AS speculation grows over whether Saudi Arabia and its allied states will deploy troops on the ground in Syria, lawmakers have rightly asked the government to explain where Pakistan stands on the matter.

At a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, legislators stated that the government had failed to inform the committee whether Pakistan had joined the ‘anti-terror’ coalition cobbled together by the Saudis.

Also read: Govt’s ‘vague policy’ on Saudi-led coalition worries Senate committee

When asked about the matter, the foreign secretary said details about the coalition “were still not clear”. This opaqueness on such a key foreign policy issue is frankly unsettling.

While the Saudis have said that a possible deployment in Syria would be designed to target the militant Islamic State group, clearly, considering that Riyadh has called for regime change in Damascus, the reaction from Bashar al-Assad’s government will hardly be welcoming.

In fact, senior Syrian officials have minced no words in criticising the Saudi plan. Any effort to counter IS and other extremist groups must be aligned with Damascus, or else chances are fair that the Syrian conflict will get even more complicated than it already is.

The reason for increased talk of Saudi, Turkish or other anti-Assad boots on the ground in Syria is because the government in Damascus, backed by Russian air power as well as Iran and Hezbollah’s help, is on the verge of retaking the key city of Aleppo.

Should the Syrian government retake this strategic city, it would be a major blow to the opposition — moderate or otherwise.

The question is: if the Saudis decide to embark on a mission that can only be described as folly, should Pakistan plunge itself into the maelstrom also?

The logical response to this would be that Pakistan should maintain its neutrality and refrain from getting involved in what will be a very messy fight.

Pakistan can surely continue its counterterrorism cooperation with Saudi Arabia, but committing our troops to an unclear, ill-defined mission would be a huge mistake.

This country did the right thing by resisting Saudi pressure to join the war in Yemen. By all accounts that conflict is not going well for the Saudis and the Yemeni rebels are far from neutralised.

Where Syria is concerned — though the peace process may be all but dead — regional states must not give up on a negotiated solution. However, if the Syrian conflict takes an unpredictable turn, Islamabad must very clearly state where it stands.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2016