Islamabad - Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday said the government had issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) after former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif left for Riyadh the same day to attend a maiden meeting of the proposed Saudi-led Islamic military alliance to fight terrorism.
“The former military chief had requested the government for the NOC,” the defence minister said in a talk with private TV channel Geo, even though no formal statement was issued by the Ministry of Defence.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gave the nod for the issuance of the NOC after approval from the GHQ, the minister was quoted by the TV channel.
It was reported that after formalities, Raheel Sharif flew to Saudi Arabia in a special aircraft from Lahore accompanying family members. The special plane had landed in Lahore at 12:00 pm and left after an hour.
On April 13, Asif had told the National Assembly: “We will stick to our prerogative when it comes to Yemen, and the agreement we have will remain binding.”
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) lawmaker Shireen Mazari had raised concerns, stating that “a military alliance cannot be a solution to terrorism”. The PTI had urged the government to determine the nature and purpose of the alliance and make its terms of reference (ToRs) clear.
“There are at least 10 militaries present in the alliance that are also a part of the Saudi alliance against Yemen,” Mazari had cautioned.
PTI’s Asad Umer had said, “The matter is not of Raheel Sharif’s appointment, the question is whether or not we should be part of the alliance.”
Earlier this week, in a meeting at GHQ in Rawalpindi, Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had assured Iranian Ambassador Mehdi Honardoost that Pak-Iran ties would “remain unaffected by recent developments”.
“Pakistan greatly values the historic Pak-Iran relationship and the same shall continue based on mutual trust and respect for each other’s interests,” Gen Bajwa had told Honardoost.
Extraordinary importance was attached to the meeting by diplomatic circles because it was the second such meeting between the two in around six weeks, a rare happening in Pakistan-Iran relations given the mutual mistrust.
In 2015, Riyadh announced formation a military coalition by drawing armed forces from various Muslim countries to fight terrorism.
Meanwhile, President Mamnoon Hussain has said that Pakistan supported all regional and international efforts to combat the scourge of terrorism.
He was talking to Ambassador-designate of Saudi Arabia Khan Hasham Bin Saddique in Islamabad on Friday.
The president hoped that the ambassador-designate would work to further deepen and expand the already close bilateral relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia by utilising his capabilities.
The president said that both the countries had a convergence of views on all regional and international issues and supported each other at international fora which reflected friendly relations between the two states.