Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday reached Saudi Arabia to discuss bilateral relations, amidst the recent strain in the ties over Riyadh's reluctance to toe Islamabad's line on the Kashmir issue.
Despite repeated requests from Pakistan to hold a foreign ministers' meeting on Kashmir, the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC) has shown reluctance to convene such a conference, prompting an upset Islamabad to threaten that it may call a separate gathering on the issue.
Diplomatic sources here said that Gen Bajwa was accompanied by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed.
The details of their engagements in Saudi Arabia have not been released, but the two are expected to hold high-level meetings to iron out misgivings.
Pakistan has been pushing the 57-member organisation, which is the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN, for the foreign ministers' meeting since India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.
However, there has not been any positive response from the OIC, the biggest bloc of Islamic countries in the world, to Pakistan's request so far.
A major reason behind the OIC's inaction has been Saudi Arabia's reluctance to accept Pakistan's request for holding a meeting specifically on Kashmir. Riyadh's support is crucial for any move at the OIC, which is dominated by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.
