and government of Pakistan is under no pressure from its people to change its policy towards Saudi Arabia.
It is not any communication issue that has resulted in the current breakup. Saudies are genuinely feeling betrayed by Pakistani establishment.
Let's analyze Saudis current situation and the real and perceived existential threats that they are facing.
Externally they find themselves surrounded by Iranian proxies in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia also has a large Shia population in Najran in the south and in its provinces around the Persian gulf region which also happens to be the most oil rich area of the country. Saudi regime is not sure about where the loyalty of these regions lie.
Currently Saudis are not facing any major armed resistance from this community but there has been some incidents in the past. And there are groups like Hizbullah al Hijaz that are funded by Iranians and have the toppling of the regime as their agenda.
The regime is also not confident about their popularity among the masses and it was evident during their jittery reaction to the Arab Spring. After the fall of Egyptian and Tunisian dictatorships, Saudis quickly created 130 Billion USD fund for keeping the locals happy and off the streets. They also asked the Wahabi clerics to issue a fatwa against public demonstrations, which they did and was quite effective.
If the Shia provinces of Saudia revolts, with or without the Iranian interference, it can become tricky for the Saudi forces to handle it. What if the Houthis actually infiltrate into Najran and local populace start supporting them? And that is not the only scenario where a civil war can break out in Saudia, remember its a monarchy and has no roots in the people, who knows what effect another Arab Spring kind of wave will have on the regime.
So if a civil war breaks out and Saudis require external help, what can be Saudia's options? One is to look towards West or even to India as few people like to think, but that will be suicidal as presence of non-muslim soldiers on the land of Suadia proper will only make the populace even more angry and anti-regime.
So they will have to look towards the Muslim countries. There are three countries in the region who have large enough forces that can help out KSA in such a scenario, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan.
You can count Turkey out, they are not gonna be part of any of this.
Egyptians, yes with Sisi in power and all the economic aid that they are receiving from KSA will have to act in their support.
But Saudis will not want to put all their eggs in one basket, what if Egypt goes through another revolution and the next regime is pro Iran or at least want to stay neutral.
So the third country that is this western neighbor of India, is the back up force that Saudis can rely upon in case of trouble at home.
Do you think any regime in the situation that the Saudis find themselves in, can afford to BREAK UP with one of the two countries that can actually come to their aid in a crisis. I think not. So no breaking up between Pakistan Saudi Arabia, its just a minor hick up and you will soon find things getting normal again.
