ISLAMABAD (Dispatches) – Pakistan said it has ratified a joint defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, a move that critics say effectively aligns Islamabad with Riyadh’s military aggression against Yemen.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said Islamabad and Riyadh have completed their ratification procedures for the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed by the three countries on August 7. 
“Matters related to the agreement, its ratification, and operationalization remain under discussion by the three parties,” Khan said, according to a transcript published by Pakistan’s Foreign Office. 
Turkey is still completing its domestic approval process, meaning the pact has not yet been ratified by all three signatories.
The agreement was signed in Mecca by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
It provides for collective defense in the event of an external armed attack against any of the three countries, with the nature and level of assistance to be determined according to the circumstances.  
The timing and context of the pact raise serious questions. Saudi Arabia has been conducting military aggression against Yemen for years, and Yemen has responded with missile and drone attacks on Saudi territory. 
The Mecca pact is widely seen as a mechanism to assist Saudi Arabia in its campaign against Yemen which has caused massive civilian suffering.
Critics note that Pakistan and Turkey—two nations with significant Muslim populations—have chosen to sign a collective defense pact that effectively backs one side in a war against a Muslim nation, Yemen, which has been wronged and attacked. 
Neither Pakistan nor Turkey has shown a comparable urgency to sign such a pact with countries that have been attacked and are still being invaded by Israel and the United States. 
This selective approach has drawn scrutiny, particularly given the devastating humanitarian toll of the Saudi war on Yemen, where airstrikes and blockade measures have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians and left essential medical supplies unavailable.
The contradiction is sharpened by Islamabad’s own diplomatic record. Pakistan has sought to portray itself as an impartial intermediary in the U.S.-Iran confrontation —a role that suggests Islamabad does not distinguish between a Muslim nation and the U.S. when its own choices are at stake. 
That mediating posture now sits uneasily alongside a formal defense commitment to Riyadh. More recently, Pakistan temporarily suspended border trade with Iran at the Chagai crossing, citing security concerns. 
The timing—just as the Mecca pact moved toward implementation—prompted Iranian parliamentarian Fada Hussein Maleki to suggest the closure was a continuation of U.S. pressure on neighboring countries to restrict economic ties with Iran.  
The border episode, combined with the Mecca pact’s ratification, has reinforced a perception that Islamabad does not apply a consistent standard when choosing which Muslim nations to defend. 
That argument holds true with regard to Turkey which hosted terrorist American President Donald Trump on July 7-8, 2026 for the NATO summit, even as he continued to threaten Iran with annihilation.