Saudi Arabia has provided Pakistan with assistance in the form of fuel credit, fuel donation, loans, aid, donations and gifts. The most famous example of Saudi Arabia's relationship with Pakistan is the Faisal Mosque, the national mosque of the country in Islamabad. Saudi Arabia gave hundreds of millions of dollars after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. In fact, Saudi Arabia was the number one donor, having contributed $600 million.

As two of the world's leading Islamic countries, the Kingdom, the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula and home to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, and Pakistan, the world's second largest Muslim state after Indonesia, have been developing extensive commercial, cultural, religious and strategic relations. Arab News has consistently focused on the bilateral relations and has gone an extra mile to cover such developments whenever they made news.

Pakistan's status as a declared nuclear power - the only Islamic nation to have that status - plays a part in its international role. Pakistan is also an important member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Whenever major political developments took place in Pakistan, especially those related to the bilateral ties, readers recall how they looked forward to Arab News. "I have been here for more than two decades, and the treatment given to Pakistan's coverage has been exemplary," recalls Mohammed Ehsanul Mohammed, a Pakistani engineer.

Pakistan's claim of Kashmir, which is controlled two-thirds by India and one-third by Pakistan, has remained one of the contentious issues between the two countries and every year any development related to Kashmir has been given adequate coverage by the newspaper, according to a cross-section of expatriates from the Subcontinent. Saudi Arabia on its part has always endorsed the Indo-Pak peace process, which has been highlighted by the newspaper in its columns, Arshad Murad, another Pakistani reader said.

During the 1990-1991 Gulf War, Pakistan offered its troops to protect the holy sites in Saudi Arabia. On its part, the Kingdom has always responded to Pakistan's needs, whether it is oil or support on international issues. Pakistan maintains close ties with Saudi Arabia in all sectors, providing extensive support for training.

On its part, Saudi Arabia has provided extensive religious and educational aid in particular to Pakistan. The Kingdom has been a major contributor to the construction of mosques and madrasas across Pakistan, including the Faisal Mosque (dedicated to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia) in Islamabad. The major Pakistani city of Lyalpur was renamed Faisalabad in honor of King Faisal in 1977, which again made front-page news in Arab News. Saudi Arabia remains a major destination for Pakistani expatriates seeking overseas jobs. They have also been coming in large numbers to perform Haj and Umrah. The community is more than one million strong in the Kingdom and remittances by Pakistanis run into billions of Pakistani rupees annually and they are a major source of foreign currency for the country.

In 2006, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah was awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award of Pakistan. The front-page treatment given to the award is still etched in the minds of Arab News readers.

In recent years, both countries have exchanged high-level delegations and developed plans to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, education, real estate, tourism, information technology, communications and agriculture.

Saudi Arabia is aiding the development of trade relations with Pakistan through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The volume of trade between Pakistan and GCC member states runs into several billion dollars.

Pakistan is an active member of the United Nations. Historically, its relations with India, have not been smooth, due to the issue of Kashmir. However, it has had longstanding close relations with its other neighbors - Afghanistan, Iran and China. For several years prior to the Nov. 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks, Pakistan's relations with India had been gradually improving, which opened up Pakistan's foreign policy to issues beyond security. An increasingly important actor on the world scene, Pakistan formed the "Friends of Pakistan" group which includes important countries such as Saudi Arabia, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Turkey, the UAE, the United States, the UN and European Union.

Some of the recent developments have been given extensive front-page coverage by Arab News. For instance, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in an attack at a rally she was addressing on Dec. 27, 2007. Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party, had served as prime minister from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996, and had been campaigning ahead of elections due on Jan. 8, 2008.

The coming to power of the democratically elected federal government with her widower Asif Ali Zardari as the country's president was also a front-page news in Arab News.

Arab News not only provided special coverage to all such developments, but has also been publishing a supplement focusing on Pakistan on its national day every year.