Angels Playmate;
Just to provide possible answers to your statement
Interestingly, no other ATC unit in charge later on-neither Mumbai or Muscat took him down . He flew all the way at 350 to AUH !!
Off air, there was probably a mad scramble to make way for this guy who was refusing instructions. Additionally, MCT may have just received co-ord on him at FL350, none of the rest of the story, and if they had known the story, a path would have been cleared for him anyway by then. (As an aside- in a non-radar environment, sometimes your requested level may be available, but you can't get up there as 'the heavies' are blocking the intermediate levels. This may have been what the 'rogue pilots' were thinking. Not making excuses for them.)
How long ago was this? I'd like to see someone refuse instructions like that in these times.
Before this descends into pilots Vs ATC, it works both ways. I find it only common sense to add "due traffic" to an
unexpected clearance out of the blue. We are all so used to everything being regimented these days, it is quite reasonable to expect pilots to query instructions out of the blue. We've got the picture, they haven't. But when it's busy, the last thing you need is "is that for us?", "why am I No 2?", etc. etc.