Kuwait to hire military experts from Pakistan

Islamabad based daily The News International wrote in a report, “Kuwait opened its defence office under its diplomatic mission in Islamabad.”

The visa restriction on Pakistan nationals by Kuwait is also being removed next month. Kuwait will be the fourth country of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries to open its Defence Wing in Islamabad.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman have their Defence Attaches in Pakistan. Only Bahrain and Qatar have failed so far to follow suit.

Moreover, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson also confirmed that Islamabad has received an application from Kuwait’s government for setting up its defence office in its embassy noting that Pakistan had yet to take a decision.

The Kuwaiti Ambassador to Pakistan, Nawaf Abdulaziz Alenzi, has left for Kuwait to discuss the matter further with his government in view to enhance bilateral cooperation with Pakistan. Kuwait placed restrictions on visit visas from Pakistan about six years ago and since then the export of manpower to Kuwait has become minimal. 

Highly-placed sources told The News that new dimensions of cooperation between Pakistan and Kuwait had conspicuous significance as more than 130,000 immigrants from Pakistan were rendering services in the Emirate.

Kuwait has planned to engage the services of military experts for imparting training to its army consisting of more than 11,000 personnel. The defence wing of the embassy will greatly help in picking suitable experts from retired officers/trainers.

The daily wrote, “Kuwait is among the countries that had generously provided assistance to Pakistan in difficult times and in different fields.”

First, the Nawaz Sharif government actively supported Kuwait when Iraq invaded the country and occupied it. The then-army chief General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg was keen to support Saddam Hussain’s forces that had invaded Kuwait but Nawaz Sharif ruled him out and decided to support Kuwait’s liberation.

Kuwait belongs to the group of the GCC that is siding with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, against Qatar, sources commented.

Such news comes at a time when there are reports Pakistan will supply light weapons to Syrian rebels following a request from Al Saud.

 Pakistan has already provided a large number of its retired soldiers to Bahrain as Manama’s regime is facing a severe insurgency movement.