THE recent high-level decision to send troops to Saudi Arabia under an existing bilateral security cooperation agreement on a ‘training and advice mission’ comes as no surprise.

This was bound to happen once Gen (r) Raheel Sharif, ignoring all norms for a recently retired army chief, was made the head of a Saudi-led military alliance comprising Muslim countries.

It may be recalled that the parliament had unanimously adopted a resolution declaring Pakistan should not be a party to the Saudi conflict with Yemen. It is a matter of concern for us when our army chief goes on a ‘quiet’ visit to Saudi Arabia for three days and commits our troops.

Such decisions will surely have deep repercussions on our future. They must be discussed and agreed to by the parliament.

To paraphrase what the famous French politician Georges Clemenceau once said: ‘War is too serious a business to be left to generals’.

Jaffar Naqvi

Lahore

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018