New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Pakistan’s Parliament has been kept out of the decision to speed up military deployments to Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Defence Pact, with the commitments being shaped by the country’s military leadership, a report said.
According to a report in Stringer Asia, the move stands in sharp contrast to 2015, when Pakistani lawmakers refused to commit the country to the Saudi-led war in Yemen, as the institution that drew the line then has now been left out of the discussion altogether.
“Pakistan is expanding a military commitment whose operational limits have not been publicly explained, under an agreement whose full text has not been released, while the public is expected to accept assurances from the people making the commitment,” the report stated.
The report argued that the arrangement serves the interests of Field Marshal Asim Munir rather than those of the country, with the Army making promises directly to a wealthy patron while civilian authorities are left to justify the deal after the fact, a pattern it described as a “rental-army problem”.
“Munir can gain recognition from the deployment while Pakistan inherits an obligation that becomes progressively harder to qualify. Strategic prestige is an attractive asset when somebody else must absorb its liabilities,” the report stated.
Questions that lawmakers should be raising remain unanswered, the report said, listing the command of deployed forces, the missions authorised, the triggers for a wider engagement and who bears the financial cost.
“The government’s assurance that procedures have been followed cannot replace those answers. A procedure that excludes scrutiny may be administratively convenient. That is not the same thing as national consent,” the report said.
It noted that Pakistan’s Ministry of Information has denied a New York Times report on Pakistani aircraft striking Houthi targets, but argued that the row over the aircraft risked diverting attention from a decision already taken.
“Protecting Saudi territory from missiles and drones is one task. Supporting a campaign against the forces launching them is another. Moving from the first to the second does not require a grand declaration of war,” the report said.
Pointing to Riyadh’s repeated financial support to a cash-strapped Islamabad, the report said this dependence made refusing Saudi requests politically costlier, and cautioned that joining strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis could strain ties with Tehran and stoke sectarian tensions at home.
“In 2015, Parliament supplied an answer. Today, the army is available, the pact is being activated, and the institution that once said no has not been asked,” the report noted.
–IANS
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