Would Raheel Sharif refuse to serve the House of Saud in the name of the Muslim Ummah?

by Tauqeer Abbas
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would

 

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua said  that it was difficult for Pakistan to maintain equal relations with both the countries, but Pakistan would not go against Iran’s interest.

 

 

This might be true but Pakistan should not have agreed to even a symbolic role in this so-called alliance. Was it the rhetoric about protecting our holy places that melted the heart of the military high command? Or was it the keenness of Nawaz Sharif to get involved one way or the other to please his Saudi benefactors that won the day? Was it because of Saudi riyals? Or our oh-so-brotherly ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? What about the 40,000 Pakistani workers that have been deported from the Kingdom since we refused to join the war against Yemen?

 

 

Besides, what exactly does our contribution to the coalition amount to so far? This much we know: There are no Pakistani troops actively engaged in combat. We participated in a military exercise held in Saudi Arabia under the coalition’s umbrella and there’s been talk about joint military drills with GCC troops and training them in counter-terrorism. Have we actually trained any troops? How many? Should that be our priority? When we should be curtailing our token participation, our government would like to push us in deeper.

 

 

It certainly seems so. Why else would the foreign office spokesperson and the foreign secretary state something which has already been stated? Rumours about an entire military brigade being sent to Saudi Arabia are doing the rounds for a while now. The No Objection Certificate for General Raheel to head the alliance sounds fishy as well.

We haven’t heard anything from the General but the media is already presenting his appointment as a fact. Government officials talk about it as if General Raheel has no say in the matter and it is like sending a serving bureaucrat on deputation. There’s something amiss.

 

 

I hope General Raheel doesn’t cave in to the pressure and refuses the offer to serve the House of Saud and Uncle Sam in the name of the Muslim Ummah. I hope he insists that the alliance of Muslim countries be formed under the OIC umbrella. He has far more to give to Pakistan and the world than to be wasted as a pawn on the imperial chessboard.

I hope that Pakistan’s security establishment is not trapped into expanding the scope of its participation and role in the coalition and stays focused on settling Afghanistan in partnership with our natural allies in the region. I hope that it extricates itself from the Saudi coalition completely. And I certainly hope that the Nawaz government and the security establishment are not on the same page on this issue.

Jalees Hazir

pk.shafaqna.com

 

 

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