Saudi-led alliance: Defence, foreign secretaries to be summoned before Senate committee

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani has ordered to summon the defence and foreign secretaries to appear before Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges, after the two ministries declined to accept responsibility for the call attention notice presented in the house pertaining to 39-nation Islamic military alliance led by Saudi Arabia.

According to Saudi officials, the alliance will act against Daesh or Al Qaeda, while it will also act against rebel groups in case of a request by a member state.

Senator Farhatullah Babar had presented a call attention notice pertaining to the matter in the Senate, but no minister was there to respond to it.

The notice was submitted in the Senate Secretariat on April 25. It was forwarded to the Ministry of Defence on May 2 for submitting its response on the matter. But the ministry informed on Monday that the matter does not concern it, suggesting forwarding the notice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded saying that it has returned the notice to the Ministry of Defence.

This irked the Senate chairman who said the Parliament reserved the right to access to sensitive information, warning, "I will not tolerate if the Parliament is made a ping pong ball".

He said if the Parliament cannot be informed in this regard, then what it is meant for. He ordered to summon defence and foreign secretaries to appear before the Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges.

However, Adviser to PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has conveyed a message to the house that he would give a statement in the Senate in this regard.

Senator Sherry Rehman said the civil-military ties in the country are such that now the army chief is going to visit Iran. "We were the only nuclear-capable Islamic state participating in the Saudi summit, but our prime minister was somewhere in the last rows at the forum."

She lamented the prime minister was not even given a chance to speak to attendees at the conference.