Opinion | Pakistan's Hajj Heist: Mecca Pact

Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to US, without wasting any breath, has described the pact as “more symbolic than substantive.”

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In August 2026, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Mecca Pact and boisterously declared that “an attack on one would be an attack on all". Pakistan’s military publicists, never content to leave a sacrament unscored, even released a seven-minute anthem called ONE SHIELD. Three flags. One heart. Serious analysts and think tanks were prompt to dismiss this entire messaging as pure comedy, even before the ink had dried on the paper.

Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, who has watched this movie from both Islamabad and Washington, without wasting any breath, described the pact as “more symbolic than substantive." In an increasingly intertwined and interdependent world, the concept of a shared common enemy was always going to be a challenge to demonstrate as a credible deterrent. He further summarised, “It will not be the ‘Muslim NATO’ some people are talking about."

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Five weeks into the formal signing of the pact, the Houthis tested this on-paper defence pact that hawks like Haqqani had already marked and dismissed. Missiles and drones hit southern Saudi cities and critical energy infrastructure. The lack of a military response, compounded with the constant deflection and patronising commentary from Turkey and Pakistan, raised questions about the practical effectiveness and credibility of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement. The Atlantic subsequently reported that the Houthi attacks had put the value of the Mecca Alliance into doubt, noting that neither Islamabad nor Ankara had shown an inclination to assist Saudi Arabia despite the optics of Saudi being pounded by brutal........

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