Senators seek Islamic Military Alliance ToRs

ISLAMABAD: There was a strong call from legislators in the Senate on Friday that the government should share the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Saudi Arabia-led Islamic Military Alliance with Parliament. They insisted that the role of Parliament, which had declined Saudi call for armed support from Pakistan in the Yemen conflict, should not be underestimated. 

One senator charged that while US President Donald Trump was head of the alliance, former Army Chief Raheel Sharif was working as his deputy. Taking part in discussion on the admitted adjournment motion moved by PPP Senator Sherry Rehman regarding the key commitments made by the government to the coalition without taking Parliament into confidence, senators alleged that after government failed to take any decision about sending troops to Riyadh, it was the Parliament, which said no to military support for Yemen war. PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said that it was frightening that both the Foreign Office and the Parliament were in the dark about the terms of reference of the Islamic Military Alliance, even three weeks after it was formally launched in Riyadh and defence ministers of member countries met to finalise its strategy and future plans. He pointed out that while the FO talks of the four domains of the alliance, including military also, but it too had no clue of what exact role the military would play in the enterprise. “Reading out from the press talk of the FO spokesman, that he (the spokesman) had no information and asked the authorities for more details," he said.

Babar questioned as to who was authority beyond the FO and the Parliament which was privy to the details of engagement in the four listed domains particularly the military, and warned against consequences of engaging in a military conflict in the Middle East.

"We have already burnt our fingers in conflict in Afghanistan; let us not burn ourselves totally by engaging in a military conflict in the Middle East,” he regretted.

He said that according to official statement about the purpose of Riyadh meeting was 'to outline coalition's strategy'. “The military commander further stated that it 'encompasses four key areas of ideology, communications, counter-terrorism financing and military to fight terrorism,” he said.

Babar noted that at first the Foreign Minister assured that Pakistan would not join without first agreeing on terms of reference of the alliance. But then in unexplained haste and relaxing all rules forbidding such appointment before completion of two years of retirement the former army chief was sent as head of the military coalition.

“But even after the defence ministers have actually met and supposedly finalised the terms and the alliance formally launched, no one seemed to know what the terms were. It only strengthens the perception that invisible and un-accountable ghosts were running all policies,” he charged.

He said that within days of the Riyadh meeting, the former strongman Yemen’s Abdullah Saleh, who tilted towards Saudi Arabia, was brutally murdered. This should serve as a warning of conflict spiraling and dragging Pakistan in the quicksand of Middle East.

Babar’s remarks prompted Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani to observe that he might be picked up by the unknown forces before he completes his six-year term in March. But another PPP Senator Abdul Rehman Malik told Rabbani not to think like that as his colleagues were not weak that anybody could even dare to touch Senator Babar.

To this, Rabbani said that he had stated that in a ‘lighter mood in order to put Senator Babar at ease.

Senator Usman Kakar of PKMAP said that the real head of Islamic Military Alliance was US President Donald Trump and former army chief Raheel Sharif was working as his deputy. He said that involvement of democratic governments in the Middle Eastern countries, particularly in Saudi Arabia and Iran, was the only solution to the crisis.

He said the Saudi money was being used for harboring terrorism in the Islamic country, as there was not a single country that was not faced with the menace of terrorism. He continued Washington could not have recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital without consulting Riyadh.

Senator Malik regretted that no one knew about the exact mandate of the alliance, and no one knew as to who would fund it. PPP Senator said there should be some law about sending troops to join the alliance like there was no issue for sending troops to UN peace-keeping mission.

PTI’s Senator Shibli Faraz said that the Parliament had lost its glory as it failed to come up to the expectation of the people due to which no one was ready to give it due importance. Another PTI Senator Azam Swati alleged that the government had completely failed to manage things both internally and externally due to which the country had become a laughing stock.

He said the only solution to steer the country out of the prevailing crisis was a fresh mandate as soon as possible. He added the situation of Pakistan’s Parliament was even worse than that of OIC, prompting Rabbani to defend the Parliament, saying the Parliament was far better than OIC, as the situation of OIC has become worsened.

Senator Sehar Kamran of PPP said the reason Pakistan had been facing isolation across the globe was mainly due to flawed policies of the government, which could not even appoint a foreign minister for complete four and half years.

She said the Gulf States had their own national interests and they would not give priority to the interests of Pakistan. She warned that the government approach not to share anything regarding the Islamic Military Alliance neither in-camera nor in defence committee meeting, showed there was something fishy.

BNP-Mengal Senator Dr. Jehanzeb Jamaldini said that there existed no Muslim Ummah, as it could only be read in books and if someone believed there existed any Muslim World; he was befooling himself, as it was the biggest joke.

He ridiculed the idea of boycotting US and said this so-called Muslim Ummah could not even boycott Pepsi and Coca Cola.

PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi said that it was commendable that Muslim countries were going to form a military alliance like Nato to fight the menace of terrorism and that it was a great step in right direction, which all the Muslims should appreciate.

Senator Shahi Syed of ANP expressed the fear that the Islamic Military alliance might turn out to be yet another failure like Afghanistan, where the Taliban creation was still haunting the Islamic countries.

Senator Talha Mehmood of JUI-F questioned that what was the use of such useless alliance, which was not seen when Myanmar Muslims were being persecuted and there was nothing from the alliance when Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif will wind up the debate on Tuesday. Rabbani acknowledged that it was the mistake on part of Parliament, which did not notice that a bill could not become an act of Parliament after signature of President unless the government issued a notification.

Referring to passage of the Cost of Litigation of Bill, 2017, passed by both Houses of the Parliament and signed by the President, seven months back, he said that the government was yet to issue a notification.

He directed the Leader of House, Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq to present the notification regarding the bill in the Senate on Monday so that the bill would become law.

Again as per Rabbani’s ruling, there was no government business listed on the orders of the day, which he announced on Tuesday on finding no relevant ministers during the question hour and several written questions unanswered during the question hour.